Some Future Kantele Wood Choices

Having designed, built, and played kantele for a little over a year now, I have given a great deal of thought for new kantele, future woods, accents, and combinations. Part of the fun of building them yourself is being able to customize every aspect of the instrument, adding woods and features that would otherwise cost a small fortune if custom built by a professional luthier. And if you know where to look, you can get some exquisite woods for very, very cheap. Here are some examples of the nicer sets of wood I have been saving for future kantele builds that I hope to be starting very soon. Originally I bought these woods many years ago for making Native American flutes, but it never panned out past the trial ones and have been just sitting around all these years. But they are perfect for kantele sides.

Kantele woods left to right: cocobolo, bocote, curly claro walnut, east indian rosewood

The first on the left is set of cocobolo, each piece 24"x1.5"x.75". Cocobolo is one of the most famous and beautiful of the rosewoods, and is lined up for my next build of kantele #005. As soon as I sat down to think of the wood combinations I almost immediately knew what accents I wanted with it: very thin veneers of cherry with thicker stripes of purpeheart on the sides, with a cherry and purpleheart decorative headplate and carved ponsi, and a purpleheart backboard. I have worked with purpleheart recently, and it has turned out to be a very beautiful wood, one of my favorites now. For the soundboard I want to try something different and unique, and have decided to pair this kantele with an aromatic cedar soundboard. It should make a truly fine 5 string kantele, one I look forward to completing and using.

The second set, reserved for kantele #006, and my personal favorite of all the sets I have, is an exquisite book-matched pair of bocote wood, one of my absolute favorite woods. It is characterized with a very striking swirling grain of blackish-brown stripes on a golden yellow background. I have been saving this set for quite some time, and am looking to make this my most exquisite 5 string kantele. I will also be saving up to use much more exotic and expensive woods for this one, and haven't quite decided on the combination yet. I do know I would like to use exotic burls for the ponsi and decorative headplate, but I haven't quite got a good combination for side stripes and backboard yet. As for the soundboard, I will most likely try to go with something along the lines of a heavily curly redwood soundboard, possibly look at sources of ukulele or guitar soundboard suppliers. I also plan on attempting some more ornate carving and adding extra details using horn/bone, mother of pearl, and possibly crushed stone. I aim to make this my own personal kantele and as a template for what I would like to consider as "master-class" kantele.

The third set for kantele #007 is a very nice set of custom cut curly claro walnut. These pieces are longer, and I aim to use them for either an 11, 12, or 15 string kantele. I will probably make this one an open backed kantele. I will definitely be using bloodwood for the side accents and decorative headplate, and for the ponsi will be using a stunning block of curly paradox walnut, which has to be one of the nicest blocks of wood I have had in my collection yet. The soundboard will also use a beautifully custom cut piece of butternut. Butternut, especially of larger sizes, has become increasingly difficult to find, and took me a while to source a place for it. It took me a great deal of thought and comparison of soundboard woods to decide on the pairing for this kantele. Butternut is an excellent soundboard material, with a warm and rich tone like walnut (also known as "white walnut", which is one of the reasons for choosing it for this kantele, as a contrast to the darker walnut woods used). It has the benefit of being much softer than walnut though, making it more responsive as a topwood while still retaining a walnut-like quality. It is also known for its beautiful cream color and grain, extra bonuses for a topwood.

An exceptional block of curly paradox walnut

And finally, for kantele #008, is a beautiful set of east indian rosewood. This kantele will also use the curly paradox walnut block for the carved ponsi and a butternut soundboard like #007 as described above. This too will be a large kantele, most likely a 15 string possibly with drone strings. It will use zebrawood accents, as well as zebrawood for the decorative headplate.

In my next post I will share the sources where I get these woods, some of which being my absolute favorite places to order exotic woods for not only kantele projects, but other woodworking projects as well. Excellent selections, excellent prices, excellent services and shipping - these places are the places to go for some high end wood on a budget!