Originally I thought I would make the top from glued pieces, and cut it out to shape with chisels and gouges. However, once I started to use wood from the old piano, I thought it would be good to try to make the top from a flat piece, steamed into the curve, as is usually done with modern nyckelharpa construction. OK, the kontrabas has a very deep curve, but other people do this so I thought it to be worth a try. It needs a strong forming mould to hold the steamed pieces in the correct shape though, and so that has to be made first.

Here’s the mould assembled. There are guide pieces at the end to hold it together in the right orientation.

This is what it looks like in two pieces. It’s the same shape all the way along the length, fortunately.

The steaming box is only needed once (I’m not going to build another nyckelharpa, honest!) so the construction doesn’t need to be too solid. It’s made from hardboard (recycled packing that came with the materials for my nyckelharpa case) on a softwood frame. The tube is a spare washing machine hose, which can be attached to a kettle.