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AN EMAIL COMPILATION FROM THE MEMBERS

QUESTION?  How do you oil a djembe?   What is the best oil to use? What is the best way to apply?  Why do it?

From: Bones45991@aol.com

        
       Hi,
          There has been a lot of suggestions on what to use to oil your drums(boiled linseed, mineral, tung) but my question is in the actual application of the oil. When you are oiling your drums, what do you use to apply the oil to the inside of the drum? A nice soft cloth works great on the outside but the inside is pretty rough on mine and most cloths would snag and tear leaving little threads all over it. Someone once suggested a sponge or similar piece of foam but I would think that on a rough surface it too would also shred. Unless, instead of trying to wipe it on I should dab it on? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

          Thanks,
          Dan

ANSWERS:

From: "R Clark" <clark@acceleration.net>

Hail Dan and ALL,

When applying boiled linseed/mineral spirits mixture or tung oil to the
inside of the drum I use a brush. Please be careful as if there are any
splinters or other rough places they might rip up your knuckles as you cover
the tighter portions of the pipe. When applying the Formby's Lemon oil which
comes in a squirt bottle, I do just that, squirt it all over the inside of
the bowl and pipe. Note in both of these operations... I prefer to do it
outside on a board as it can get a bit messy. I keep the surfaces wet with
oil for a few hours in the sun and boy-howdy does it penetrate into the
wood. My bottom line 2%... slop it on there 'til the wood's soaked with the stuff, if you will, I hope this helps.

From: congasan@webtv.net (jerry z)

    Hi Bones -
     Plain old boiled linseed oil has been a standard natural wood finnish for years and is also my choice. It dries hard as a rock and seals the wood from rapid changes in humidity. I left some linseed oil in a jar once and several months later it was a solid hard chunk!
      With the drum almost horizontal, pour in enough linseed oil (or your preference) to swish it around a little. you can use the excess to coat the inside the stem as well. Then, of course, the outside - especially the ends. let stand for one hour to soak in, and wipe (or dab) off excess. Let dry completly before re-heading ( 3 days perhaps).
It takes of lot of linseed oil so buy from a hardware store instead of an art supply (expensive). Some other finishes I've tried seem too thin (tung oil).
      Ok, thats my method - JZ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And, then, another thread began in March and April 2000.  Thanks to David <com4t@link.freedom.com> for compiling all the posts from the Djembe-L listserv. 

From: Bob Fulbright <bob@b...>
Date: Mon Apr 17, 2000 5:29pm
Subject: Re: oiling a djembe

Louise Sanders lsanders3@h... writes:
>I am getting ready to oil my djembe and I thought from previous questions that boiled linseed oil was the thing to use. But someone suggested mixing linseed oil and mineral spirits. Which do you use, boiled linseed or mixed with mineral spirits? And if mixed, how much of each?

The only purpose for adding mineral spirits (paint thinner) is to thin out whatever oil-based product you are using. This accomplishes only one thing - it allows the oil to penetrate the wood a little more quickly. It may appear to speed up the drying time of the oil but this is something of an illusion because the oil has only been thinned out and once the thinner evaporates there is less oil left behind to dry than if you had used the oil full strength, so it only seems to dry quicker because there is less oil in the
wood to dry! The mineral spirits will also make it stink for days. If you want to thin it out like this you won't need more than a couple of tablespoons of spirits in a cup of oil to bring the oil to a near water
consistency.

Don't be tempted to use turpentine for this.. turps and linseed oil together make a primitive sort of varnish which is thin and looks pretty good but it is also toxic, highly flammable, and stinks bad.

Linseed oil is one of a small group of natural oils termed "drying oils" which dry out by themselves by rapid oxidation without the addition of chemical driers. This is pretty neat, but it also means that if you use any rags or brushes in it they need to be soaked in water and then laid out flat to dry after use otherwise they can autocombust as the oil dries and cause a very smokey fire. Please believe me, I have seen it happen.

Someone else has mentioned tung oil, another drying oil with the same fire hazard. Tung oil has also has been shown to enter the body through the skin, form deposits in the liver and seriously depress the human immune system.  Wear rubber gloves. Tung oil does take a long time to dry, especially if it
is over its shelf life. Read the can and check the pull date before you buy it.

I use a concoction of african palm oil and bees wax on my drums. A concoction which I happen to sell, but I guess that is another story...

Whatever you use either try not to get any on the bearing edge of the drum or don't reskin it until you are certain it is dry, else the undried oils will leech up into the skin and stain it and cause stretching problems.

Bob Fulbright
Bongo Central
www.bongocentral.com
Seattle, Washington, USA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Lindsay Rowlands <lrowland@m...>
Date: Mon Apr 17, 2000 5:29pm
Subject: Re: oils

R clark@a... writes:

Scott Pivnik Spivnik@a... replies:

Clayton O'Brien wrote:

First off definition seems to be needed, the Encarta encyclopedia <http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?z=1&pg=2&ti=04322000&hs=linseed+oil> describes it as: "Linseed oil is an amber-colored oil extracted from linseed, the seed of the FLAX [Linum usitatissimum] plant. The oil obtained from hydraulically pressed seeds is pale in color and practically odorless and tasteless. Oil that has been boiled or extracted by application of heat and pressure is darker, with a bitter taste and unpleasant odor. Linseed oil is used as a drying oil in paints and varnishes and in making linoleum, oilcloth, and certain inks.

If you wish to get into the history of flax you may check the Flax Council of Canada <http://www.flaxcouncil.ca/hisindex.htm.>

From a post on The MadScientist Network
<http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec97/877614025.Ch.q.html:> "There seems to be a chemical called cyclopentadiene which, when it reacts with linseed oil, makes the linseed oil dry more quickly on contact with air (oxygen)." And at <http://www.seatons-uk.co.uk/prod_boiled.htm> may be found clues to additional additives.

T€ äby pressen in Sweden <http://www.oilpress.com/skeppsta.html> seems to be where you would want to go as the machines are small. The French Oil Mill Machinery Company in Ohio <http://www.frenchoil.com/OilSeed.html> shows huge industrial strength presses.

This extraction and boiling process really seems to be something that is better left to the professionals and not tried at home, kids. In addition to gaining the raw material and the the machinery to press the oil there appears to be additives that improve it's properties and the boiling under pressure described above sounds wae risky as Bob Fulbright bob@b... points up in his response to Clayton:

Back to the refined oil uses, should ya'll wish to stain the wood here is an excellent article on formulating your own, which also lines out some of the properties of Linseed oil. <http://www.woodworking.com/magazine/nov96/oilstain.html>

At 09:25 AM 4/18/00 EDT, Aaron wrote:
>Hello everyone out there in Jembe land.
>
>I have been folowing the oiling issue and I feel the need to warn of 
>complications. If you oil your drums they will be hard to fix if they crack. 
>Glues do not stick to oil. Also (in my opinion) it makes you drum heaver, 
>muddys the tones and and sofens the slaps prouduceing a heavy, sogey sound. 
>I prefer 3 coats of polyurathaine. A hard, lite finish that produces cleen 
>souns that cut through. The finish you choose should depend on what kind of 
>sounds you want to make. I am specificly designing loud (Lead) drums for 
>myself and others who want them. In a big (thunder drum) circle you need to 
>define your sound and stand out from the others. Slaps like gunshots. Tones 
>like horns blowing. And base like a sub woofer. Go ahead and oil your drum. 
>One less "Jembe Cowboy" for me to worry about.
>
>My 3 cents.
>Aaron Nobbe
>
>PS Go ahead and disagree with me, I might learn somthing.
>

Aaron, I have to both agree and disagree with you. It's true that no glues bond to oily surfaces and so oil treated drums are harder to repair when
cracked. But this is remedied by scraping the oily surface away and scrubbing it with alcohol before gluing. But the main purpose for oiling or
sealing a drum is to prevent cracks by preventing moisture absorption which can create cracks when the wood dries out. So a properly oiled drum is less
likely, imho, to crack than a hard finished drum because the oil penetrates much deeper than polyurethane. If a poly finished surface is scratched it
immediately reveals raw wood beneath, but scratched oiled wood just reveals more oiled wood. That's why pier pilings, fence posts and telephone poles
are impregnated with log oils and creosote rather than varnish. So that water has NO chance of getting in.

With either oils or plastic finishes the dried weight of the material is probably less than an ounce, so I don't think it's an issue. For the
exterior of a drum I think in the end that it's mostly a matter of personal aesthetic taste. Some people prefer the look of the wood encased in a
reflective coating and others prefer the naturalistic oiled look. If the work is done well enough then they both work well enough.

Regarding sound quality we have to look at acoustical engineering and the difference between passive resonance and active resonance. The best example
of passive resonance is a marimba. When a tone bar is struck it vibrates with some certain degree of primary frequncy, volume, and sustain. When a
tube of a particular length and diameter is then suspended below the bar and the bar is struck the volume and sustain are substatially increased and the
primary frequency is reinforced. The addition of this tube creates Passive resonance. Active resonance is shown in the soundboard of a guitar or piano.
When the string is plucked or made to sound then vibrations are set up in the soundboard along with it which feed back into the string and increase
the volume, sustain, and selected harmonic frequencies. It actively vibrates and so is active resonance. The hollow box behind the soundboard contributes
passive resonance.

In a drum the only area of significant active resonance is the bearing edge, and this is very small. The cutaway profile of the bowl of a djembe shell
shows it tapering from thick to narrow from the base of the bowl to the rim. If you have a djembe without a skin on it and tap on the inner side of the
bearing edge you will hear the drum ring slightly like a bell in addition to the knocking sound of your tap. Rap on this inner surface as hard as you
ever strike the skin and you'll hear that this active property does not contribute very much. It's a pretty faint ring and will be non-existent if
the shell is cracked or the rim is too thick. This active resonance, however small, is further dampened by the elastic skin gripping the rim and the
network of ropes pressing on the shell. On a two headed drum like Dunun the second head is an active resonator, reinforcing the primary tone of the
struck head and increasing the overall sustain.

In theory the material used for a passive resonator is insignificant. The resonator tubes on a marimba could be made of cardboard or steel and it will
not effect the passive resonance of the tube in any way. But steel would begin to resonate actively. And uncontrollably. That is why organ pipes are
made of tin/lead/zinc or wood, so that they only resonate passively and the tone quality of the pipe is controllable solely through the 'voiceing' at
the edge where the air flow is split. 

In a drum the passive resonance qualities are also paramount and are controlled by its inner shape and spatial volume. The less actively resonant
the material of the drum shell is the more effective and controllable this passive resonance is going to be in shaping the sound. But there is also the
effect of reflected sound waves from the inner surfaces of the drum back to the head. A hard reflective surface like metal or plastic will reflect
soundwaves back to the head more than an absorbant surface like wood, reinforcing the higher harmonic frequencies of the head. Higher frequencies
reflect more readily than lower frequencies. That is the source of the nearly uncontrollable 'ring' that some people complain of in plastic djembes
and the sharp tones of metal and ceramic drums. Dense hardwoods make better sounding wooden drums than light spongy woods because they offer just the
right amount of this reflection to create the tone qualities that we have come to expect and value.
 
It seems to me that adding a hard reflective plastic coating like polyurethane to the inner surface of a djembe will increase the reflection
of high frequncies to the head, reinforcing the high harmonics produced by the skin, making them louder and more sustained. This may sound good on one
drum and not so good on the next, depending on the qualities of the skin and the player's technique, but once you've added this coating there is no easy
way of taking it off. A dried oiled surface will pretty much retain the reflective properties of the raw wood. You can always get a brighter sound
by putting on a new skin or a duller sound with a thicker skin or a changed playing technique.

There have been thousands and thousands of african djembe players over the generations who could easily outplay any of us at a moments notice, and they
have all used oiled drum shells. Who knows? They might actually like being called "jembe cowboys" ..  :)

Some of this is pretty minute detail, but I hope it is useful to someone.

Bob Fulbright
Bongo Central
www.bongocentral.com 
Seattle, Washington, USA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From: Chris Johansen <johansen@m...>
Date: Tue Apr 18, 2000 4:52pm
Subject: Re: Cabot's Danish Oil [was Re: oils]

"Peter E. Carels" wrote:
> 
> Lindsay Rowlands lrowland@m... writes:
> >If anyone is interested I'll check out the info on the can and type it in.
> 
> Definitely interested.  No doubt I'm not the only one.  Sounds like a good product.  

Peter, sounds similar to Watco Danish Oil Finish:  slop it on, inside and out, including the bearing rim, let it set fifteen 
minutes, wipe off the excess, wait four hours, reapply and wipe as above.  In twenty four hours it's dry, hard (polymerizes like 
the synthetic varnishes), and ready to rehead.  

I don't know which came first, Cabots's or Watco.  Watco is definitely the fastest drying.  

IMO, Watco is the best modern finish, palm oil (with beeswax or followed by a polish of beeswax) is the best traditional finish.  

Regards,
--
Chris Johansen                        johansen@m...
 a Dancing Spirit Drummer in Asheville, North Carolina, USA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Chris Johansen johansen@m... 
Date: Tue Apr 18, 2000 4:54pm 
Subject: Re: Re: oiling a djembe 

From: lrowland <lrowland@m...>
Date: Wed Apr 19, 2000 2:11pm
Subject: Paint Shop (was Cabot's Danish Oil)

Hi Everyone,

Although I offered to give an account of what I know as Cabot's Danish Oil, Bob Fulbright's recent contribution passed my like I was going backwards. Thank's for the info Bob.

I have before me another manufactured timber finishing product that seems to try to fill some of the gaps between traditional and modern concoctions. This stuff is called "Organoil". I suspect the name makes reference to its organic derivation rather to body parts. Anyway, the spiel on the can goes like this:

ORGANOIL
250 ml.
THE GOOD OIL
For all Exterior Timbers - Softwood/Hardwoods
Suitable for Cladding, Rafters, Fencing, Pergolas etc.
Organoil Exterior is a comprehensive formulation of preserving spice and tree essential oils/extracts and is impregnated with mineral salts, biologically active plant plant extracts and U-V ray absorbers and stabilisers. Whilst Organoil Exterior will provide a rich, natural transparent finish, it is a most suitable base for further tinting, resulting in a very effective wood stain.
[Other guff omitted for brevity]
Lot 5, Centennial Circuit, BYRON BAY 2481. Ph 02 6685 8896 [That's in NSW
Australia - great beach, surf, etc; the most easterly point of Aus].

I've used this stuff on a drum with good results though I'm always overwhelmed with the very strongly aromatic properties of this oil - cloves, etc. It makes me nauseous but other people love the smell. I don't know if it is available outside Australia though I'm prepared to help people locate a supplier.

In support of my experience with Danish Oil, I applied it to a djembe shell which had an internal crack that was widening day by day - to a width of about 1/8". After the oil application it closed up completely after two days and remains closed - without glue.

Thanks to everyone for their contributions so far on this topic.

Cheerz,
Lynzz
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: austin sheatsley <asheatsley@e...>
Date: Wed Apr 19, 2000 2:12pm
Subject: Re: linseed oil CAUTION

...and, in case Y'all DON'T know, be darned careful disposing of any linseed oil soaked rags...DO NOT put them in a closed container or stuff
'em down into a barrel or trash can BECAUSE the suckers can (seemingly)*spontaneously* combust
(no need going into what *actually* happens, here). I'd suggest submerging your oil-soaked rags in water or hanging 'em outside to
*dry*.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I used to poo-poo this *supposed* danger, too, until my buddy carelessly put some linseed oil-soaked rags in a trash barrel and woke
up later that night to the sound of sirens and then got to watch as his garage burned down around his cars and almost did in the house, too.

Be careful out there Kids!

yer Faerie Godmother
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: bones45991 <bones45991@a...>
Date: Wed Apr 19, 2000 5:28pm
Subject: Re: oiling a djembe (and cowboys) 

Thanks Bob, Chris, and everyone else for sharing your knowledge and insight into this oiling thread. I found it to be very helpful. I too agree 
that oils will not make your drum heavier, nor muddy the tones, or soften the slaps. Likewise it is also to my knowledge that oiling your drum will help to 
prevent cracks, unlike using only a polyurathaine which may protect the outer shell somewhat and look nice but does not condition the wood such as oils 
will. 

Aaron had written:
< In a big (thunder drum) circle you need to define your sound and stand out from the others.>
       
     I have to disagree here. IMHO even in a big thunder drum circle the objective is not to stand out from the others but to co-create and blend in 
forming one musical piece. I can't see it as a competition to make yourself  heard. There are many types of circles, thunder, rainbow, anarchist, trad. 
etc. but the main objective in every one is to create music as a whole, as a community. Not to showcase how loud you can be.

Also written was:
< Slaps like gunshots. Tones like horns blowing. And base like a sub woofer. Go ahead and oil your drum. One less "Jembe Cowboy" for me to worry about.>
       
     I'm sorry but again I seem to miss the point. I only see one cowboy who seems to be looking for a showdown. Gunshots, horns blowing, subwoofers. 
Again I say, it's not about competition but community. If your circle has loud people trying to show off, making you feel the need to out-do them, I 
suggest finding a different circle where the music as-a-whole is more important than any particular individual creating that music. 

  My thoughts, 
  not worth any money,
  Dan
"Honor yourself and you will be humbled.
 Humble yourself and you will be honored."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Denis Robinson <dj.robinson@a...> 

Date: Sun Apr 23, 2000 0:16am
Subject: Re: drum oil confession

Midst all this talk of fancy oils and finishes and commercial preparations for drums, I have a confession. I guess when you're a beginner at something you follow the lead of those who know more. It's quite common round here to oil drums using peanut oil or the like - cooking oils, or massage oils ... and following the lead of those round here who know more, that's what I tend to use. ... Once or twice when out of peanut oil I've used olive oil.