Making Heads for Shimedaiko Part 4

...a few more photos, some missing info, a couple of corrections.

I didn't include a photo of the finished product! Sorry. Here's one:

...and here it is laid out to assemble two of them to a drum body. I'm using a piece of 10-inch heavy-duty drainage pipe for this drum. The piece is 5-1/2 inches long, the most common size for this type of drum.



You can complete this part of the project with or without a helpful cat and the cat can have a name or can be Nameless.



For this size drum, it will take about 25 feet of rope to tension the heads to the body. I'm using 3/8-inch rope to go easily through the 1/2-inch holes I made in the edges of the heads. Thick rope is better because it's easier to pull--shimes are usually left loose for storage and are only pulled tight just before playing. The heads last longer if they aren't kept tight all the time. Thicker rope LOOKS better too.



Start by tying a loop in one end of the rope (NOT a slipknot; a solid loop) then thread the plain end of the rope from inside to outside through one of the holes. Pull the rope all the way through until the loop is against the inner part of the head. (Maybe it's time to FEED the cat...)



Continue threading each hole (10 on each side) all the way around, always from inside to outside.



Almost there...



Once you get all the way around, thread the loose end of the rope through the loop and pull the rest of the slack out. Once the "ups and downs" are done, you can wrap the rope around each of the adjacent sets of ropes and pull them together to tighten them even more. I didn't take a photo of that because it's a two-handed job and I'm the photographer AND the drum-maker on this job. But it looks like this after it's all done:



Did I remember to mention that the hide must be COMPLETELY DRY before you tension the heads to the body? I didn't? Oh. The hide has to be dry first for this kind of drum. Next step: take a couple of sticks and PLAY! I love a happy ending!