Overview

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Traditional African drums are made of a solid piece of timber, hollowed out, and carved into the final drum shape.

The drums described in these pages are constructed of staves of wood, glued together to form the rough drum shape, then the outside is shaped to a more pleasing finish. They are not a traditional design, however they are styled after African Djembe and Ashiko drums.

These drums are made from 12 (or you could use 16, 18 etc) wooden staves that are tapered to give the slightly conical shape of the Ashiko drum, and their edges are bevelled to fit together. This produces a rough 12 sided conical shape, the corners are then smoothed off to produce

diagram showing stave construction end-on to illustrate 12 sections.

relationship of diameter to stave width, at top and bottom.

relationship of bevel angle to number of staves

special note on bevel angle and how it varies according to degree of taper on conical section.