Bend it Like Murray

Friday was an exciting day in the shop. After sanding so that the front of the body was flush with the neck, I bent the two side pieces. If you had asked me a week ago how long I thought it would take to bend a piece of wood that way, I think I would have guessed a day or two, but it takes a little less time than that. More like one minute. Less if you know what you’re doing. When I watched Ben do it the other day at the KoAloha shop, it took him about 20 seconds. After that, I glued my koa veneer to the headstock. Koa is a native Hawaiian wood and is essentially the preferred wood for uke making, but it’s rare and very expensive. My uke is made of Honduran mahogany, so it’s nice to have this little bit of koa on my instrument.

After hammering the frets into the fretboard, I finished the day by gluing the bent sides of the uke to the already assembled front and neck. It was a tough process, but it is so amazing to see the various parts of the ukulele coming together and fitting so perfectly to each other. Mike obviously knows what he’s doing, because it can’t possibly be to my credit that everything is so exact.

Best of all, Mike even gave us time for lunch today. So my involuntary hunger strike is over. Of course that meant that I was busy in the shop until 4:00, whereas we’re usually done by about 2:00. I just didn’t want to break for the weekend before gluing my sides on.

After class, Phil, Kazuo and I went to Chinatown, which would be a lot more interesting if it weren’t for the fact that it isn’t nearly as cool as the one back home in New York, or if I hadn’t just spent a week and a half in China in April. All the lei makers are here however, and I bought a nice one. I’ve been so busy this week that I haven’t eaten out or seen any sites, but the arrival of the weekend gave me the chance to finish the day by seeing Chinatown and later going out for the first nice meal I’ve had since I’ve been here. I should however point out that, though I’m only a five minute walk from the beach, I still haven’t set foot in the ocean.

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