Crafting With Coconut Shell - Making A Kalimba

Coconut shell is quite an interesting material - underneath that bristly exterior, there is a lustrous dark shell that can be polished to quite a lovely finish.

In this article, I take a coconut shell and make it into a little musical instrument.
 

I've done a bit of coconut shell crafting before - here - so I knew what I was hoping for when I set out to make this object.

The Project

The construction of my coconut shell kalimba is presented here in two video parts:

Preparing The Shell

So at the end of that process, I had a polished and prepared piece of shell - a little more than half of the original coconut, and cut diagonally so as to make the most of the available material.


Making The Kalimba

The End Result

It's a lovely thing - and a delight to hold in the hand - the shell blends smoothly into the timber sounding board and it just feels beautifully smooth and polished.