Fibre Needle Cutters and Sharpeners
Patent thorn needle sharpener, unusual example £35
There are two main types of fibre needles, Thorn needles and Bamboo needles. Both are basically hardened wooden needles that can be re-sharpened after playing.
Bamboo needles usually have a triangular cross-section and need a suitable hole in the sound-box to fit. These are sharpened by cutting off a slice at the end of the needle to produce a new point. Thus can be done with a craft knife but there are patent cutters available to do the job efficiently. The device in the lpicture above is a bamboo needle cutter that can be screwed onto a motor-board and be available to sharpen needles efficiently. It comes with a neat adapter that fits into the round hole in a sound-box to allow triangular bamboo needles to be used. This interesting kit has been sold.


