British banjo restoration...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6slIt5190w

Thought of all the banjo hate out there....

What do you call the gift of a $400 banjo ? Answer : An inferior tomato stake.

What do you call a shipwreck with a cargo of 5,000 banjos lying on the bottom of Lake Erie? Answer : A good start.

And so it goes.....

As for the restoration video, a fellow sunday school congregant restored an old banjo for a co-worker of his nephew. Uncle Mac as we call him only charged the guy for replacement tuners, strings, skin and fretwire.....No labour......Many hours spent. The bill for parts from the luthier supply house was something like $130. The guy who owned the now restored banjo sent uncle mac two jacksons. $40 ! and complained that he never imagined it would cost so much to repair.

have no concept of what craftsmanship entails or the value of talented folk who like to take on projects others won't even touch.

..

There's an indignant feller over on DoubleGun forums who wants a stock replaced and can't understand why people want money "just to carve a little wood". So far, nobody's lit into him too bad.

if it's "just to carve a little wood", why not do it yourself?

The complainer tells us he was an "aerospace machinist" and has personal equipment. It has been suggested then he should give it a go. Maybe he'll be great at it but, either way, he'll learn something!

…..the initials JHM, would he? Wants to restock a 10 gauge Charles Daly?

Otony

Don't recall the 'M' but, yeah.

….he is on another forum that I frequent daily, and has mentioned that project. One of the participants there made a post pointing out that JHM was now on the Double Guns forum, and I gathered that he had been pestering folks at both places for stock work. I didn’t realize how he was approaching it though.

I’m not sure of his age, but I know he is quite impatient. When he wants an answer he will ask a number of times in different parts of the forum. I get the impression that he might be well past retirement age, and that perhaps his cognitive abilities are declining.

Not a bad fellow, and he may well have some good machinist skills if we can believe the things he is posting. I’m a bit surprised he feels that woodworking is a simple task, given that he knows the intricacies of machine work….but not too surprised.

Otony