How to make a jew's harp with your own hands?

Few of the ancient musical instruments have survived to this day in their original form. Among them is such an example of the musical culture of many peoples as the jew's harp. Our ancestors used wood and bone to make it, later copper and iron were added to them. The sound of the jew's harp attracts the attention of performers and listeners to it even today, and with the existing arsenal of materials and tools, you can make it yourself.

The main requirements for materials for making a jew's harp are determined by the principle of its sound - the formation of a sound acoustic wave due to vibration or elastic vibration of the main element of the jew's harp - the tongue. This part must have balanced characteristics of rigidity, elasticity and, at the same time, plasticity.

Of metal materials, the best set of suitable qualities is possessed by blades from hand and industrial saws and hacksaws from tool steel, stainless steel sheets, copper or aluminum plates are also used.

In this case, you can experiment with a variety of materials - instead of a round one, take a square or hexagonal profile, use various diameters and types of metal - ordinary carbon or stainless steel, copper, brass or bronze bar.

For a wooden jew's harp, the most suitable materials are birch, maple, oak, hornbeam and beech., in various parts and regions of the world, local, sometimes exotic species of wood are used, including bamboo, which is considered to be a tree.

Modern manufacturers use bone much less often, manual work with this material requires special care and meticulousness, and the material is traditional deer or elk antlers, walrus tusk, whalebone, elephant or even mammoth tusks.

Of modern materials, in the manufacture of the jew's harp, sheet plexiglass or plastic is used, including such a widespread and affordable product.like a plastic bank card. It is quite simple to make a jew's harp from a card, but, as practice shows, it is not always possible to achieve the desired sound from it or comparable to other types of sound.

The history of the jew's harp goes back several centuries. During this time, even taking into account regional and national characteristics, it acquired a finished look and shape. The dimensions of the instrument are also in a rather narrow range, determined by the structure and dimensions of the human articular apparatus. The small dimensions and simplicity of the design make the jew's harp one of the most affordable musical instruments for self-production, especially since on the Internet you can easily find diagrams and drawings with dimensions for any of the available materials.

The simplest is the construction of wood. To make such a jew's harp at home with your own hands, no special skill or skills are required. This requires a wooden plate 2 mm thick in the form of a ruler 15-18 cm long and 1.5-2 cm wide. The material must first be dried and impregnated, which will ensure both maximum sound purity and a long service life. The tongue is cut out according to the markings with a thin and sharply sharpened tool - a wood chisel or scalpel. A stern thread is tied to the end of the tongue to wobble.

The most popular among craftsmen is steel. In addition to the material itself, you will need a vice, a hammer, a grinder, a drill and a soldering iron for work. The process of making a metal jew's harp can be considered on the example of a classic sample with a trapezoidal frame.

For the base of the trapezoid, a steel rod with a diameter of 6-6.5 mm and a length of 140-150 mm is required. The first step is marking, you need to mark the middle of the rod and two identical sections at the ends, 35-40 mm each, which will play the role of decks in the finished instrument. Before bending in the middle of the rod, you need to make a groove with a hacksaw or a triangular file to secure the tongue.

The sides at the ends of the rod are bent in different directions at the same angle, and a chamfer or bluntness with a height of 0.5 mm is made on their inner side with a file. You can also chamfer on a straight rod, in any case, when bending, ensure the plane of all sections of the frame. Further, according to the template, the middle part of the bar is bent in a semicircle, while the ends should be parallel and converge with the gap required for installing the tongue.

For the tongue, elastic springy steel with a thickness of 0.5 mm and a length of 80 mm is used. The material has already been mentioned above - a blade from a two-handed or power saw. The shape of the plate is conical, 2 and 3 mm wide at opposite bases.

Cutting with a grinder must be performed in small cuts with constant cooling. The resulting strip should be trimmed, sanded and polished.

The narrow end of the plate is worked under the groove in the frame, and the tongue is pre-fixed in it. The wide end is marked at the level of the folded decks and folded at right angles. After that, a preliminary adjustment and adjustment of the instrument is performed - the gaps between the tongue plate and the decks should be minimal, the same and even.After the adjustment, you can rivet the tongue recess and make the final adjustment. Adjusting the tone is done using a file by filing the folded end of the tongue.

The easiest way to test its readiness is to create a resonator from the palms folded around it.

Having achieved a positive result in the manufacture of the simplest version of the jew's harp, you can proceed to the manufacture of other, more complex versions, both in execution and in design - the Yakut khomus, the Altai komus or the Bashkir kubyz.

As many of the craftsmen who have made more than a dozen instruments note, it is impossible to guess in advance the sound quality, even if you make a party from one material and one drawing. The final result is influenced by the difference in the gaps between the decks and the tongue in hundredths of a millimeter, the angle of the tongue bend, the purity of the metal grinding and many other conditions and factors.

All this makes it possible to obtain the widest range of sound of the jew's harp - high or low, soft or hard, dull or sonorous, quiet or loud, and its application can also be wide.

How to make a jew's harp with your own hands, see the video.