A journal intended to record in a step-by-step format, the complete construction of an original, one of a kind Celtic Harp. Presented by Harpmaker R. A. (Harp) Corrigan, a master craftsman with 40 yrs. woodworking experience, specializing in Celtic Harps, Irish Folk Harps and the re-creation of 17th cent. Aeolian Harps.
Chapter 1 The Introduction
Chapter 2 The Plan.
Chapter 3 First Pieces.
Chapter 4 Milling Box Sides
Chapter 5 Some Gluing and Cutting
Chapter 6 A New Machine
Chapter 7 Some Jointing
Chapter 8 The Soundbox
Chapter 9 Gluing the Soundbox and Drilling the Neck
Chapter 10 Fitting Neck to Soundbox
Chapter 11 Drilling the Soundboard
Chapter 12 Preparing for Assembly
Chapter 13 Gluing the Soundboard
Supplement String and Lever Worksheet
Publishers Note
I've had many requests for sets of plans for this harp, as well as numerous requests for the information regarding the location of sharping levers. In the "Supplement" attachment to this project, I've included the string schedule for this harp, along with the sharping lever placement dimensions for each string. With this attachment, I've included enough information to make it possible for someone to plot the tuning and bridge pin locations on the neck of a similar harp. There is an explanation of how the dimensions for sharping levers is calculated. It's a simple mathematical formula that works for every string on any harp.
Chapter 14
Hand Cut Joinery and Shaping
This is the part of the project that I find somewhat tedious. It's now necessary to hand fit the joints where the three components (Neck, Pillar and Body) fit together. It's a repeating process of putting them together, checking where a little bit of material needs to be pared off with a chisel, taking the pieces apart, carving a little, then putting them together again and seeing where more needs to come off. Back and forth, back and forth, each time getting the joints closer and closer to a perfect fit. Because it's a triangle, each time I change the fit on one joint, the angles on the other 2 joints change very slightly. So I have to sneak up on all three joints simultaneously. At the time this photo was taken, I've got all 3 joints very close to perfect. I'll hold off on the final fitting until after I've done the final shaping and rough sanding of the components. All of the major building is completed at this point, and the harp is ready for shaping, sanding and finishing. The "tweaking" of the joinery is done during this final shaping. What you see holding the harp together is a "big honkin' rubber band" furniture clamp. I'm using it to simulate the tension of the harp strings during this process. You may remember that this harp was designed so that the string tension will be the only thing holding everything together.
Now that the initial joinery has been cut, I want to take the Pillar and Neck over to the router table to rough out a smooth radius on the edges. I'm using a 1/4 inch round-over bit, and I'm just "hogging off" some excess material here. One thing to be careful of is the area where the Pillar joins with the Neck. I don't want to cut a radius where there is supposed to be a smooth transition from one to the other, so I just cut close for now. Also, because of the offset at the head of the neck, where it joins with the soundbox, I can't easily get in there with this router setup. I prefer to just do that by hand later.
In this photo I am holding the 2 pieces together so I can finish the radius cut right into the corners of the joint. You can bet I'm being really careful here, with my hands this close to a spinning router bit. But the effort is well worth the trouble, and it'll save a lot of hand shaping when I start on the sanding. You can see some burn marks on the wood. Not to worry. I like to rough off these corners at this stage, and then I rough sand everything, getting the final shaping just so. Then I run the parts over the router one more time, and because of the sanding, the router bit will take a very light "finish cut" to clean everything up very nicely.
The power sander with 80 grit paper starts the final shaping and smoothing very nicely. At least in all of the areas I can get to with this sander. Now it's just a lot of sanding, shaping, sanding and sanding and then some more sanding.
A little detail sander like this one is really handy for getting into a lot of the tight curves and narrow spaces on the Neck of this harp. I'll use these power sanders wherever I can, but in the final tally, there's just a whole lot of hand work to be done, and it's going to take a while. So I'm not planning on boring you with all of that. I'll come back to this when the 3 components have all been sanded, fitted, and ready for the finish applications. I'm still deciding on more designs to be burned into the surfaces, similar to and complimentary to the Celtic Knotwork that has been burned into the face of the soundboard.
Until next time
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