The Mckinley Craft Model is kinda special to me.
In the past I've turned down customers wanting me to build them an hourglass model and my reason has always been that I'm from Virginia and the hourglass dulcimore isn't a tradition of the old Virginia builders.
Now that has changed.
A few years ago Mike Slone (RIP) who worked at the Appalachian Artisan Center in Hindman Kentucky contacted me. Mike asked me if I had been doing my Ancestry and that he thought from some research he was doing that he found I was related to an old builder from Kentucky named McKinley Craft.
So after several times searching and following leads I did in fact make the connection with William McKinley Craft. His great grandfather is also my great, great, great, great, great grandfather...... Archelous Craft. You can read about Archelous Craft at the following link. It seems he was quite the character and hero: Click here to read more about Archelous Craft
Mckinley Craft was also quite the character is seems. You can go to the following link and download an audio interview of him: Click here for McKinley Craft Interview
Here's McKinley's connection to Archelous Craft:
And here's my connection to Archelous Craft:
He is however a very distant relative and I don't claim to get any talents from him, but for me it's a very interesting fact that in 2006 I began building dulcimores without having ever heard of a dulcimore before, only to find out that one of my relatives was a mildly popular builder back in the day. And I also feel it qualifies me to build a Kentucky Dulcimore!
My Mckinley Craft version won't be a direct, exact replica, but it will be close. Due to covid-19 I am unable to view a vintage McKinley Craft dulcimore in person, so I am going by a tracing and detailed photos sent to me by my friend Steve Carney who owns one. Perhaps in the future I can view one in person and make any changes needed to get my version closer to an exact replica, but I don't feel that's extremely important because like me, even the old time builders didn't make every dulcimore exact and some even varied from their pattern a lot.
Here's some more information about McKinley Craft I borrowed from my friend David Bennett:
April 17, 1900 McKinley Craft (1900-1981) was born in/near Bath, Kentucky. McKinley was a brick mason and carpenter and he was a neighbor of James Edward Thomas and Balis Ritchie.
Old-time string banjo master George Gibson, was also born in Bath, Kentucky, and grew up on Burgey’s Creek and was a neighbor of McKinley Craft. The house in which Gibson was born was built by James Edward Thomas. Gibson still maintains a cabin there that Thomas built in 1900. Most of the Appalachian Dulcimers on display in the Museum of the Mountain Dulcimer in Hindman, Kentucky are on loan to the Center from Gibson.
In 1978 George Gibson interviewed McKinley Craft and Morehead State University has the recording that is in the James Still collection. McKinley told Gibson he learned to make Dulcimers from Uncle Ed in 1917. By October 1978 McKinley had made 214 dulcimers.
EDIT: Uncle Ed (James Edward Thomas) is a famed dulcimore builder from Kentucky for my readers who don't know dulcimore history.
There's also a newspaper article about McKinley Craft and his casket making. Click here to read article.
So there you go. Some information about McKinley Craft. Here's a few photos of some of his dulcimores:
Photos from Steve Carney:
Photo from Mike Slone per the FOTMD website:
Photos Dulcimore Dan Cox shared with me:
Specs and prices for my McKinley Craft Dulcimores:
McKinley Craft
Standard with:
Poplar or plain maple wood.
Feet.
Bronze frets.
Copper bridge and nut.
Pythagorean Temperament.
27-1/2 inch vsl.
3 string modal tuning. Approximately 33 inches long.
7 inch wide lower bout. 5-1/4 inch wide upper bout.
1-1/2 inch tall sides.
Options available.
