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So I have a pair of the typical rosewood claves. Great in some situations but too loud and high in pitch for others. I was looking through my firewood pile last fall and found some nice aged oak and black locust. Took out my wedges and split some pieces out. I was mainly interested in the black locust to make a new one piece bridge for my archtop guitar when I thought hey why not make some claves. One of the important uses for black locust is xylophone keys.

So I made some blanks for guitar bridges and one piece for for a clave. Put it away and forgot about it. I went back to it recently only to discover that all my prepared pieces were relegated to bridge blanks. But I did have some oak pieces that I had split out and grabbed the curved piece that you see in the photos. I carved into an unconventionally shaped striker. Turns out to sound pretty good and not having two pieces of black locust probably tamed it down a bit.

I thought it was appropriate to have my woodpile to be in the background of the pictures.

Gave them a quick sanding and put a couple of coats of wax on them to keep them from getting grimy. I figured it didn't make any sense to use any type of varnish on something that is going to be struck together. Darkened the wood up a little and brought out the grain too.

Love the woodpile inspiration. Years ago was about to toss out an old shovel, but decided to slice a couple of "clave's out of the hard oak handle. Still using today. Music,,,make it where you find it.