Keith Little Badger is a DRUM MAKER, an artist in wood, who starts his process with fallen trees or boards sawn from river-recovered cedar from sawmills all over southeastern United States. From sawn boards, Keith planes the lumber to shave off saw marks and to simplify the later stages of sanding. Each board runs through the planer several times to attain the same thickness of wood for every drum stave.
Keith then CONSTRUCTS his drum hulls using saws, glue and brad nailer to hide the nails. But the most important ingredient in Keith's process is the tattered geometry notebook passed down to him from his Grandfather Shoe. Everyone knows that a circle is 360 degrees, but how many staves make 360 for a 12" hand drum, a 16" sweat lodge drum or a 32" powwow drum.
DRUM MAKERS are artists, craftsmen, and mathematicians. Drum assemblers ARE NOT drum makers because they lack the skill, the tools and the experience to construct drums.
We want you to see how your drum will be built with love, prayers, experience and skill by Keith.
Keith Little Badger helps clean up home town after tornado. Saws fallen trees into logs long enough for sawmill to use later in building drums and drum stands.
A Plywood Hoop - We don't use these. Keith constructs his hulls from river-recovered cedar, cottonwood downed by lightening or recycled pine board.
Keith pulling a Cedar drum. Notice how the edges of our hulls are rounded and sanded so no sharp edges will ever tear the rawhide.
Precut rawhide circles used on hoop drums.
Keith Little Badger hand picks his bull hides. He hangs 25 full cows in shop at a time. This way, he can choose the thickest part of the hide for powwow drums, and the rest of the hide for hand drums to fit any climate (thick vs thin head).
Sawn boards age one year before Keith Little Badger uses them to build drums
Call Today: 1-256-538-0246 (8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m Central Time Weekdays to speak to live person) Can always leave message on weekends and we will call back ASAP
This Web Site was Created and Maintainted by Cheryl Talking Bird Last Update: April 18, 2012
