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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
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Mood: happy
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Oud building: step-by-step
I would like to share what I have learned in the past and still learn everyday with all the oud lovers and builders.
My special thanks goes to Khalid Belhaiba in Morocco, he is real oud master builder in our time.
There will be many aspects in my oud building process that other builders may have different opinions about, any critisim or advise is welcome as
long as we respect each other opinions an way of working.
Also, In my opinion there are no oud secrets, every oud maker build the way he think is best of course by respecting some basic rules that are common
in in the oud. like measurements, wood quality etc. (my couscous will not taste the same as my mother's, even If I robocopy here)
The purpose of thisproject is to build a good looking oud that sound like an OUD. I will talk about wood, glues, hideglue, soundbaords...
I will make as much pictures as I can and even some videos from time to time. (difficult to hold the camera and work 
So let's get to business.
Best regards, Samir
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ExtreamTarab
Oud Junkie
Posts: 185
Registered: 8-31-2006
Location: Montreal, Canada
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Mood: ...Lessa Faker...
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This will be a very interesting thread Samir...thanks for sharing and looking forward 
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
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Mood: happy
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The Wood
I will not talk about all types of wood that are good for oud building, simply because there are so many.
a good wood for a first time oud builder, would be African mahogany or simillar wood. but there some expensive type of mahogany, like Cuban and
Honduran. any accoustic wood that can be bent is fine.
there some kind of woods thar are famous for the accoustic quality like, Brazilian rosewood, Indian Roswood, Maple, High grade walnut etc.
for this project, I have chosen, High grade Indian rosewood and Flamed maple for the bowl. I will talk about the other components as I progress.
I have purchased a nice block of aged maple like this one:
so you need a good planner and and a saw table of course:
Final measurement as you see in the picture;
length: 70 cm
thick: 4 cm
wide: any one will do: I think this one is 18 cm. enouph for one oud. I have a professional thin kerf blade that save money and wood
Best regards, Samir
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
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Mood: happy
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ribs sawing
Sawing the ribs out of the block.
This wood is already couple of years old, this is very important or it need to be dry enouph so the wood will not move much when the oud is finished.
the wood is always a life.
after sawing the ribs, I leave them in the working room for 2 or 3 weeks before starting the oud build.
The thikness of the ribs is about 3 mm when resawing. by the way, this is a dangerous mater as the wood block get smaller, the hand and finger are
closer to the blade. I always use wood pushers, safety glasses and dust mask. you should take all the security mesures or have at least some
experience with wood sawing.
I will reduce the thikness to 2.5 mm later with a small thikness planner.
I will do this for the maple and the Indian rosewood.
I need about 21 ribs(2 extra). The bowl will be made out of 19 ribs. 11 Rosewood and 8 maple.
You notice some pen stripes on the maple. I have the same on the rosewood. Before I saw the ribs I design a triangle on the wood, this way I know
which rib is which for the esthetic of the oud later(like book matching). I will come back on this one later.
Best regards, Samir
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Danielo
Oud Junkie
Posts: 365
Registered: 7-17-2008
Location: Paris
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Great idea Samir !
I'll follow closely this thread.. It'll be a classic for sure 
regards,
Dan
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
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Thank you guys,
Working with flamed wood is always a challenge, specialy maple. Maple tend to bend back after a while. so it need always some adjusements when
mounting the ribs.
Issue number 2 is thiknessing. a thikness sander would be perfect but as I dont have one, I use a miniature thinknesser, but it damage the flamed wood
sometimes because of the structure (waves). so the trick is to wet lightly the wood and wait 10 min before thiknessing.
issue number 3 is flatening the ribs with the planer. the edge of this waves becomes little holes if the planes is not rasor sharp and just about
extended for shaving.
Best regards, Samir
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aytayfun
Oud Junkie
Posts: 201
Registered: 1-28-2006
Location: Türkiye
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Mood: luthier and player
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Way to Goo. Good luck. I'm smelling some mastership. Go on Samir.
All Best Wishes for YOU:
Dr. Tayfun AYDIN
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BaniYazid
Oud Junkie
Posts: 225
Registered: 8-20-2010
Location: France
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Thank you sabbassi
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
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Mood: happy
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Preparing the purfling
I have also have cut some Cherry and ebony blanks to make the purfling for in between the ribs:
the cherry will be used fot the roswood\mapel oud, the ebony will be used for another flamed maple oud I'm building at the same time.
this purflings are about 0,9mm. the smaller and finer they are the nicer the oud will look. It's like jewelry.
Bending the Ebony is difficult and time consuming. ebony is very breakable, so you need lot of heat and patience.
A broken ebony ribs
Best regards, Samir
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Microber
Oud Junkie
Posts: 853
Registered: 1-20-2006
Location: Belgium - Liège
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Hey Samir,
That's the kind of 'feuilleton' I like to follow.
Furthermore, an oud made of flammed maple with ebony purfling... hmmm. It's gonna be a delectable one.
Robert
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
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Hi Robert,
Thanks, I Iike also the contrast black and white. I may call it black and white.
here are all the ribs for the 4 ouds I'm building this time. from left to right
Indian rosewood, indianrosewood/flamed maple, flamed maple, Brazilian rosewood
Best regards, Samir
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
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Neck and tail blocks
the neck and tail blocks are also ready. you can also see the tools I have used to make the blocks. You also need a hand saw.
the neck block is made from high grade mahogany, the same they use for the guitar and the tail block is made from russian triplex beechwood, easy to
work with, very strong.
the neck is 14 cm wide and high. the same for the tail exluding the space for the last 2 ribs that finish the oud at the end. so the tail is actualy
14cm + the last rib. the last pictures shows this.
Best regards, Samir
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
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Ribs layout
The marks on the ribs I have made before help me recongnize the ribs and make the pattern I think would be nice on the oud.
Also drawing a line and numbers at the back of the ribs help outlining the ribs when mounting them, this way I will achieve an exact shape on both
sides of the oud.
Best regards, Samir
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
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Continues
the neckblock and the tailblock are mounted on the air-mould
the flat part of the neck block is at one level to the bottom of the tail block.
the first 3 Ribs are bent and cut close to the line drawed before and finaly planed smooth to 45 degree
The first 3 Ribs and purflings are joined with glue simply by a thin rope, this will be the base of our oud. the rope make a super join without any
gaps. It was hard to learn, but with practice things become easy this way.
3 ribs are mounted, when the glue is cured, I added 4 and 5 eetc...
the neck block and tails are marked by pen and devided by exact space to the number of the total ribs. except for he last 2 ribs at the tail block
Best regards, Samir
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ExtreamTarab
Oud Junkie
Posts: 185
Registered: 8-31-2006
Location: Montreal, Canada
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Mood: ...Lessa Faker...
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This is becoming very interesting...I think your "air-mould" way is the most challenging and needs lots of practice and experience, I'm not an expert
it just looks like that.
Plus it's the first time I see the ribs being glued together outside the mould, pretty interesting as well...
However, did you skip the bending step...why ?!
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
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Mood: happy
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ExtreamTarab
I didn't skip it on purpose. mY camera wasn't ready that time. I will make new pictures of the bending process soon.
this building methode need indeed lot of practice, but it gives lot of freedome to make any shape (iraqui, Syrian, Traditional Arabic etc..). you are
not stuck any more to the one or two traditional moulds you make.
Best regards, Samir
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Alfaraby
Oud Junkie
Posts: 796
Registered: 9-18-2009
Location: Holy Land
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Excuse me dear Samir, but do you think building a bowl is a "free" practice ? Would bending in any method bring up the same sound ? Isn't there
any influence, as to the the sound, once you make this bawl or another ?
This is really confusing !
Yours indeed
Alfaraby
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
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Dear Alfaraby,
As I have satated before, the oud measurement need to be respected of course. like depth and lenght. this oud 2 ouds for instance will be 50cm long
and 35 maybe 36cm wide.
In my opinion, no 2 ouds are the same even if you make them using the tradional methode, same wood, same workin process.
the soundbaord is the key player, the bowl also play a role in a the sound of the oud, but minimal. the wood used is more important, it define the oud
charachter.
thanks
Samir
Best regards, Samir
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abusin
Oud Junkie
Posts: 442
Registered: 3-23-2006
Location: Manchester England
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Mood: Ya Fuadi La Tasal
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Hi Samir,
Beautiful work as usual
Following this with a cup of mint Chai
Best Regards
Awad
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Yaron Naor
Oud Junkie
Posts: 275
Registered: 1-24-2009
Location: Bat Hefer, Israel
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Hi Samir
Great idea, excellent topic!
I enjoy every post
Yaron Naor
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
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Mood: happy
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Flamed maple
Thank you guys for you nice comments it encourage me ..
I couldn't resist finishing the maple oud first. I will continue with the other one with more pictures the construction.
I have finished he bowl 2 days ago, the paper strips with hot glue are in place after thoroughly romoved all the glue and dirt inside.
The bowl is sanded with 80 grid sanding paper and some scraping to remove little dunes where the ribs join.
The bowl is excalty 50cm long 36 wide and 18 cm deep. this measures could be changed a bit with couple of mm when mounting the sound board. I will aim
for 50,5cm and 35,cm
the flamed maple waves follow each other and make nice circles all over the bowl. the ebony purfling and back circle add some extra to the oud.
The Bowl is also flattened to 100% flat table.
there is one thing that some LUTE builders in Belgium do, is to lower the area around the pickguard of the bowl by 1mm or two make the plucking area
high enouph for the risha. but the sound baord will be little curvy at that place. I may try this another day.
I have showed in another thread before how the paper strips are glued:
Best regards, Samir
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SamirCanada
Moderator
Posts: 3405
Registered: 6-4-2004
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You work soo fast man.
is that what you do for a living or you just have a lot of time after work?
How many days did it take you to finish that bowl?
@samiroud Instagram
samiroudmaker@gmail.com
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sabbassi
Oud Junkie
Posts: 570
Registered: 4-28-2008
Location: Morocoo
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Hi Samir
no this is not what I do for living.
It take about two days to build a bowl. But there is lot of preparation to it, like measurements, sawing, tuning and planing. and don't watch much
tv.
In the summer it take take less time because of the warm weather, the glue take less time to cure.
there is a french proverbe: C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron - it is by forging (i.e. making horseshoes) that one becomes a blacksmith..
Best regards, Samir
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SamirCanada
Moderator
Posts: 3405
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Justement c'est bien dit... et en effet mon homme, tu forge
2 jours... ca me prend 2 semaines... minimum.
You must have developed some techniques for speed because that is really phenomenal work rate.
Also, can you describe how you go about cutting, bending and fitting the liner strips in between ribs? thank you.
@samiroud Instagram
samiroudmaker@gmail.com
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maker
Oud Addict
Posts: 43
Registered: 7-9-2006
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Hi sabbassi
Any kind of glue you using ?
ahmad
oud maker
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