Joyful Noise Hammers was started in 1992 while I was a pastor in New Hampshire. I started making a violin, then went on to mountain dulcimers, hammered dulcimers, bowed psalteries, and a number of other "different" instruments. I mainly stick to making hammers now, with an occasional smattering of bowed psalteries. I sell hammers to about a dozen shops around the country, and numerous individuals. All my hammers are personally handcrafted by me, since I am the only one in the company.
Many players are looking for the perfect hammer. That is a relative term, depending on each player's personal preferences for weight, balance, wood, esthetics, and their own "feel" of the hammers. I try hard to get hammers to my customers that they will be happy with, and in most cases, I succeed. My guarantee is that you have to be happy with your hammers, and I will replace them if they ever break during normal usage. This does not include sitting on them, or stomping on them in a fit of anger.
Each pair of hammers that I make are cut out of a single piece of wood, cut to shape, sawed lengthwise (bookmatched), have grips installed, final sanded, and finished with one coat of lacquer sealer, and one coat of clear lacquer. They are then waxed, and the leather strips glued on. Each one is weighed and labled, and packaged for shipping. I send them out priority mail, and so far, in ten years, have never had any that did not arrive okay.
I used to use a variety of woods, but have dropped some because of inherent weaknesses. I use almost exclusively Maple, Walnut, and Cherry. If you desire other woods, and I can get them, I will do custom work. Some of the harder, oily exotic woods really gum up my sander, so I generally steer clear of them.
The ebony edge is a concept I came up with a few years ago, because wood wears out when it is constantly banged against dulcimer strings. Ebony wears longer, but you must be able to live with a much sharper, brighter tone. I came out with the Harlequin design just a few months ago, and it has become quite popular. It is one-half ebony and one-half maple, and I think quite beautiful. I offer options with that model of installing celluloid grips that are really beautiful, with a black and white swirly marble look. Also I can use black with white swirl or white with black swirl. There is no extra charge for these options on the Harlequins. My trademark is a black (or white) Delrin rod dot in the grips.
My hammers weigh on average 5 or 6 grams for the single sided and 9 to 12 grams for the double sided. Plastic grips add more weight as does ebony. To get a feel for weight, there are 28.35 grams in one ounce. Five quarters weigh 1 ounce. So if you put two quarters in each hand that is about how much my hammers would weigh. A violin bow weighs about 55 or 60 grams.
Well, I hope I haven't bored you, and that having read all this, you will rush right out and fill out the order blank for a pair (or two) of hammers. If you have e-mail, you can contact me that way.
Happy Hammering!
Bob Bedard
