After the head shrunk so much it ripped out the tacks twice I had to face the fact that I needed to come up with another way to fasten the head on to the banjo or I was going to go broke buying new heads. I considered ordering a set of shoes from Elderly Music but I was intrigued by the federal shield bracket shoes that Eric Hector described from one of George Wunderlich's banjos. I couldn't find a picture of them so I sort of improvised on my own and came up with these out of heavy sheet brass.

The original wooden hoop (pot) ended up getting pulled out of shape by the hide as it continued to shrink and tug where it was still tacked down. I made a new hoop out of a slightly thicker piece of ash. At Mac Steel in Rutland I managed to get a piece of 3/8 x 1/8 brass for the ring. (Mac Steel is also where I got the cast iron pipe for a hoop mold. Thanks, Josh!) I thought it would be too heavy but it seemed to be just right by the time I finished with it. (I tapered the inside top by hand with a file.) I scarfed the ends with about a 1 inch long taper and silver soldered them together. I considered riveting them for good measure but this seemed to hold. I could have bent the brass by hand but it was handy having a set of tinsmithing rolls to do it nice and even. The wire hoop is galvanized 12 gauge steel wire and I soldered a short sleeve of brass tubing from a hobby shop over the joint where the ends butt together. Next time I will make the ring and hoop just a tad larger as it was a tight struggle pulling the wet hide through. Elderly sent a set of directions with their hides but I found a modified set in Dr. Horsehair's instruction book to be more understandable.
 
 
 
 

I had already ordered a calf-skin head from Elderly Music (because of new regulations to prevent mad cow disease Yendor was having trouble getting African goat skins) as well as some banjo hooks and nuts, a bridge and a bone nut. I needed to extend the threads on the hooks but discovered that the 8-26 thread was an odd size that I could not easily find a die for so I also got some brass stock for the hooks at Mac Steel. I bent them over, did a little grinding and filing, then threaded them. For the nuts I used standard brass knurled nuts and I filed one end of them square. I saw a picture of an original banjo that had nuts that looked like these but I do not know if these nuts were original.
 
 
 
 
 

Well, here it is now out on the front porch next to a glass of my latest homebrew (a traditional English bitter I named Gunga Din Ale) - just in time for spring. As I sit on the porch, banjo in my lap and ale by my side I let the afternoon sunshine warm my knees and my feverish little brain is getting ready for my next project ...