So I have begun making a Shamisen for my brother. To do something a bit different, we have decided to make the dou out of a timber called “Purple Heart” distinctive for its bright purple colouring. To contrast, the sao will be made of a much lighter coloured timber such as Rock Maple or Bird’s Eye Maple with Purple Heart Itomaki. I will post progress pictures along with some of the things that I have encountered during the construction process.
First things first, the blank for the dou. I found a beautiful piece of purple heart at Trend Timbers which was literally the perfect size for my needs. Once polished up and exposed to UV light it will have a bright purple colour.
Broken down into its pieces. For this I used a circular saw bench.
The very rough mitres, painstakingly hand sawn due to my lack of mitre saw availability. Will clean them up later with a file. Note the burning from the circular saw blade being a bit more blunt than expected.
Starting to shape the dou curve using a mallet and chisel. This will be quite interesting considering my very limited experience with wood carving.
Starting to take shape. I’m finally getting the hang of this carving thing 
Making a big mess. You can start to see the purple colouration after the chips have been sitting in the sun for a couple of days.
Basic Dou shape. I have finished the overall curve, now to start working on the intrinsic curve.
Nice work! I can’t wait to see more!
Note the burning from the circular saw blade being a bit more blunt than expected.
Yeah I’ve been there. When drilling my maruana hole for the nakago with a power drill the wood actually caught fire and started burning!
Just some wooden templates I knocked up for future reference if I ever want to make another one.
Is he not the best brother ever?!!
One thing he didn’t mention though is that while the purpleheart may look brown in a few of these images, it turns bright purple when exposed to UV light and dark, eggplant (aubergine… whatever) purple after long exposure. This eventually turns into a rich brown when over exposed, but sanding it back and treating it with a UV resistant finish should protect it.
Aww thanks :3 and yes, that is correct. You can even see the colour of the woodchips after a few days of sunlight.
when you get closer to a finished shape, you should borrow my doukake to check for sizing.
Dayum! Look at those curves
Those are some preeeeeeeety curves!
Is that just with the chisel?
lol I wish. No that is after some serious filing.
Basic external body shape finished.
whistle! Mighty fine, Daniel! You’ll be making your bro jealous! 
It’s being made for my brother. He will be making everybody else jealous muahahahahahahaha!
The first rough internal curve. Boy was that tedious, took me over an hour of carving to get it right.
