I decided to make the bodies out of
redwood. There were a number of reasons for this. Firstly, it was
available, and in some quality cuts. And redwood is fairly
inexpensive. I had read that shime were often made of “lighter
wood” than the white oak nagado-daiko were usually made of, so I
figured it would work well enough. Also, I thought it would be
attractive once finished. I like natural wood grain better than
lacquer, and I thought if I chose the right stock the redwood could be
nice looking. And lastly, it's light. That's not an issue for shime,
but these shime are also sort of a trial run for making larger
okedo-daiko. I like the idea of being able to wear a drum while I'm
playing it, but it would be better if it weren't too heavy.
My friend Nick was kind enough to lend
a hand and his table saw so I could do the angle cuts on the staves
more accurately. We ripped my redwood boards into strips which I then
cut down by hand to approximately the correct length. I decided to
make each of these bodies a different height so I could test the
differences in the finished drum. One is eight inches, one nine and
the last is ten.
I glued up the staves and bound them
with a bunch of oversized rubber bands I purchased at my local office
supply store. Once dry, I used a block plane to shave down the
corners and round the entire drum body. Once it had been 'rough
rounded' I took 60 grit sand paper to it, then 100, then 220 to
smooth out the surface.