[Harp-L] limited number of American Chestnut combs now available separately

[David Payne <dmatthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

With the limited edition 10  Patriot harps, made of the commercially-extinct American Chestnut wood, sold and the early ones purchased now going out, Elk River Specialty Harps is entering stage two of its scheme of global chestnutification (stage three is delayed until I can find sharks with laser beams attached to their heads). 
I'm taking orders for and reserving this run of 15 combs as they cure. The non-patented Elk River curing process begins today and will take approximately three weeks to complete. 

Me, I find thinner combs more responsive... that's the whole reason I got into this flatsanding thing in the first place... Starting out, these combs are about 20 percent thinner than a normal comb, they will increase in thickness during the curing, but will still be a tad thinner than your average comb. 

This run of combs is limited to 15, four undrilled Marine Band combs and 11 Seydel combs. The Marine Band combs have extra wood on the sides to allow for chestnutification of various prewars that use the Hohner hole spacing, but the harps themselves are a bit longer. You can also leave the wood on the ends and sand an arc on the ends for rounded corners without sanding away the reedplates. Or you can just sand it flush with the reedplates. Whatever floats your boat.

The Seydel combs are drilled in the hole pattern common to most Seydel harps and will fit the Favorite, 1847, 1847 Silver, Solist Pro. 

These are made of the Deming Wood, which was cut by Revolutionary War veteran Simeon Deming in 1806. The tree had been laying on the forest floor for some time when he cut it and American Chestnut, one of the least biodegradeable products of nature there is, could have been laying on the forest floor for centuries. This wood was likely already old when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. It easily could have been a seedling as early as the 1200s or 1300s.

The Marine Band combs are $55, $5 of which is donated to the American Chestnut Foundation. The Seydel combs are $65, $5 of which is donated to the American Chestnut Foundation. 


Here is a picture of one of the Seydel combs, which has a still-wet first coat of sealant on it (thus the dull finish), but you can see the grain of this cool wood coming out.
http://www.elkriverharmonicas.com/newcombs

Dave