At War with the Rindou

[Stefanie]

Hello everyone!

Yes, making the rindou was a huge battle, plus my camera died midway so I had to take pictures with my phone
In the end, I made it through and only the rindou is left with a scar. As usual, here are some photos. Enjoy!

Soldering.

Fitting.

I was inspired by a photo I found on the net:

and decided for a similar design. Or, you may say, I got carried away a little :)))

Sawing was fun but messy. I then realized why - the blade, although super thin, was still meant for wood and not metal. The moment I got the correct blade in, cutting out any corner was super easy.

Some cleaning with needle files and then soldering a brass ring onto the flower.

I really liked the resulting colors. However, one of the wires burned out a hole into the brass ring. You can see the place where the wire balled up into this red blob. I did not want to experiment and mess up things further, so I just left it there. The rindou´s “scar”.

A take after polishing.

I shortened the ends and stamped some decorations on it. I just love dots.

Gathering the ends to put it through the round hole/ “maruana”.

Testing. This part took a long time. Some adjustments still had to be made and I decided to leave the glueing part for the next day.

The next morning, I got to use epoxy, that kind where you break a seal and the two compounds get mixed in a tube while all is being pushed out. Openi time was 5min. It was my first time using epoxy and I was so stressed, that I ended up glueing the piece upside down. Fortunately, I noticed and fixed it however, I am still not sure if it will hold.

And this is how it looks with the metal part of the nakago sticking out.

Thank you!

Metals used in rindou:
flower: 1,2mm copper sheet
ring: 3x3mm brass square rod
the “inside” : 0,6mm brass sheet

nakago end
“wrapping”: 0,35 (or something like that) brass sheet
The top has a small ringlet cut out and formed from a 2mm thick brass rod. The dotted inside is a cut out sheet but I don´t remember the thickness.

Glue for attaching the metal part inside the round hole/ maruana:
UHU epoxy adhesive 2-K-QUICK (it stinks!)

[MeanOwl]

Woah, that’s gorgeous. I’ve never seen one like that before. It’s subtle but very striking.

[Michael_Bretti]

Wow, another really awesome hardware build Stefanie! I really like this, I think it definitely adds a lot of unique character and looks amazing! I have been thinking about designing and making a decorative end piece for my build as well, though nowhere near as fancy as this. I’ll probably hold off for now though and do it down the road as a future upgrade. Really nice job! It would definitely be awesome to see more shamisen builds incorporate unique features like this. At least for me, I think it looks much more interesting than the typical standard style.

[Stefanie]

@MeanOwl
@Michael_Bretti

That was one fun project! Originally, I thought that I would make a “classical” shape but then changed my mind. Glad I did.
Michael - I follow your build and it is awesome and unique, whether you will decide on a fancy rindou or not It all depends on how workable your material is and if its texture will shine out from a simple or complex form.

Also, here are some other rindous I came across while searching for reference (the last one reminds me of a tsuba):

[Pol]

Hi Stefanie! I just signed in to the community so I am only catching up. I have been enjoying some of your posts of your build and really want to take my hat off to you. I really mean this in the best possible way so forgive me if this seems too blunt, but wow, you are tenacious!! Your sharing of your build is a big reason why I finally decided to sign in and share some of my process too. I find you very inspiring and encouraging. Thank you.

[Michael_Bretti]

Stefanie, thanks for sharing the additional photos, very cool to see all these different styles! I did consider a “tsuba-style” one since I already have the damascus etched rindou spike piece, but don’t really have much of a design yet, just roughly sketching out ideas, and will probably go with something different than my original design. I definitely like that second to last one right above the tsuba pic though as well! The possibilities are endless for adding your own unique flare to a shamisen!