Category Archives: History

Guestblog: The Lyre of Trossingen – pt. 2

Posted on February 12, 2019 by

Luit van der Tuuk is a Dutch author and independent researcher, specialized in the early middle ages. He is also the curator of Museum Dorestad in Wijk bij Duurstede. In 1857 Matthias Hohner started the manufacture of harmonicas in Trossingen. … Continue reading →

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Tattooing a lyre and chisel

Posted on February 8, 2019 by

When you think about the Trossingen Lyre, often the first thing that comes to mind are the rich engravings on the instrument. “Are you going to cut those too?” was the first thing people asked me when told about the … Continue reading →

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Iron Smelting in Africa

Posted on January 30, 2019 by

Another documentary about iron smelting. See how similar the methods are… Continue reading →

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Guestblog: The Lyre of Trossingen – pt. 1

Posted on January 22, 2019 by

Luit van der Tuuk is a Dutch author and independent researcher, specialized in the early middle ages. He is also the curator of Museum Dorestad in Wijk bij Duurstede. In 2001 en 2002 twelve graves were discovered in an early … Continue reading →

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Some busy days at the project we call life

Posted on January 17, 2019 by

To my regret this blog isn’t updated as much as I would like. The reason? There are too many things to do and to few hours in a day… Another factor was that I had no computer or tablet to … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Lute, lyre, Re-enactment, Research, Uncategorized, Woodworking | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Life as a Professional Time Traveller

Posted on November 3, 2018 by

Last week a friend called me a “Professional Time Traveller”. A joke, but I think in a sense he is right… I tend to take leapfrogs trough history one day measuring an original guitar from 1760, the next adjusting a … Continue reading →

Posted in Events, History, Projects, Re-enactment, Research, Think different, Thoughts, Uncategorized, Woodworking, Workshop | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A special parlor: The Grunewald “Harp-Guitar”

Posted on July 4, 2018 by

One of the perks of guitar making are the special guitars that sometimes pass the shop. And being a somewhat quirky person I somehow manage get some of the oddest pieces of guitar history. Like this 10-string “Harp-Guitar” made by … Continue reading →

Posted in Guitar, Guitar Plans, History, Movies, Music, Projects, Restorations, Uncategorized, Woodworking, Workshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

King David and his pretty little lyres

Posted on June 20, 2018 by

When researching the old European lyres there are two pictures that always keep surfacing: The Vespasian Lyre Probably the most famous is the one of King David in the Vespasian Psalter (Southern England, 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 8th … Continue reading →

Posted in History, lyre, Music, Projects, Re-enactment, Research, Think different, Uncategorized, Woodworking, Workshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

We have a theorbo!

Posted on May 8, 2018 by

Work continues on Jannemieke’s Sellas theorbo. We’re very close to completion… The bracing glued and shaped Time to close the box… Installing the fingerboard points… And time to attach the neck extention… The instrument is finally at its full length. … Continue reading →

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A chained library

Posted on May 6, 2018 by

During the weekends at the Batavia shipyard Paper Unicorn’s bookbinder Astrid spoke about the idea of making a portable chained library. For many people this is one of the first things they think about when the subject of medieval books … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, History, Projects, Re-enactment, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments