August 30, 2026 · 9:41 pm

A Classic Conversion

I have often failed to convert anyone to my opinion, but I can convert a guitar from steel strings to nylon! And it’s all perfectly legal, too. Some years past I picked up a busted Suzuki 9 guitar that had a failed bridge.

A Suzuki 9 like mine (not mine however)

I only bought it because it was cheap and I enjoy fixing things. I removed the bridge and reglued it, and then put it away for years. Recently I took it out from storage and the bridge had failed once and for all.

They all fail like this due to the weakness in the glue bond of the veneered top.

Because the top was made of thin laminated veneer, there was no way to repair it again, so I decided to see what I could do with it. I heard that Suzuki guitars were made with dovetail jointed necks, and hide glue. On that assumption I got out my neck removal jig, and attempted to drill a hole at the 15th fret. I hit a steel rod that reinforced the neck, so I had to drill in from the back to inject steam. I steamed and steamed for along time with no results, and despite putting enormous pressure on the heel nothing moved. I was losing hope, when all of a sudden the neck just popped right out of the pocket.

Next up was to remove the broken soundboard. This I did with a sharp blade, and the whole thing came off quick easily. Hide glue is brittle and will often fracture with a little help from a sharp blade. That is what allows violins to be taken apart without breaking them. Then came some thinking about the repairs.

Busted soundboard with delaminated veneers under the bridge.

What to do? I had long been considering building a classical guitar along the lines of a modern hybrid model with a narrower neck of similar shape and size as a steel string guitar, so I decided to convert this Suzuki into one of those. The body is the size of a classical guitar already. The neck is narrow, the fingerboard is flat, and the head-stock has slot head tuners, albeit for steel strings. But no problem, because it is possible to wind nylon strings on 1/4″ steel string shafts. My Mexican classical guitar is like that and it works fine.

Suzuki 9 with no top and no neck.

I had already joined some cedar plates for the future classical guitar, so I added the sound hole in the right location and size, then cut and installed my preferred bracing, keeping it light as befits nylon strings.

Simple V braces and a small bridge plate.

I cut the main braces from larger stock, 5mm wide x 10mm tall. The bridge plate is 2mm thick yellow cedar. The cedar top is about 3.2 mm thick. The braced top has a good tap tone and I don’t get overly concerned with making it as thin as possible once it sounds good.

After gluing on the braces I shaved down the ends and tapered them slightly in cross section.
Flat fingerboard and maple neck with tapered dovetail joint.
The neck has a hollow steel bar in it and is dead straight.
I replaced the fingerboard extension block and the upper face brace that both came out when the top was removed.

The next step will be to glue the new top back onto the rim. Then the bridge will be attached and the top will be trimmed and finished. I will post again after more work.

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August 29, 2026 · 9:54 pm

#1 Feng Shui #1

At the end of my street there is a bike trail along a former railway line that borders one side of our little lake. A few short yards from where the street ends at the trail is a small viewpoint with a stone wall and a sign that says this view is the first “Auspicious Feng Shui Site” in Canada. Today I walked around the lake and over the hill that can be seen in my sketch, coming full circle to my street. I had carried my sketching gear and was thinking about how I had not seen anything new to sketch when I realized that right there just yards away was this viewpoint that I have passed by hundreds of times. I’ve seen it so often that I forgot it was there, but today I paused to sketch it. In many years of walking by this place, I can’t remember every seeing anyone stop and admire the view. All those bicyclists speeding along, for what?

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August 22, 2026 · 11:22 am

My Vacation

After a year off, we returned to our annual pilgrimage to the wilds of Vancouver Island, and Buttle Lake. I carried along the same sketchbook in which I had sketched the lake before in prior years. My skill hasn’t improved, but I then I don’t get enough practice. How’s that for an excuse?

Sketch I

My grandson observed my efforts closely and after I was done he borrowed my kit and went at it.

Buttle Lake by Will
Young Artist at Work
Sketch II
Sketch III

Our Westy sink empties onto the ground, so we place a dishpan there to catch the dirty dishwater. One morning we found a poor expired mouse in the pan. I keep meaning to put an escape ladder in that dishpan. I put the mouse on the fire grate to have a look at it. You don’t often get a close look at a mouse, and this one was clean, too, but a bit soapy. The tiny fingers are quite astounding, as are the huge ears. The mouse inspired me to write a song, which amused the kids but has not gone over well with adults. The last verse is below. Credit to Leo for the line about fish bait!

To a Mouse...with apologies to RB

He looked so sad and lonesome
lying there on the grate
But there was no way to cheer him up
or to reverse his fate
He was too small for dinner
and too big for fish bait
So we cooked him on the fire
But he didn’t smell so great

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July 18, 2026 · 4:32 pm

Retro Folding Technostalgia

1974 Raleigh "Twenty" folding bike

I’ve wanted one of these for years and I recently devised an excuse to buy one. I’m going camping next month and this bike will fold in half and fit inside my Westfalia. No need to buy a bike rack. What I saved on the rack, I spent on this bike. Actually, the bike was free, all I paid for were the new tires that the previous owner installed on the bike, having got it for free. As with many old things I’ve bought over the years, as soon as I acquired this Raleigh I was finding out all about it from various websites. They can be tricked out, modified and kept going forever if you have the skills, money and the desire.

Sturmey Archer 3 speed AW hub, with 20 tooth cog installed

The heart of the bike is the old reliable Sturmey Archer 3 speed internal geared hub. These things are next to immortal, it seems. The one problem I soon discovered was that the lowest gear was not low enough for the slight grade on my street. The solution was simple enough, as I have some experience with fixing bikes, chains and gears and all that. I removed the 15 tooth cog on the hub and swapped it for a 20 tooth cog. That was the easy part. The chain was then too short, so I added about 4 teeth to it, using a free bit of chain I got from my local bike shop, where I also got the used 20 tooth cog. Because the world is full of Sturmey Archer hubs, cogs of various sizes are dead easy to find. I have a toolbox full of bike tools from long ago, and there I found my old chain tool, among other things.

Raleigh of Nottingham - just like Robin Hood rode

This bikes reeks of nostalgia for me, having grown up in the era when a 3 speed bike made in England was a luxury item. I had a 3 speed as a youngster in a town that was dead flat. One day when I was a teen I bought a single speed bike, since gears were of no use to me at the time. Then came the 10 speed craze of the 1970’s, so I bought a “Torpado” Italian 10 speed, which was like getting a sports car for slightly older males who had some money. The Torpado served me well for decades, but eventually I sold it because the riding position was too radical for my neck, wrists and butt. I moved to a mountain bike, and eventually to a very comfy Townie e-bike, which is still my main ride today, and likely will be for the foreseeable future.

There are Raleigh symbols all over the bike, pedals and handlebars, frame tubes, etc.

They plastered the bike with symbols wherever they could find an empty spot.

When I got the new gear installed, added the chain links and adjusted the brakes, I took the bike out for a test ride to the closest thrift store. The hills on the route are fairly big, but the new low gear enabled me to make it over without too much knee strain. Perhaps an even lower gear would have been better, but this should work for now. The top gear is still more than high enough for my needs. This is a bike on which one rides at a leisurely pace and not one wit faster. My treasures of the day were a ball of jute twine, a plastic outdoor thermometer, and an old post card of an English village. The postcard seemed appropriate for this bike, which was designed for short jaunts to the shops, or outings to the country, with the bike going into the boot for the trip.

The perfect place to go on a Raleigh "Twenty".

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July 12, 2026 · 5:28 pm

To The Meadow

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July 5, 2026 · 1:44 pm

Lone Oak 2

I saw the lone oak again today on my hike up the hill. It is an unmistakable tree. From a very different place on the hill I recognized it like an old friend. I took the opportunity to compose another poem about it.

Poem typed on the Royal typewriter featured in the previous blog post. Turns out the typewriter was not a refurbished “P” after all, but a lesser known 1940 bargain model called “Signet”. So it’s only 86…

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July 3, 2026 · 6:29 pm

The Royal Montreal _____?

My father enlisted in the Royal Montreal Regiment in 1939 and was promptly shipped off to England to defend the British Isles from the demon Nazis. He didn’t get back until 1944, but he survived and made me. But this has nothing much to do with that. This has to do with a very unusual typewriter that I found this afternoon at a thrift store; a Montreal made Royal P, from 1929. The serial number E-159xxx indicates a Canadian made Royal, which could be exported to the British Empire duty free from Canada. This one ended up here on the west coast in Victoria, where it was plunked on a shelf today, not long before I arrived to grab it. It was not working, so I got it cheap. Non-working typewriters can be the best ones, if you get them at a good discount, and know how to go about fixing them. I have been at this for many years, so I had a hunch this one could be got into working condition. If not, no big loss.

Once I fixed the problem, a stuck loose dog (familiar eh?), I stuck in a brand new Chinese ribbon and put it to the test. Well, it passed with flying colours! One oddity struck me; how could a 1929 Royal portable look like a WWII era machine? The answer came from Google’s AI service, which told me this is a refurbished unit onto which a later shell was attached, likely around WWII. The model P shell and the later shells were interchangeable. Another clue was the fact that the keys are 1929 style, round glass in steel rings that is. By the time this was rebuilt/refurbished or whatever they did to it, the keys were plastic.

The front feet were missing so I quickly kluged some from a pair of old rubber wine bungs, attached with wire. The action on this is flawless, and the type is remarkably clear and even. The ribbon I got this time round was well inked, unlike some I’ve bought from China before. The vendor claimed that their ribbons had lots of ink, which was the reason I selected that particular one among the numerous others. A ribbon with poor inking is worthless!

So there it is, a Royal Montreal Typewriter. The damn thing is 97 years old and it is still working well; better than many that are not half that old. I previously blogged about the Royal Factory in Montreal before, and the connection to my Dad, who was a machinery dealer for many years and who no doubt had been in the place and almost certainly sold or bought some machines there.

Manufacturers were always buying and selling and refurbishing stuff in those days. Nowadays, well, into the trash, right? You know the routine. So much junk it is a crying shame. Bring back carburettors, bring back shiny shoes, bring down the Iron Curtain, I got the Modern Day Blues!

Yes, that’s me singing and playing my own song.

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June 28, 2026 · 1:56 pm

AloneOakTree

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June 15, 2026 · 4:51 pm

The Open Door

More on Vienna. I had found a thrift mall on Google Maps, so having some time to myself I strolled across town and discovered a Carla thrift store. Note that in Austria they often use English for adverts, as the sign announced “second hand, second chance”. Inside I saw a typewriter brand I’d never seen, JAPY.

Japy P68, a French made version of the Oliver/Patria/Swissa line. I bought it for 30 EU. It was in remarkable condition for being made in 1956, complete in the wooden case, and I was able to carry it onto the plane as hand luggage for the return trip.

Although French made, it has German characters, which is all good but for the Z-Y exchange that slows me down a little. Back at the hotel I sat down and typed a short tale inspired by the current goings on. I was tagging alone with my son, a psychiatrist, who was attending a big conference. He had toured Sigmund Freud’s house the previous day, and was regaling me with other psychiatry trivia, one in particular that involved a well known figure reputed to have always left his room door open in the hope that one day he would encounter a beautiful stranger, or something like that! Well, he might have, but I don’t know if he did….

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June 14, 2026 · 2:39 pm

Cafe Living

I recently discovered in Austria, or was it in Hungary? that an Americano is a cup of drip coffee. What Starbucks calls an Americano is actually a doppo longo, made in an espresso machine. But I suppose that as long as Starbucks can sell you a cup of coffee, they don’t really give a crap about being technically accurate. However, it seems that Starbucks is dwindling here, even though they’re still everywhere, only less so these days. They’re even in Europe, which is puzzling, until you realize that anything from here is semi-exotic over there. I saw so many NY ball caps there I was flabbergasted. I wonder of any of the wearers of those caps are aware that the NY stands for the Yankees baseball team?

All that aside, most of the cafes I saw on a recent jaunt to Budapest and Vienna, were not chain stores but locally owned small cafes. Although I no longer drink coffee because it disagrees with my stomach, I nevertheless had a few lattes in Buda and Vienna, which did me no harm and were terribly delicious. Here is a lovely bookshop cafe in Budapest that drew me in to have a snoop. There were a few typewriters in the window, so I couldn’t very well not go in.

Olympia Simplex - never seen that one before
Mercedes, the typewriter! Not a Benz.

As for the cafe life, one could live it to the full in Budapest or Vienna, if one could stand drinking that much coffee, or – heavens! that much lager beer. Yes, cafes sell beer there. Beer is not a crime in Europe it seems. Sadly, it all tastes the same, pretty much, but it is beer after all.

they said this was a sandwich!

Although I had a small sketchbook with me the whole time, I was generally too busy having coffee, beer, langos, goulash, and walking my butt off all day long, to bother to get out the watercolours. But one fine afternoon I was wandering around on my own in the north part of Vienna and I sat down for a beer at a cafe and made a sketch. There were cafes on either side of my cafe, and everywhere there were people in theses cafes. When I returned home I was out downtown walking and I passed a number of sidewalk cafes, all of which were empty. It seems that all we do here is work! Where are all the cafe crowds?

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