The conga maker that I know, Akbar, who made the famous Valje congas (with
Valje) and who then made his own line called Sol (before selling his company to
LP and for whom he still works I believe), gradually and progressively bent the
staves as you would when, say, making a boat. For one thing, a wooden stave
under tension is going to have a different resonance characteristic than staves
which are just carved. Also, maintaining the consistency of the grain is very
important, so "cutting curves from the flat" does not make sense, as you would
be moving across the grain to carve a curve.

It is not just about what is more valuable, time or the wood, but what will give
you the best sound given that it takes a lot of time to do it anyway, and the
time is generally a bigger cost component than the wood anyway. For a conga
with a lot of curvature in the 'bell' (such as Valje), it would take a lot of
wood to carve the staves and is probably impractical to get that shape without
bending the staves, and the shape has a big effect on the sound as well, of
course.




________________________________
From: Bill Saragosa <bsaragosa@...>
To: djembe-l@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 6, 2009 4:04:15 AM
Subject: [Djembe-L] Re:How congas are made


Hey Chris,

Thanks for sending that link!

Looks like this guy (unnamed in the video) is not bending the staves at all, but
rather cutting them curved. They seem have a natural double taper after the
sawing, and to just drop into place in the jig. I'm going to have to try that in
my shop. I also appreciated seeing his clamping devices.

One thing though, cutting the curves from the side, as he does, would seem to
require a lot more wood than cutting the curves from the flat. Of course, that
could perhaps result in a less precise beveled edge and be rather time
consuming. So the question becomes, which is more valuable, the time or the
wood?

Thanks again,
Bill






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