Carving on a snare drum

[Dyingdrummer]

I am thinking about carving letters into a snare drum that I am making. I've never done any wood carvings, but I will start learning asap. The wood is maple, and I only want to make about a 1/16 inch indentation in the wood. Can someone please tell me which tools I will need, and where the best place to find them is. Thank you very much!

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Maple is very hard, you might want to do that with power tools, like a foredom or ...humm doubt a dremel would do it, unless very slowly. Cowboy

[Dyingdrummer]

Well.. I have a dremel, so that would probably be the cheapest way to go. Thank you for replying!

[Ashbys]

I would make a strong suggestion.

Drums are all about tone. The Snare even more so than a tom. Depending upon which drum you have or the type it might not be what you expect .

Many drums are only plywood with a maple wrap which is less than a 1/16 thick. Check the manufacture to be sure before you cut it or you may find yourself playing on plywood. You might also disrupt the tone of your drum depending on what you do.

Ash

[Dyingdrummer]

Good point. Thanks for the heads up!

[wade clark]

If you're making the drum, you know the thickness of the wood you're wanting to carve. Don't go too deep. Is the wood bent or shaped through wood removal? If the sections are bent, they're under stress and when you start carving into the grain it will relieve some of that stress, which may cause some splintering and springing in the wood.
The dremel is a good choice since you have one. If it were me, I'd use a small set of palm carving gouges. www.woodcraftsupply.com and other sourses will have several small sets you can choose from. Go with the best you can stand to buy.
a picture when you're done, if you can. I'd like to see it!
Wade

[Dyingdrummer]

Thanks for the info. This is my winter project, so it won't be done for a few months, but I will be sure to post it here, and everywhere else on the internet for that matter. I only want to carve just a little bit into the wood, it doesn't have to be 1/16" I just want to give it some texture. Just a little scratch on the surface is all I really need. Thanks for you help.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I don't know anything about drums, but if it wouldn't hurt the sound, you could always laminate a shape of your choice of 1/8 basswood here and there and carve into that....?