The Hind Workshop
Ocarina Construction
In my shop in Honea Path, South Carolina, rough walnut lumber is planed to
the proper thickness and then cut to appropriate sizes on the table saw. A
hollow chamber is created in each blank by sawing out the center with the band
saw. This chamber is then enclosed on the top and bottom between thin pieces of
wood into which the finger holes are drilled and the sound producing parts of
the instrument are cut with a router.
Although power woodworking tools are used in the cutting of these parts, the
final tone quality of each ocarina is created by careful hand filing of the lip
and windway to very precise dimensions. After these pieces are glued together,
the outside shape is sawed on the band saw and then sanded to final form on the
belt sander. After final sanding on a brush sander, three coats of a natural oil
finish are applied by hand, with more sanding between each coat.
My family of ocarinas evolved as the result of using otherwise wasted blocks of
wood which were cut from the inside of the larger instruments to make each
successively smaller sized instrument. In this way each ocarina I make is truly
related to several others in the family by the fact that they originally grew
together as one part of the same tree.
View of workshop from our home
