Bodhran

The bodhran is an irish drum.  This is pronounced "bough-rawn", although I have also heard "boar-rahn" by a genuine Irish player.  They are probably the same thing said with a different accent.

The drum itself is round and flat.  Standard diameter is 19 inches.  I don't think there's a standard depth, but mine are around 4 or 5 inches deep.  My first bodhran was around 20 inches in diameter, but I found this too big and cumbersome, so my second bodhran was more like 17", and I like this size much better.  The bodhran is played on the knee with the skin vertical, and struck with a 'tipper' - a double ended stick around 20 to 25cm long.

How to make a bodhran

Some people go to a lot of trouble to get a pieces of really hard wood and steam bend it.  I have tried this, and I think that unless you have some experience at steam bending wood, forget this way.  Steam bending wood requires equipment and takes some practice, and I've found that even with lots of swear words, it is still very challenging.

Wood

I used very thin bending ply, about 1.5mm thick.  This is a 3-ply, but the ply is made in such a way that the wood is still quite flexible.  Also, at 1.5mm thick, it's not that hard to bend anyway.  If you can't get this, thicker ply is ok, but it must be bending ply - otherwise it won't bend.  I have seen nice bodrans made from just two or three layers of 5mm thick bending ply.

Thin wood laminate is also fine, but I found it hard to come by, with the exception of very thin decorative veneers, which would be amazingly expensive to build a whole shell out of, and I suspect it would be hard to work with too.

Mould

I have tried both inside and outside moulds, and by far the easiest is a mould made of two sheets of solid ply, with 17" circles (or whatever size your drum is to be) cut into them.  Space the two layers about 3" apart with small blocks glued into place.  This type of mould allows you to complete the whole drum shell in one sitting, and requires no clamps.

If your ply does not bend easily to the required radius, you can wet the strips and bend them into the mould, and let them dry.  Note - do this to all layers and let them dry before glueing anything.  Glueing the layers together while they are wet will stop the glue from soaking into the wood, preventing it from bonding properly, and the drum will be very weak, and will warp later.

Laminating

I cut five strips of ply, three with the grain and 2 across the grain (the grain being the grain of the outside of the ply).  If you get thicker bending ply, you will probably need less layers, and thicker bending ply may only bend easily in one direction, so cut all your strips in the same direction, and ignore any instructions about grain orientation.  If you are using wood laminate, then definitely alternate the grain.  Cut the strips slightly longer than the required circumference - they will be cut back to the exact size later.

Using the type of mould shown above, you start with the outside layer, so pick a nice strip for the outside of the drum, with the grain running around the drum if possible, and lay it into the mould.  It should be slightly longer than required, so cut it back to the required length to fit snugly inside the mould.

Now the process of laminating begins...

Take your second strip of wood, with the grain running across the first piece (i.e. up the drum, rather than around it), and rest it inside the first piece.  Cutting this piece to size requires some exactness.  The idea is for this piece to fit exactly into place inside the first piece, and with the ends butted against each other, it will clamp itself in place.  So, with the second piece lying inside the mould, mark where to cut it, and then cut slightly outside the line.  Test it back inside the mould.   If it is slightly too long, cut it back a bit, and check again.  When it fits perfectly, take it back out, glue the inside of the first layer and then fit the second layer. I used yellow carpenter's glue.  PVA (white) glue is also fine. Important note - make sure the join in the second layer is not near the join in the first layer.  Space your joins around the drum shell, so that no two layers join in the same place, because this creates a weak spot.

A neat trick I found to get each layer fitting very tightly, was to put the inside layer in, with the ends already butted together, but with a bulge somewhere else, then push out the bulge.  Be careful not to push the bulge to hard, because if the layer is too long, and it doesn't fit, you may break the wood trying to push out the bulge.  As you go, you'll get a feel for how much bulge you can push out.

The diagram shows the mould in black, the first layer in blue, and the layer currently being inserted in red, with the bulge being pushed out.  This technique works very well with thin (1.5mm ply), but I have not tried it with thicker ply, which may not have enough flex to use this trick.

Note how the red and blue layers are joined at different points around the shell, preventing weak points.

Once the second layer is inserted, subsequent layers can be put in place, until the desired rim thickness is reached.

When all layers are completed, leave it in the mould for a day to let the glue dry.   The drum will be quite tightly fitted into the mould, so you may need a hammer to get it out.

Double-rim tuneable drum

If you want to make a tuneable bodhran, a second rim must be made, using the same procedure as the first, but this rim is only about 1.5 inches high, compared to the full 5 or 6 inches for the main rim.  For this inner rim, the outside rim itself is used as the mould, but make sure you insert about 8-10 layers of newspaper into the inside of the outer rim before making the inner rim.  This enforces a small gap between the two rims, so that once everything is finished, and the newspaper is removed, the inner rim can slide freely up and down inside the outer rim.  If it doesn't slide freely when you are finished, just sand down the outside of the inner rim until it can move.

The picture on the right shows the mechanism for the double rim.

The red line is the drum skin, which is tacked onto the outer rim by the yellow tack.   Note that the outer rim is bevelled differently if a double rim is used.  The inner rim is shown top right.  It is not attached directly to the outer rim, but is held in place by the pressure of skin on top, and by resting on the end of a bolt underneath.  Make sure the bolt has a flat end, or it will wear into the inner rim over time.  The bolt is passed through a block of wood glued to the inside of the outer rim, and the blue nut.  This nut should be glued to the block of wood so that it cannot turn.  With this mechanism in place, when the bolt is tightened, it pushes the inner rim up and tightens the skin.  When the bolt is loosened, it allows the inner rim to drop down, and loosens the skin.  The total distance of travel required is about 5mm, but it's good to have a bit extra in case you put the skin on too tight or too loose.

I have used six of these tightening bolts around the rim of my bodhran.  Depending on the size of the drum, and on the strength of your inner rim, you may want to use eight or even ten.

Cross bars

Once you have finished the main shell of the bodhran, you may wish to fit one or two cross bars to strengthen the shell, but if you have made the rim well and it is thick enough, you won't necessarily need any cross spars.  With five layers of 1.5mm bending ply, the double rim mechanism, and no cross spars, my bodhran has not noticeably buckled after 2 years.  One other benefit of cross spars is that they can make the drum easier to hold, so it's up to you.

Finally, varnish the shell to protect the wood and glue from moisture.

Fitting the skin

There are two ways to get a skin.  The first way involves killing a goat, skinning it, soaking the skin in lime solution for 3 days, shaving it, burying the skin in a peat bog for a year, stretch-drying it, oiling it and cutting to size.  The other way is to buy one from a drum shop.

Once you've got the skin, soak it in water until it's soft and floppy like a wet chamois, and put it over the drum.  If you have made a double-rim drum, make sure the tension adjustment is in the middle so you have plenty of room to adjust either way later.   Adjust it so that the centre of the skin hangs about 1 inch below the rim.   Lay a piece of wood over the drum and measure down to check this.

Get a staple gun and staple the skin into place all the way around the outside of the drum.  Start with two staples on opposite sides, then add two more, then four inbetween, then eight more, etc.  Keep filling in until the gap between adjacent staples is about 5-10mm.

Give the skin a day to dry.  Don't get impatient and use a hairdryer or put it in the sun, because you'll over-dry the skin and it may tear away from the staples.   Don't play the drum while it's wet, because you'll stretch it or wear it.   Check it occasionally to make sure it's not too tight, but just give it one or two light taps with your hand.

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