West Dean 2008, day 5

Started work on brasswork that will make up the key. This is the flap that will actually cover the 7th hole, but will normally be hidden from view by the fontanelle.

Here is a drawing of the flap together with a template made out of thin brass sheet.



The template has been copied onto 20 gauge brass sheet.



here is the flap cut out and filed to shape.



Next job was to create a flat area on the shawm body where the keywork will be fitted. This will be hidden by the fontanelle in normal use.




THe final wooden piece of the shawm is the pirouette. This is a decorative turned piece that hides the staple (onto which the reed is fitted). It has been conjectured that played would originally have placed their lips against the pirouette, and allowed the reed to vibrate freely inside their mouth rather than controlling the reed with their lips. There is little evidence for this theory, and severl contemporary pictures exist that show shawm players holding the reed between their lips.

Staring with a block of wood....



turn a cylinder so that it can be held securely in a 3_jaw chuck.



Face-off both ends of the cylider, and then bore a 14mm diameter hole 25mm deep, and then through drill the block will a 4.8mm diameter hole.


Cylinder mounted between centres. We cannot use a driving centre because both ends have been turned to finish and a driving centre would leave marks in the the end of the workpiece.
One solution might be to turn up a mandrel with a very shallow taper such that it fits into the hole already bored into the workpiece - this is how we turned both the body and bell after turning both ends. In this case, however, since the workpieve is small and light, we can get enough friction to drive it using a dead-centre in the headstock and a live-centre in the tailstock.



profile roughed out



With the bead turned, ready for final sanding...



The finished pirouette:



And finally...

Here are the 4 wooden pieces of the shawm after applying finishing oil. They are being left to dry overnight, and tomorrow morning we will seal the wood inside the bore to protect it from moisture when the instrument is being played.