Handmade Shime Daiko

A few years ago, we started to build our own drums. They give our music the special sound.

Looking for something new and inspired by the Japanese daiko drum ensemble Kodo, we decided to build a Shime Daiko.

The body is made of hardwood in barrel construction. The individual staves were bundled with Bindan „propeller glue“.

With a hand planer the body was made round. An electric planer would be faster but would not fit the topic of handmade.

We sewed the skin by hand tightly on a metal ring.

A specially built device helped us to tension the two sides with screw clamps. This was necessary to firmly connect both drum heads with a hemp rope.

This drum is played with short conical drumsticks made of wood.