Government Health Warning: Playing limberjacks may become addictive. Please use with caution.

Steven

Yes Dusty is right- just go to the little display stand for balsa wood and dowels in any good hardware store- find a thin flexible 1/8" thick flexible balsa 'plank'- it'll be just the right bounce and length/width for your limberjack.  

Dulcinina, any hardware or home improvement store will have plenty of plywood.  They might even cut it for you.

Here is Jean Ritchie with her limberjack:

Thanks, Dusty.  The search is on for a thin board.  Can't wait to take the limberjack to my next dulcimer meeting.

Thanks Ken, Was wondering when made. I have an Orthey Dulcimer I picked up from a member here, great work, I've seen but don't own one of his auto-harps,

George quit making those when he stopped making dulcimers. At that point he moved over to building his dulciharps (autoharps) full time. Enjoy your limberjack.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks Dusty, you answered my question before I asked it, the Limberjack I looked at was made by George Orthey Dulcimer, so i'm thinking pretty well made, but it did not have the board or anything with, so I was needing to find a board.

Dulcinina, the board has to be super thin, so that it bounces easily. I am sure the ceiling fan blade is way too thick.

I have two limberjacks that came with boards. Both are rectangular pieces of plywood about two feet in length, 3 or 3-1/2 inches wide, and only about 1/8 of an inch thick.  

I was thinking about limberjacks just a few days ago.  In the back of my mind I of sort of remembered having one.  Went down into the basement and sure enough there he was in a box.  The "board" I have for him is the blade of a ceiling fan. I don't think it works particularly well.  Any suggestions for a suitable board? Dulcinina

Hi George, there are lots of cool photos, videos, etc, about limberjacks here on FOTMD:

https://fotmd.com/search/results/all/1/25?search_string=limberjack

George, you sit on one end of a long thin plywood paddle, put a dowel in the hole to hold the puppet, and hold it so that the feet just touch the paddle.  Now you go to thumping the paddle, and the feet of the puppet go flying, and the arms flip back and forth.  Talented folks can beat a rhythm to the song being played by another, and the puppet will appear to dance along with it in a comical way.  It's a lot of fun, especially for young kids.

Thanks,That was buried somewhere in my brain but couldn't dig it up, now i need to figure out how to "play" it, any advice on that would be great too!! Dusty, your knowledge of all things obscure musical is impressive.

I found this, by George Orthey Dulcimer, If I'm not mistaken they were used sort of like a set of "bones", A peg was in the hole in the back, A board of some sort was placed somewhere close to lap level, and the figure was made to "dance"? Or am I off by a mile and them some?

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