Rainstick made from a scrap piece of log

 

Long time ago a piece of log fell into my hands. I've decided to make a rainstick out of it. The rainstick is a musical instruments that sounds like rain. Some of them were made by native Americans from cactus. The cactus nails were turned inside and the cactus was filled with seeds. The nails act as a sounde filter because they slow down the fall of the seeds. 

To begin with my project I've split the wood in half with an axe ande the help of a wedge. If the log isn't straight you need to be careful to make the first hit of the axe along with the grain of the wood.

 

Now that the log is split in half we need to hollow the interior of the log. For the first stage of this job I've used my router. I've made several passes with the router and I've gradually deepened the cuts.

 

When the router is over it leaves the interior with "steps". To round it over I've used a strange bit on my drill. It looks like a spherical rasp.

 

Now my interior is fairly round.

 

 

Next I glue the halfs back together.

 

After a couple of hours the wood is dry, and I clean the log from it's skin with my block plane.

 

To create the speed filter I've made holes throughout the length of  the stick in a spiral way. I've passes small diameter dowels through the holes and glued them in place.

After the glue is dry, I cut the dowels flush.

I've also cut some scrap pieces of wood to close the front end back end of the log. In my rainstick I've put rise inside after doing some testing for the duration of the sound I wanted. You can experiment with different materials and quantities to find the sound you like.

 

I've finished my rainstick with a few coats of water based wood stain (walnut color) and transparent water based satin lacquer.  I've also added a native American touch  by adding a chord around the edges. To see the way the chord is mounted on the stick you can watch the video.

That's all with my rainstick!