Building a Nyckelharpa: Carving the soundbridge

This is a pretty critical part of the instrument: the soundbridge, as on a violin or similar stringed instrument, is one of the main parts responsible for transmitting the vibration of the strings to the body of the instrument itself. Unlike what I thought before I started this whole process, the soundbridge is not glued or held in place by anything other than the tension of the strings. We'll start with a pretty rough shape:

...and continue to shape it:

The six sympathetic strings on this instrument are held up by the lower part of the bridge:

As the six sympathetic strings stretch from the head, they need some sort of fixed support on which to rest, since they pass well below the keyboard above. We'll accomplish this with two large staples, on for each set of three, which provide a strong surface on which the strings rest. To keep each of sets strings separate from each other, we'll drive three nails in each side, cutting off their larger heads with a set of pliers:

At the other end of the instrument, as the sympathetic strings pass the bridge and come to the tail, we need a similar piece to create a nice, clean edge. For this location, we'll carve a piece of animal bone (!) into a sharp, triangular shape:

A test fitting, to see how the strings all fit together:

We'll continue to work on the bridge, adding a heart-shaped hole in the middle to lighten it and allow it to vibrate more easily. When we're done, it will look like this: