Carnyx: a long winded adventure :)
Carnyx carnyx carnyx. The phonetics of its name washed over me, "carnyx". Why it manifested, I do not know, but after learning of the instruments, an insatiable urge to carnx overtook my being. All things led to carnyx. I was absolutely smitten. Of particular interest to me was the recreation of the Deskford Carnyx.
While the internet allowed me to watch videos of people playing a carnyx, it wasn't enough to cool the fire of carnyx fever. What started as a desire to hear a carnyx quickly morphed into a need to actually hold and play a carnyx, and this would require owning a carnyx. The price for a proper replica was prohibitive, so I decided to make a copper carnyx out of plumbing pipe from the hardware store, and copper sheet purchased online.
"But I don't know a damn thing about working copper" was smothered by "learn while making", and it was time to start prototyping the layout.
Gather some components for a PVC prototype
Shape, cut, test, cut, shape, test.... and done!
The PVC prototype was roughly 2 meters long, and had a bassy tone
Make a flux brush
Aside from a lack of knowledge regarding working with copper pipe, I also lacked a flux brush.
Absolutely horrid pipe sweating
Yup, still no idea what I am doing other than "making a carnyx"
Watch a few 'soldering copper pipe' tutorials
Well fancy that, a bit of knowledge later, and the body of the carnyx is in one piece.
Time to create the headpiece
Aside from lacking knowledge about solding copper pipe, I also lacked any experience in shaping sheet metal, but I figured that if I can make a prototype of the headpiece out of cardboard, I should be able copy the pieces in copper, and then stick them all together … somehow.
Right-handed garbage makes for a rather unpleasant craft time
Arts, crafts, and making should be a fun experience and not a painful torture time. After taking this picture of a torture device forced on the sinister by the oppressors, I hopped online and purchased 2 sinister scissors.
Draw some circles
To make the cone that attaches the head to the pipe body, it was necessary to draw concentric circles. When a compass isn't available, use a string, just as human engineers have been doing for millenia.
Cut, shape, tape, staple, cut, shape
and that's how a prototype is made. Time to remake that protoype out of copper
Get some supplies
Aside from copper sheet and a sweet set of sinister snips, a ball pean hammer and copper roofing nails were acquired to make some rivets to hold things together. It is a shame that I don't know how to rivet with copper.
practice riveting
After tracing and cutting the main component of the head, the scrap bits where used to practice making copper rivets.
Rivet #2 up top, rivet #1 on the bottom
Rivet #2 is certainly an improvement. Now I sort of know how to rivet with copper :)
Completed cone, checking fitment
plenty of little cuts, and 2 rivets... also some hobbit feet
Main head piece and 2 ears
cut, drilled, and ready for riveting
50 cents of eyes
Hawaii and Colorado
Another prototype for the lower jaw
Trying to put a hinged jaw on the carnyx head was proving to be a bit of a challenge. A little patience and hella cardboard eventually resulted in an acceptable prototype.
Components ready for assembly
4 cents of balance for the back of the jaw piece
4 pennies were drilled and riveted to the back of the jaw piece to better balance the weight of the jaw at the fulcrum.
The mane and mane straps
cut, shaped, drilled, and ready for riveting
CARNYX!!
The headpiece was riveted together, then riveted to the cone adapter, which was then soldered to the carnyx pipe. This was followed by attaching the mane.
Tastes bad
copper does not have a pleasant taste, and continuous tooting on this carnyx was not a flavorful experience. Some beeswax was melted in a can, and the carnyx mouthpiece was given a nice coating of the liquid wax. What a wonderful difference.
Unicorns are awesome, princess tea party
Yea, I was invited to toot carnyx at a 'princess tea party' birthday party. The birthday girl gave all of the guests a small unicorn necklace because "unicorns are awesome".
Unicorn
although the unicorn was given to me, I felt it belonged with the carnyx, so....
bling!
2 Meters of Toot
There ya go friends. A long winded post about a long wind. TOOOOOT!
For now, it would appear that carnyx fever has been quenched.
Cheers,
jezra