Strings!

Here's a little detail. I added ramps under the brass straps to ease the transition. The second strap is lying beside a brass rivet. It had to be hammered into a curve to fit the contour of the neck.

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It's always a little stressful when you start drilling holes in an instrument. The plan is to use Z-toggles to fasten the strings. That way the harp can be strung from the outside without having to fish for the strings through the sound holes.

Here are a couple of Z-toggles and the tools to make them. The zig-zag has to fit through the string hole with the string attached. It was pretty easy to tie the first twenty strings (.016-.020) The strings from .022 to .040 were pretty stiff to tie around the little toggle but after annealing the end of the strings in a gas flame it became doable.

After stabbing myself in the fingers a few times I got all the bronze strings tied and installed. While I'm waiting for the bass strings to come I'll keep working on the finish. Again, this harp is a mirror image of the old harps because it will be played right-handed.

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I only had a wee violin plane to shape the inside of the sound board.  It was way too small so I made this little fellow. It has a curved sole and has a 1" wide blade. I didn't get a good photo of the inside. The soundboard is generally about 7/16" thick in the bass around the sound holes. It's 5/8" down the center  and along the edges.

Here is the inside of the back, if anybody ever looks through the sound holes they might be able to read this. I have, on occasion, wrote poetry on the inside of my harps.