I interviewed Fr. Martin, the head monk at Priory. He has built approximately 24 dulcimers from the 1960s until the present. He is truly a master wood worker. Here is the transcript of our conversation.

• Where did you begin woodworking and what kind of things did you build?
• I was in Montreal and I saw a guy playing a mountain dulcimer. I thought that it sounded nice. I had already been playing guitar a little bit. I said that is something I’d like to get, it’s a nice instrument, I’d like to get one. But I didn’t have any money and didn’t want to ask for money. So what I did is that I bought a kit from this company. When I got the kit, I thought, what is this? I can make stuff like this, I don’t need a kit. So I put the kit together. It looked terrible, but it sounded great. It had a beautiful sound to it. So when I first plucked the string, I said “Oh My God, it works!”. I was surprised, and i said. That is great, I am going to make another one. And that is when I started making Mountain Dulcimers. I did some research on them too, because I am very interested in Appalachia and I am very interested in folk music and its roots in England, Ireland and Scotland. And all those kinds of traditions that are based on folk music. So in Appalachia, they started their communities and did a lot of mining, farming, and different lumber work in the first generation. But in the second generation, things were more established and they started thinking back to the old instruments that were played back in Europe. And that is when they started developing the Mountain The Mountain Dulcimer is considered one of two basically American instruments: the dulcimer and the five-stringed banjo. Even though the dulcimer came from roots in Europe and and the banjo came from roots in Africa, both really were developed and flourished in this country. That fascinated me also. So I then decided I was going to learn how to make a dulcimer on my own. I learned how to steam wood, how to bend it. I put it in a food steamer, and then I started developing my own kind of style of Mountain Dulcimer. So I made about 24-25 of them something like that. Going way back to the 60’s I think.
• So was that the first woodworking that you had ever done?
• No, I was always kind of fascinated by carpentry and the way you can use wood to construct things that are fairly permanent. So when I was in high school , I remember that I hated mathematics but I loved geometry cuz I could see it, I could utilize it. That’s the way I kind of learned. So I think I helped a guy make a crozier which is the staff that a Bishop carries. So I said “Oh Wow, this is how this (process) works, I had bent wood and this was the first thing I ever made”. I’ve made tables and dining room sets and things like that. So my whole idea of woodworking is that you are making something that is practical but that last beyond your own time. So like for example, musical instruments can last for centuries. The one you made, unless it gets in a fire, can probably last for several centuries because of the way you made it. Same thing is true for the clocks I make, they will last for a long, long time. Long after maybe even the mechanism is shot, they will still last for a long time. So I like the idea of having something that is made by hand and it is going to last, and be a kind of an heirloom-type of thing. It has endurance. A lot of the furniture that is made now, it is not made to last, It looks much better than what I could make, but it’s not going to last. It’s going to last for 10 years and it’s going to fall apart.
• You said that the first thing you build was that staff. So who was it who taught you what you learned about woodworking?
• I was involved in building it, but someone else was kind of the responsible one. Three of us who were supposed to work on this thing. We were kind of trying to figure out how to do it, how to bend wood and stuff like that. So we worked in a boiler room, in the middle of the winter when it was steamy in there and freezing outside in New Hampshire. So it was a matter of just learning my around with some others. It wasn’t my project, it was several of us that were working on this together.
• So was there someone teaching you woodworking and how to do this?
• No
• So it was you kind of experimenting with wood, like "Oh, we need to build this, how can we do it?"
• I never had a teacher of woodworking, I picked it all up by myself. But I would go to the carpenter shop, and they had these wonderful old French craftsmen b. They were really great craftsmen, and I would watch them. kind of like the way I learned to play guitar, I would watch people play. I would watch to see how they did things, and then I would experiment myself. Then I thought, “Oh, I can do that”, so I would try.
• Since you have been doing woodworking for over 60 years, in terms of the types of things you make, how have you seen it change? Do you still try to make practical things such as tables? How have things changes?
• Yes, I will occasionally make a table, or a cradle, I like making those, still things that last a long time. One time I made crib, with a guy who wanted someone to help him. But I ended up making it and he kind of helped me out. I like that because many babies have used that crib. It’s really kind of a nice thing, I have my name carved on it. It is great to hear about that.
• How has your work changed over time?
• I kind of have developed my own style. So, an example would be, the head piece of my dulcimers. So the reason that I have that here, is that I have cast that in bronze. So for any of those that I make, I have two of those. Because it is kind of my trademark, and I don’t know anyone else who does it like that. I have seen a lot of dulcimers, and a lot of pictures of dulcimers, and no one does it like that, that’s my kind of trademark. I came up with that to be something different.
• With the clocks I build, I now have come to a style that I comfortable with, because most of the tall clocks, or tall-case clocks, they call them grandfather clocks sometimes. Most of those are top-heavy visually. You look at them, you see them and you say you say, “That wants to fall over, doesn’t it?” So I make them kind of different. I make them kind of stronger, very kind of masculine, so they are deep and wide and strong. It doesn’t look like it’s going to fall over. It’s like they are sold. So that’s my style that I have kind of developed. So most of my clocks, you can tell that I made them, but they are all a little bit different. Because that i my style, So you kind of develop a style, something you are comfortable with. Also my cutting boards.
• So cutting boards and clocks, when did you start making those things?
• Oh, clocks, 34 years ago. I remember that because this is clock number 34.
• So you just started experimenting with it? Like "I am going to try to make a clock?"
• Well we had just started the auction back then. And I said I would like to make a clock. Because a tall clock is not something that you tell time by. It is kind of statement about time. So everybody in colonial times, if you had a clock, it would be in the center hall of your house, and that is where people would gather around the clock to make decisions. It was a logical place because that is where they would go to tell time. And that is where the important decisions would be made, maybe about finances, maybe about raising the kids, this that or the other thing. But they would kind of stand around the clock. It is not just a timepiece. It does tell time, and it can be quite accurate, but it is more than that. You know I have a watch, why would I need a clock? So there is something more about the stories behind them. It is about stories.
• I also know that from being here at Priory, that you have built all of the pews in the chapel. Now those are more functional than they are to make a statement. How long did it take you to build them? When you first got here, I think the chapel was much smaller. And so, I am curious about your process for that? When did you start it, how long did it take you to build all those pews?
• So were standing in the chapel in about 1980. There were some pews were in there, but they were not very good, and there were not many of them. We had added a lot space to the chapel. But we did not have any money, we were pretty broke at that particular time. So the Prior, Father Simon, asked me if I could possibly think about building pews for a year? And like a fool, I said “Oh,yeah. Sure.” So I knew a guy who had a woodworking mill up in San Francisco and he ordered some red oak. and they were just plain old boards. So i rented a truck, and it was loaded with all of this wood. And when I saw it, my heart sank, and I thought “I think I made the biggest mistake of my life! How am I going to get these into pews?” So I just started on it, and it took me a full year to make them. So made around 40 of them. Which is a lot. That’s a lot to guld in a year. I used to do a lot of work late at night, because I was younger and I could work till midnight without any problem. And, I had some friends who were interested in what I was doing, including a Senior in school. So they would ask me what they could do to help. So they would do some sanding here, or use the drill press to do this kind of operation. But basically I made them all. I wanted to make sure that they were all exactly right. So I tested different kind of seating angles, decided what I wanted to do, made a mockup, andhad people sit on them. When I finally decided what I wanted to do, then I started making them. So I had to glue all the boards together, and that was a huge, long task. They are 9 feet wide.
• So for that, you would need multiple people, right?
• No, for that, I did practically all of it myself. I just learned how to move stuff around. So I would do, for example, the edge pieces, and I would do all of them; then I would do the seat part, and I would do all of them. So they would all be exactly the same. So if you took all the seats there, and put them on a flat floor, there wouldn’t be a difference of a quarter each between them. They are really accurate. I actually did that to test them. So it took a long time, but it was well worth it.
• So you were probably teaching at the time?
• Oh yes, so I kind of made time, and I could work every night, and work on the weekends, I made the time. One of the great things that I have done, probably the most monumental things I have ever done in woodworking is that I worked with a luthier named John Hubert, who is well known in the classical guitar area. He died a couple of years ago. So John and I got to know each other and he saw some of my work, and he invited me to make a classical guitar. It was just great, so I spent two years on that. I would go up one day a week. Sometimes we would just talk. He was a great guy. And sometimes we would work on this part or that part, and he wanted to make sure that it was exactly right. So he taught me how to be exact in things like measuring. So in other words, I am pretty good at eyeing something out and seeing that it would be about right, and usually it would be about right. But he was really tough on exactness...So I learned a lot and it affected the way that I work on stuff, I make sure that I know exactly where things go. So some things we did on the dulcimer that you made, where you were doing the exact measuring. Some things I could just see, you didn’t have to do all that. But there are different ways of doing things.
• Working with different people over the years, I am sure you expand the way you think about woodworking?
• I like working with people who are also woodworkers. If you go to something like a crafts fair, if you know what you are talking about, a craftsmen will pick that up right away. You can make a real fast connection, then people like to share their secrets, and they like to ask what yours are too. So it’s kind of a nice thing. It brings people together.
• Other than developing your own design on the headstock, is there anything else that you kind of made your own trademark on for the dulcimer? When you say that you developed “your style”, other than the headstock, is there anything else that you kind of do a certain way that other people don’t really do?
• I don’t know whether anybody else opens the two halves of the top, I am not sure. I don’t know if there is anything else that would stand out as being different in the dulcimers that I make. Like everything else I do, no two are alike. For example, you can see the great differences in this one compared to that one...and I never try and make two the same.
• Before I forget, where is that guitar that you made? Do you still have it?
• Oh yes, I can’t play anymore, my hands are kind of crippled now by arthritis. But I’ll never sell it. It is something that took me so long to make, and it is quite good. It is probably worth a lot of money, but I won’t sell it.
• Is there any kind of general woodworking advice that you would have for someone starting with woodworking?
• My whole kind of thinking about woodworking is this: so you take a tree, and you fell the tree, somehow or other, the wind blew it down, there was a hurricane, or you cut it down. And the wood then is dead, it is not any life flowing through any more. So you take it and make something, whether you make a table or a guitar, or a dulcimer, or a cradle, or whatever you do, in a way I think you are giving life back to it. You are making it live again. So for example, this was a piece from a walnut tree that was somehow cut down and died. So that would rot away. But you take that same piece of walnut, and you make it produce music and sounds, where someone could play that and it sounds good and they could use it to sing by. So it opens it out to something different from what it was, and in a way it becomes live again. So I made this one, my mom was still living and I showed it to her. So she looked at the back, and she said “Joe, don’t ever sell that one.” I said, “Why not?” She said, “Look at the back of it, it is such a beautiful design.” It is the same we did with yours, it is book matched, but it happened to have a pretty nice grain pattern to it. Stuff that this really appeals to me. So every musical instrument that i know of is beautiful when you look at it, then when you play it, it is more beautiful.