I am thinking about opening the cover plates on my golden melody and making them into that dove tail shape. Who knows how this is done? Thanks for the help.
I'm pretty sure David Payne had a really good video on it. I can't find it though. (He's ElkRiverHarmonicas on YouTube.)
There are a couple techniques. Some people use clamps or pliers of different varieties. If you go that route, use something without the little gripping patterns on the ends- they can scratch up the cover. There are jewelers pliers that don't have the scoring, and I've seen some sets where the business end has been dipped in a plastic to make them even less likely to scratch. Failing that, you can use a thin cloth to keep it from scratching. The other method is the hammer (preferably a rubber mallet). Either way, you take the covers off first, then have at it. Some people use tin snips to snip a little bit cut on either side of what you want to bend so it doesn't buckle, but it I've gotten decent results without doing this on some of my harps. Some people just snip the back off and sand it smooth. I think doubling the metal over is probably a better idea. It strengthens the metal to have two layers.
This guy seems to brute force it, but then he seems to have the same problem he says his method is designed to avoid. I wish I could find the Elk River one.
edit: I found a dead link in an old thread that makes it look like Elk took his video down. Must have been a trade secret.
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Last Edited by on Nov 16, 2011 10:00 PM
according to his site, Dave accidently deleted a whole load of his Youtube films. I guess if anyone downloaded any that he hasn't re-upped he'd be interested to hear from them.
First, there is no right or wrong way to do it. However, using a pair of pliers gives a sloppy-looking final result in my opinion.
I used a pair of sheet metal pliers on some of my covers, but I no longer need to - a hammer does just fine. Before I hammer them open, I use a dremel tool to cut off the center metal post, and another to take out the corners of the covers, so that the corners don't distort with hammering. Placing a crescent in each corner accents the covers even more in my opinion, especially when you place the arc/dove-tail/duck-tail in them.
As for the dove-tail look, that just comes from hammering along a rounded edge. You can get different results each time, depending on how you position and move the plate when hammering.
It can be time consuming to get a set of them just right.
