Making home-made cactus needles
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 3:26 pm
Some years back I was given a quantity of prickly pear cactus needles, which I promptly forgot about. I've just made some efforts to turn them into phonograph needles with good results. First thing I discovered is that the natural points on these needles were useless for playing- they held up but produced little volume. The rest of the process is easy, if rather monotonous. I cut the needles to length and pointed them- I'm using a DuoTone pointer which is driven by the turntable as you've got to do quite a bit of grinding to put a point on the needle. Most of the needles proved to be quite thin and were hard to keep seated in the chuck, but I ended up with a good amount of usable needles. They play quite well- a bit quieter than the commercially made cactus needles but with excellent tone and wearing qualities, even on a disc with a hairline crack.
I'd like to make some more- can any of you collectors out west supply me with some cactus spines?
BTW- out of curiosity I tried Locust thorns which are available near me. Once they dry out they are quite hard and can be ground to a good point, but although they hold up to use the sound is too quiet- must be the composition of the wood.
I'd like to make some more- can any of you collectors out west supply me with some cactus spines?
BTW- out of curiosity I tried Locust thorns which are available near me. Once they dry out they are quite hard and can be ground to a good point, but although they hold up to use the sound is too quiet- must be the composition of the wood.