highnoons journal

For the past few weeks I've been working on a new dulcimer. I like "Tenor" instruments, so I wanted to build something in the tenor range.

So I decided on a scale length of 21 inches. My present tuning is open G... tuned: dd-Gg-dd.

Here are the specs:
6-string- (3 doubled courses)
Chromatic fretting
21" scale length
Guitar style X bracing
mandolin style bridge
partial length fretboard
9.5" wide for rear bout
7.5" wide for lower bout
4.5" wide waist
26" long body
Gold Guitar style tuners
Gold Mandolin tailpiece
Gold endpin jack and Gold front strap button
Gold frets

I used a variety of wood for this dulcimer. This dulcimer is made mainly from Recycled/Salvaged wood:
Pine for top and back- from an old pine toybox I made for my son about 20 years ago.
Poplar for the sides- from a wood shipping pallet Randy Ratliff gave me.
Sassafras for the headstock- from Betty Ward's kitchen!
Red Cedar for the fretboard- a gift from Harold Dye.
Birdseye Rock Maple for the fingerboard- traded from a friend in Kentucky.
Bocote veneer on the headstock- gift from my veneer supplier.

You can see nail holes on the back and sides.

Due to all the colors kinda clashing I stained the wood with some brown leather dye that I thinned down a bit with boiled linseed oil. Then I applied some more boiled linseed oil, and then a couple coats of paste bowling alley wax.

This is one of my favorite dulcimers I've yet to make. It is VERY loud. But still has a pretty good dulcimer sound.... not sounding too much like a guitar or mandolin.

Here are some photo's. A few of the build process, and a few of the completed dulcimer:

"BE BLESSED!" And "BE A BLESSING!"

I pray you all will "Be Blessed" tomorrow at Church, but most of all I pray that you all will "Be a Blessing" to someone.

You see, here lately as I have been visiting the nursing home and having Church with them each Sunday morning, I have learned more about being a Christian, and what it means to be a Christian, in just a few short weeks, then I have learned in the 14 years I have attended Church.

I feel that God would have me tell you this morning, that if the only "Church" you are getting, is to set on a pew for a couple hours on Sunday morning, and/or Wednesday night...etc..... and give the Preacher a nod or an Amen about every 5 minutes, and clap to the Choir as they sing..... well....... quite frankly... you ain't having much Church.

For years I sat on pews. For years I made statements like: What a good Church service we had today! I can't wait until next time!

Looking back, if I had such a good Church service, instead of having the thought of not being able to wait until I got back, I should have had the thought of not being able to wait to go visit some unfortunate person that can't go to Church, and be a blessing to them, so they could have that feeling I had!

So I challenge you this morning...... go to your pew, that you feel has your name written on it, and sit there as content as you possibly can tomorrow, and "BE BLESSED"!

And then get up off your sorry hind end, and go "BE A BLESSING" to someone else this week!

God Bless!

Love Bro. Bobby

Hi friends and members of Whole Armor!

Happy New Year everyone!

Bro. Danny Stiltner and myself visited the Nursing Home today. It was a great start to the New Year! I thank Bro. Danny for helping me!

As some of my friends know, I have been praying about doing more concerning our Nursing Home Ministry. Today was the first time in a long time, that I've had Church with the residents there. Actually it's been a little over 2 years since I had Church with them. It felt so great, and I really enjoyed it, and I think the residents did too. But I had only committed to the 1st Sunday of each month, until I actually went today...... just to see how things went.

I prayed the Lord would show me this morning in some way, if I should make the Sunday Church services an every Sunday event, or stay with once per month. I asked that he would show me in some way what he wanted me to do.

Well........... I got my answer! A lady asked what she needed to do, to be saved! YES! Thank you Jesus! I told her that whenever she wanted too, that we would make arrangements to Baptize her. And I had so many of the residents express their pleasure in getting to attend Church on Sunday morning.

I ask that you please pray for me, for God's hand and Blessing on me with this Ministry. And please pray that God send me helpers.

Thanks for the Prayers!

God Bless!

Bro. Bobby

Myself, Danny Stiltner, and Chuck Stacy had our last visit of 2011 to sing at the Nursing home today.

Today was not without it's problems! Our lead player, Herman Matney couldn't come. Earl Ward went to a funeral. Jane Compton had to babysit. Chuck got held up with the sound equipment and was late. Danny took the dreaded scratchy throat. I took the scratchy throat. I took a spell with shortness of breath. Chuck said his throat was scratchy from the beginning. I couldn't play worth a hoot! LOL!

It just seemed like the enemy was fighting us before we got there! BUT........... we pulled through, and managed somewhat of a performance out of it. We got a few handclaps anyway, so we musta sung a few pretty good.

Our next singing will be the 27th of January 2012.

I will be going this Sunday, January 1, 2012 to the Nursing Home to have Church with them. I can hardly wait!

I've had a rough year, but overall I;ve still been blessed...... I could be in the Nursing Home! So I choose not to dwell on the things in the past, and I look toward the New Year coming up, and what God has in store for me in 2012!

I don't know what it'll be, but I bet I'll be Blessed!

God Bless!

I finally finished my pallet dulcimer! It looks great, and it sounds great!

I've named it: The Tiny Teardrop

Here's what I ended up using, and how much it ended up costing me:

Buckeye soundboard- $6.......... paid $30 for enough to make 5 sets of soundboards.

Output jack, plate, and piezo element- $4....... approx.

Zither pins and nails- $2...... approx.

Stainless steel fretwire- $6

Fretdots- $0.50 cents.... maybe......

Strings- $2

Texas ebony saddle/bridge- free from a friend- gonna replace it later with some free deer antler

Wood for false back- don't know what kind it is- free from pallet

Sides and fretboard- red oak from pallet- free

back, bracing, and kerfed lining- Yellow Poplar- free from pallet

sassafras for inner soundboard, or inner back, whichever you want to call it- free from a sawmill friend

Black walnut for tailblock, peghead, and stand off block for false back- free from sawmill friend

Ipe-(Brazilian Walnut) for fingerboard- was once someones tongue and groove flooring- free from a friend.

Not bad I don't think for around $20. I coulda went cheaper on the frets but I have been wanting to try the stainless steel fretwire, so I figured a dulcimer I had little money in would be a good choice.

Thanks for following along! Here's a few photos. I'll post more photo's of it in the photo section of my site. I'll try and post a video or audio of it later.

I had a great time with my family yesterday and today. Some of them didn't get to come in for Christmas, and I missed not seeing them. Hopefully there will be another year that we can get together and enjoy time with each other on the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior............. Thank you Jesus!

I got some more work done on the dulcimer yesterday and tonight. Quite a bit actually. I got the tailpiece, and the peghead, and the false back mounted, anf the soundboard mounted, and I got the sides bent and mounted.... not much left!

OH MY! Did you notice that?? I forgot to put on my fretboard! HeHeHe!

 My souped up sewer pipe clamps............

I think that false back is gonna look good finished:

OOPS! Scorched it just a tad! Ya reckon it's ruined?? Naaaa.... it ain't ruined!

Hopefully my next photo's will be the finished dulcimer.... maybe a video...

See ya! And God Bless!

I got some more work done to the pallet dulcimer today. I have decided to use some red oak from the pallet for the sides. It has some nice figure to it:

I've also go two pieces of black walnut glued and clamped for the peg head and the tail piece:

And I have the kerfed lining glued on the soundboard and the back:

Next is to make the peg head, and the tail piece. And I'll make small blocks to attach the false back to the back out of walnut.

See ya next time!
God Bless!

I've had this pallet for some time now.

Recently I took it apart to see how much wood I could get from it to make a dulcimer from. I got quite a bit. Most of it was yellow poplar. Some was oak. One board was some kind of wood I'm not familiar with. Since taking the photo below, some of the wood has split on me. But I still got some good wood from it:

I've decided to build a small, octave dulcimer. It's only gonna have a 17 inch scale. It'll be chromatically fretted. It's gonna have what is know as a false back, or Galax style back to get more volume. I'm also gonna use some spalted buckeye wood I have for the soundboard. From left to right in the photo below: spalted buckeye for the soundboard, yellow poplar for the back, and the unknown wood for the false back.

I got the 3 sanded this evening, and I managed to get the false back cut out on the scrollsaw. It's gonna look nice!

More to come later!

Been working on some more instruments, and I've finally finished a couple more..... just in time for Christmas!

The first one is an old style diatonic fretted dulcimer. I used zither pin type tuners on this 3 string dulcimer. Western Cedar top, and black walnut sides, back, and fretboard/fingerboard, and headstock.

The second one is a modern chromatic fretted dulcimer with sassafras soundboard and fretboard, and some nice curly maple for the back, sides, headstock, and fingerboard.

Friday the 27th.... the day after Thanksgiving... our singing group: The Slate Creek Gospel Singers visited the nursing home again.
The attendance was down a little, as the employees didn't have the needed help to get a lot of the usual residents in to hear us and sing with us.
I'm finding myself missing some of the regulars when they're not there. We learned one was in the hospital. And we learned that one lady resident that usually sings with us, and her sister who is also a resident there, were transferring to another nursing home soon.

I am Thankful for a lot of things this year. I'm most thankful for my salvation..... paid in full by Jesus! And second I'm thankful for my wonderful family! And so many more things.....  But I'm also thankful for my friends that also have a desire to go minister in song with me at the nursing home. And also, I'm thankful for getting to know the residents of the local nursing home. I can see how it becomes so easy to get attached to them. I hope we get to continue visiting the nursing home for many more years.

Please visit your local nursing home! The residents will love you for it!

The Slate Creek Gospel Singers:
Bobby Ratliff, Herman Matney, Chuck Stacy, and Danny Stiltner

Recently I finished a coule new Arrow Quivers. One for myself, and one for MikeW from California.

The one I made myself is one of my Olde Timer back quivers. I used Black Bison overlays on brown cowhide, and used calfskin 3/32" lace. The small lace was a bit of a pain, but it looks really nice now that I'm done.

The second quiver is one of my original Highnoonhunter side quivers. The base leather is oiled/waxed cowhide with a tooled overlay that I did in a basketweave with a arrowhead stamp in the center, and goatskin lace:

2 Corinthians 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

It is sometimes hard, this life we live. Sometimes we feel faint, as though we wish to give up! We sometimes forget, that each new day we wake up, is a new day in Christ! No matter what happened yesterday, or how bad yesterday was, we have a brand new day to start! Through God, we can be renewed daily!

I'm glad for this new, beautiful day that the Lord has Blessed us with! I am feeling so much better in the Lord! I am feeling his presence more and more each day as I'm praying and reading my Bible more. I am getting excited about the new Preaching appointments I have, as well as our new singing appointments at the nursing home! It is such a blessing to get to sing to the residents. They really appreciate people to come and sing.

God Bless!
Bro. Bobby

Been a while since I posted anything. I've managed to get a couple more instruments finished! A tenor guitar I made for myself:

A strummer for my friend Joe:

Well, for a long time I've been one to declare that the only thing a handheld belt sander was good for, was to ruin a fine piece of wood! I've hated those things for a long time. I did however make an arrow dowel-er from one once, but that's about it. Everytime I get one of those things out, and try to use it, there goes a big trench down a costly piece of wood because I tilted it wrong or something got between the belt and the wood....etc., etc., etc!

But today I figured out something a handheld belt sander was good for. A redneck thickness sander! LOL!

I mounted it to a small platform and not only can I thickness my bow lams and dulcimer tops, backs, and sides with it, I can also sand my risers to shape on the end roller.

With the 36 grit sanding belts it sure makes quick work of even the red oak I was playing around with.

Later, I'm gonna rout me a 1/4" wide slot in an arch in the top, and use a carriage bolt through the guage block and the table, with a wing nut on top, so I can have infinite adjustment for thicknessing. Right now I just have a large wood screw in each end. I barely loosen the screw closest to the belt, and remove the back one, and swing the tail end over 1/4" and then re-tighten.......which I found amounts to about .010" in thickness. But that's as close as I can go by relocating the wood screw with wallowing out the holes by getting them too close. Other then that, it works great!

Here's a few photos:

I've worked off and on a couple weeks, working on a longbow. Finally I finished it. It is the first "Hill style" longbow I've built. It was osage orange wood under clear glass on the back. A center core of Uni-weft glass. To belly laminations of lacewood under clear glass. And the handle was mahogony. I used tan phenolic on the limbtips and the handle overlay. It is a really beautiful bow. BUT................ it turned out only 25# @ 28". And was 65" long. 

I had hoped it would turn out 60# @ 28" and 70" long! LOL!

But all was not lost. I found someone to sell it to, and I hope they get many years of use from it. But I hope to make many more longbows in the future, and well as a few shorter, hybrid flatbows.
Presenting Olde Timer Longbow Serial# 1201165

Had another blessed day visiting the nursing home today!

Myself, Danny Stiltner, Chuck Stacy, Herman Matney, and Jane Compton went and sang today. We had such a blessed time! Chuck brought his new sound system so we had microphones to use and it made it so much better and easier to sing, and to hear the music. And the residents seemed to like it so much better too............. I suppose they could actually hear us! LOL! But it was a very blessed day of singing and music! I can't wait to go back next friday.

Also...
Well, I cooked my first Hill style bow last night. I got it off the form and the profile cut out and the string grooves filed in this evening. I feel great about a few things, but disappointed about one particular thing........... the weight..... 

I had a piece of the core glass. So I wasn't sure how much weight it would add to the stack. But not as much as I thought....

More about that in a minute.
I took the tape off the back..... perfect! I took the tape off the belly of one limb...... perfect! Then took it off the other..... not so perfect...... a few spots under the glass... but not enough to be concerned about. Spots under the glass have plagued me for some time. Not only with bow building but with my quiver building where I use glass on occasion. So I was pretty please with that. But as soon as I got the junk off the bow I and flexed it I knew it was gonna be too light. I have it as a 68" nock to nock and it'll be lucky to be 40#. I think I will cut it down to 66" and see if it'll be at least enough for a legal hunting bow in Virginia... which is 40#'s.

And... due to the light weight, I decided not to go with a shelf, and I'm gonna make it ambidextrous. I like messing around shooting left and right handed. So the lighter weight will also help me enjoy that more. I hope to have it ready for a finish by tomorrow night.

So, I am slightly disappointed with the low weight, but overall I'm pleased that the rest of the build went well. My next build I will have to inquire about some lam thicknesses to get the weight I want.

Shot my bow and arrows some more this evening. I'm surprised at how fast I'm getting my strength back. I am sure I'll hunt with this old bow some this season. For some reason, I have a bit of an attachment to this old bow. I traded some leatherwork to it, and I asked the guy I traded it from for some history about the bow. He told me his uncle owned it, (along with 4 more just like it, but different weights). He said his uncle had killed lots of small game with it, several whitetail deer, and a Pronghorn Antelope. One day I was looking the old bow over and noticed on the back of the top limb it had the word "Chance" written on it. I asked the guy I got it from what that meant? Was it his uncles name? No, he said that wasn't his Uncles name. But what did it mean? He never returned my message.

So it's a mystery to me........... what this word "Chance" means. The bow is old and ugly..... and if not for it already having the name Chance written on it, I would name it Old Ugly....

I thought as I looked at chance today out in the light of the day, that most people would have no use for him. The finish is cracked. The grip is worn and the thread that holds the leather grip on is warn and fuzzy. The weight of Chance alone would turn most people away. And the length. It seems now-a-days most folks want a little short bow for hunting.

Chance is a lot like me. To most people I ain't worth nothing. But my Master............ he can still use me. Just like me and Chance... as his Master, I can still get a lot of use out him.

There may just be a "Chance"................. that I'll get a deer with him this year!

I got my arrows done today too. They shoot so fine! It was great being able to go out and shoot this evening.... still a little warm, but fall is definitely in the air!

Here's Chance:

And here's a handfull of my arrows.... not fancy arrows..... huntin' arrows:

I got out and shot my bows some today. I shot my old Holmes reverse handle long bow, and my old Kolometz long bow.

I settled on my Kolometz to hunt with this year. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to handle it's 76#'s because I hadn't shot it since getting the pacemaker, but I didn't have any problem.

I got my arrows nearly fletched, and I got my broadheads mounted on them.

So my setup will be my 66"...... 76# Kolometz Kustom Longbow...... Black Locust Riser with black locust lams under clear glass with Osage center cores.

Surewood douglas fir shafts from Braveheart Archery fletched with 3- 5" feathers.

Ribtek 125 Grain broadheads................. Brand new Ribteks! LOL! That shows you how long it's been since I went hunting. They ain't made Ribteks in a few years. I bought these the year they quit making them.

I've been pretty sick since my last post. But I've felt a little better today. I even got up the gumption to go for a bicycle ride. The bike I rode was way too small for me, and, I didn't want to overdo it due to being so sick the past couple days.

I only rode about a 1-1/2 miles. I'm gonna work on another bicycle and try to fix one up to get me through the winter. Maybe next spring I can come up with a new one that's more comfy.

I got myself together this morning and went ginsenging again. I had a hard time at first. But I seemed to limber up after a while. I had a steep place to go up, and once I made it to the top I leaned against a tree and then my heart went crazy on me with that atrial fibrillation. It raced away for about 10 seconds. I nearly fainted.

But after resting I felt OK so I traveled on. I wanted to dig a grocery sack of yellow root, a pocket full of red root, and a pocket full of ginseng. Those were my goals. I knew where some pathes of the yellow root were, so I went directly there, and dug a couple bunches of "sang" and a few bunches of red root along the way. After a few hours I had my sack of yeller root, and nearly a pocket full of red root, but not much "sang". So I began talking to the Lord. I thanked him for allowing me to be able to be in the mountain. I began telling him I had a goal of a pocket full of "sang" to fill the large vest pocket on the front left of my vest. Sure enough, I looked over and saw some "sang". There was 4 prongs and 3 prongs...... two of each. I dug those and said: Lord, thank you for those, but I still don't have a pocket full, and I'm getting weak, and I'm gonna have to go home... I went about 10 steps and saw a couple 3 prongs right out from me. I glanced down hill and there was ginseng everywhere! Praise the Lord! I filled my pocket to the brim!

I took Brutus with me again. He's a really good ginseng buddy. He comes and checks on me real often. Once there was some deer above me blowing and snorting at us. Brutus didn't hear them because he was digging after a ground squirrel. Later he winded them and off he went. He was gone about 15 minutes and came back. We shared a bottle of water, a bottle of gatorade, and some peanut butter pretzels. He is sound asleep now. I think I wore him out.

But the Lord blessed me to be able to dig what I set as my goal today. And, he helped me to get around in the mountains even though my heart is giving me some trouble.

Here I am with my sack of yellow root, pocketfull of red root, and my pocketfull of ginseng: