I finished this one last night October 7th, 2026. I know I said there wouldn’t be anymore walnut banjos but I was lucky to get a neck cut out of a piece that I didn’t think was big enough and I didn’t think I had more walnut but managed to get this top piece of solid walnut. The bottom is stained poplar. I will say that having that bottom of poplar adds a nice tone to this banjo. I always liked using poplar for dulcimers because I felt it sounded better than any other wood. The best sounding dulcimers I ever heard was a vintage Warren May that was all green color poplar that he never stained just a lot of varnish and the best sounding dulcimer I ever made was a square rectangular one using wood that came from the floor of a 100 year old chicken house. Anyways this banjo is a little shorter but would be really good for someone with smaller hands or a shorter arm. It measures 34” overall, 10” wide, 1 3/4” side height, 24” from nut to bridge in the photos. It’s 23” from the nut to center of the hide. The Aquila 1b super nylgut strings give it that beautiful old timey sound that makes it hard for you to want to put down. The neck is one of my V neck profiles which is a very old style and as far as I know I’m the only person making them like this because they are harder to do and require hand tools like a spoke shave and rasps. I use corradi rasps. The neck has a really comfortable feel in the hand and is one of them banjos I would love to keep for myself if I didn’t already have one. The back I went over with birch wood Casey tru oil to seal the stain so it doesn’t leach off onto your hands or clothing and the rest I went over with a traditional food grade finish of boiled linseed oil and beeswax called tried & true original you can get it on Amazon and it brings out the maximum beauty in wood grain than anything I have seen and being historically correct really makes me feel good about using it. 
The nylgut strings will take about two weeks to stretch and settle in though I have brought them up to standard tuning a couple of times before shipping. The solid ebony violin pegs are set in holes reamed with two violin peg reamers so you get maximum friction fit the more you press in the tighter the pegs become. Historically they were often drilled with straight holes and pegs carved straight like dowel pins and they still managed to work so what you get is the delux version that they would have loved to have had back in the day and it’s one embellishment that I don’t mind doing because I want my banjos played and enjoyed. I will include a set of guidelines of ramblings with bits of good information. I started making these back in 1993 when I first seen the foxfire books at my local library and started doing it for a living when covid started. I wish I could have met Stanley Hicks and his storytelling brother but you can see them in vintage clips someone uploaded on YouTube. I did have a man who lived with Stanley for awhile look at my banjos and approve of their authenticity so for me that’s the best compliment I can ever get. I got some in museums, in Japan, all over Europe. I make each box one at a time and use styrofoam peanuts and bubblewrap because I want this to get to you without any damages because I think highly of each banjo I make yet using reverb safe shipping makes it 100% safe for both of us and I love Reverb for having this. I know it’s random but I keep forgetting to mention the 5th string pip I make them from the cut off ends of the 5th string pegs and they make a lasting durable piece to hold the 5th string above the neck. A lot of people selling black violin pegs are not really of ebony I was upset when I bought some off amazon that were soft light wood under the black paint and I don’t know how many of them end up on banjos or other instruments but I wouldn’t do that to a customer. I think I included everything, you can add light gauge ball end steel banjo strings on this if you need to but I love these nylguts! Thank you for reading and look forward to doing business with you! I do have a YouTube page where I have uploaded sound samples and clips of my grey cat and his little long hair black 6 month old sister. If you search Osage orange banjo you will see an Osage mountain banjo that’s yellow and it’s the only one on there because I think I’m the only person that made two mountain banjos of Osage orange and click on my username @jasoncollins4913 and my other videos will show. Thanks for looking and look forward to making more repeat customers!