The simple vine design for the fretboard was made with silver wire and mother of pearl.
Ridges planed on either side of the fingerboard keep the bridge from moving.
Soundhole designs for dulcimers are more of a decorative feature than an acoustic science; anything seems to sound fine, as long as the holes are large enough. I tried a variation of the lute rosette. I had visited the instrument building shop at Colonial Williamsburg, and the craftsman there told me that the best chisel for doing this was an ice pick, with the end honed to whatever shape was needed. I fashioned three shapes on the ends of ice picks, two flat ones of different widths, and a curved one, with the tiny cylindrical grinding stone on the Dremel tool.
