Finishing the Heads

Now for the hard part; the stitching. I used synthetic sinew with a blunt needle, punching each hole with an awl before feeding the needle through. Of course, the outer stitch comes first, as this is the stitch that holds the head on the ring. Then the inner stitching, a circle that should be just outside the diameter of the drum body. In this case I did all of the stitching with the stretching line in place. (both the inner and outer stitches) However, I no longer think that is the best approach. More on that in a future post.

It took about four hours to do all the stitching for both heads, though I did the heads one at a time not wanting to leave the second head soaking all the time I was working on the first one. Once all the stitching was completed the stretching line was cut off the back of the head and the holes were punched for the rope.