Been a productive week, finished 3 of the 4 banjos I've been working on and should have the fourth (Steve's tackhead) completed by mid week, hopefully I'll be able to make a start on Tom's Tubaphone and John's Ashborn at the end part of the week.

Cherry 6-string
Ebony 25.5" scale fingerboard
​2-piece Cherry neck
12" Cherry block rim with Walnut trim
​Goat skin head
​Unbleached bone nut

1-piece Ash neck stained dark brown
2-layer 11" steam bent Ash rim stained dark brown
Goat skin head stained brown
26" scale length
Ebony tailpiece, nut and pip
​Planetary tuners and friction 5th

1-Piece Walnut neck
Indian Rosewood fingerboard 24.75" scale
Rosewood peghead overlay
Maple fingerboard dots
Vintage spun pot
Goat skin head

This banjo will be for sale shortly, let me know if you are interested!

Been a long week carving, scraping and sanding and my poor old arthritic fingers are feeling the pain!
Finally got the first coat of oil on all 4 banjos except Steve's neck, which needs a little more sanding before cutting and inlaying the Trout and moon.
All being well, I should be able to start putting them together by the end of next week!

Some photos and sound files of Bertie's completed mountain style banjo, I'm really pleased with how it turned out, it looks and sounds great!
2-Piece Black Walnut neck
Sonokeling Rosewood fingerboard, peghead overlay and heel cap
Cherry pot with 4" rear soundhole
Tuneable 6" Remo head
Ebony violin pegs
Nylon Minstrel strings
​Maple bridge

Turned the rim walls down to size, glued rim caps on, just need to drill shoe holes in David's and shape the ledge on Mark's then they'll be ready for sanding.
Necks are all pretty much ready for carving the rears, hopefully that will be completed by the end of next week.
Bottom right banjo is a stock one I'm trying to sneak in! The pot had been sitting on a shelf for several years, I finally stretched a new goat skin on it last week, and the neck was made for a  customer in Australia but had to be abandoned when the Rosewood regulations came into place. It will be for sale once completed (hopefully by the end of May), let me know if you are interested in it (Europe only, due to the Rosewood).  Scale length is 24.75", price will be £650 plus shipping.

Had my head down the last two weeks, cracking on with the next commissions. Here's a little update:
Bertie's Cherry/Walnut mountain banjo is coming along, nearly ready for neck carving.

Still have to turn the inside of the Cherry rim and glue on an Ebony cap to Steve's tackhead, carve the neck and cut/inlay/engrave some mother of pearl.

Slotted and glued the Ebony fingerboard onto David's 6-string, I need still need to cut a little more out of the fingerboard as David requested the short string tuner be positioned at the 6th fret as opposed to the 5th.

Bent and glued the Ash rim for Mark's tackhead, still plenty to do on the neck!

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I've just listed a 'used'mountain banjo in the 'banjos in stock' page if anyone is interested.

Just finished Les's long neck banjo, it came together better than I'd hoped. I had anticipated action/string buzzing problems with the extra long 32" scale length, but it seems I was worrying unnecessarily, a nice playing action of 3/32" at the 15th fret, a 5/8" bridge and no sign of any fret buzz!

​Next week I'll be making a start on 2 tackheads for Mark and Steve, a mountain banjo for Bertie and a Cherry 6-string for David!

Just finished Dave's 'Greyhound' banjo this week and I'm pretty well chuffed with how it turned out!
Rim is another 12" Black Walnut block construction, with Indian Rosewood/Brass rod combo tone ring, I turned this one 1/16" thinner and installed  a super thin Calf skin head to make the nylon strings sing a little sweeter.
There'll be no video/soundfile for this one due to it being a lefty! 
My son has just moved bedrooms and is now sleeping in my makeshift photo studio, so now I don't have any room to take pictures, what with all of his superhero toys everywhere. Once I figure out an alternative I'll upload some nice snaps!

Rims are pretty much ready for final sanding, the Palmwood rim cap on Dave's Walnut rim is going to look awesome once polished up, it was a real bitch to work with though! 
Necks have been levelled,fingerboards and overlays glued on, I'm hoping to get the bulk of the shaping, fretting, inlay complete next week. 

Slotted and shaped both fingerboards for the next two banjos this week, also turned the rims down to size ready for tone rings and rim caps. Going to be using something different to Ebony on Dave's Walnut rim, I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks!

A buddy of mine is looking to part with his Enoch tradesman banjo, number 278. I fitted a new Renaissance head on it today (the old one was split) and it is playing fine, although the action is very low as the bridge has been sanded down to about 1/2"! A 5/8" bridge would give it perfect playing height (I make some nice compensated bridges for £20!) 
Seller is Norfolk (UK) based, anyone interested can contact me and I'll pass on your details.
Asking price is £700 plus shipping.

Finished Richard's 'Liverbird' banjo earlier today so decided to shut up shop a bit early to have a play and take some photos, it turned out really nice, with a big, deep tone. Video will follow shortly. 
Specs are:
12" Black Walnut block rim with Rosewood/Brass rod tonering
Goat skin head
2-piece Black Walnut neck
25.5" scale Ebony fingerboard with inlaid stars
Ebony peghead overlay with Mother of Pearl inlay.
'Buckeye' tailpiece


Next week I'll be getting stuck into Dave's 'Greyhound' banjo and Les' long neck banjo!