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Making a Simple Lyre

By Patrick Woolery

The entire credit for this idea, including construction method, should go to an article I found online called The Saxon Lyre: History, Construction, and Playing Techniques.

King David playing the lyre I made this lyre in my garage in the evenings after my kids were asleep, with a couple of hours on weekends enjoying my 3-year-old son's eager company.

The body of the lyre is made of Alaskan birch. It was cut from a 1x8 board (actual measurement is 3/4" thick and 7 1/2" wide). The length of the instrument is 22". This was decided upon because I made a paper pattern out of two sheets of typing paper. Since one sheet is 11" long, that gave me a pattern 22" high. It seems to be a fairly good size, going by medieval illustrations of king David playing his.


lyre pattern lay-out

The first step was to mark out the shape of the lyre and the cavities that would have to be cut. You can see in the picture that I marked another line inside of the cavity. This is so I can make a couple of little psalteries out of those pieces. When I make these, I will take pictures and post a brief article about them.



Twisted and flat saw blades

The next step was to drill holes for inserting the scrollsaw blade. I used the twisted type of blade because the depth of the sawcut is 16" and I would not be able to use the flat blades at the extreme ends of the cut. (As a personal note, I was able to talk myself into spending the money on this saw because of the lyre. I've wanted a scroll saw for a couple of years, but didn't have a good project for it...)



first piece cut out

Here, the first cavity is cut out.



Second piece cut out

Now, I have the second cavity cut out.

The next step is cutting out the 1/8" birch plywood for the face and back. This plywood is available at only one hardware store in Fairbanks, as far as I know. That is Spenard's Builder's Supply. For a full 4'x8' steet, I paid about $20. That's enough for a lot of lyres! Alternatively, you could use the face from an old interior door, which is also fine, thin, high-quality plywood.

For cutting the face and back of the lyre, I used a dangerous and unorthodox method that I refuse to describe here and will never try again. If anyone who reads this decides to make one, I strongly urge you to use a jigsaw or else have the folks at the lumber yard cut the sheet of plywood into more manageable sized pieces. Honestly, it is worth the extra charge.


lyre clamped for glueing

After cutting the two needed pieces of plywood (cut oversized because the edges will splinter when cut and because I am not the most accurate woodworker you will ever meet), I glued one of the faces on. It is just a big rectangle, at this point. The idea was to get it on the body, then cut out the handhole. That way, the edge of the wood that is already cut will give me a guide for the sawblade. At this time, I prefer Titebond 2 wood glue. It is strong and waterproof when dry, but can be cleaned up with a damp cloth before it dries.



trimmimg the plywood

When cutting out the hand hole, I also cut the edges of the plywood to match the edges of the body.



trimmimg the plywood

gaps in the glue joint

I used a bunch of spring clamps, but should have used C-clamps or much beefier spring clamps. Here's a picture of the edge after the glue is dry and the wood is roughly trimmed. See the gap, here? Unsightly.



Most of it looks fine, as in the next picture.

a proper glue joint

using weights for glueing

The other face is a repeat of the first. I thought I'd get smart and just put the lyre on the floor and weight it down with a board and a cinderblock. I was sure this would give me a gap-free glue job.



more glue gaps

Sadly, the best ideas sometimes don't work out. I got two areas of gapping that were just awful!



using weights for glueing

So, I used a thin hacksaw blade to get rid of most of the dried glue inside the joint so I could try to reglue those areas. I also cut out the handhole at this time, in case I needed to get at the glue joint from that area.



clamped for repair of gaps

With lots of glue squeezed into the joint and all of my C-clamps holding it together, I tried my best to fix the previous error. At this time, it is becoming obvious to me that I am not a master luthier. Oh, well.



Go to page 2 of the lyre project
Go to page 3 of the lyre project

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These pages were designed and created by April Woolery. Last updated Feb. 2004