Making the body of a frame drum isn't too difficult. People need to make them for various reasons; a class project, a certain authenticity in their musical instruments, or just because they think it's cool. At any rate, it's not that hard. After all, humans have been making frame drums for thousands of years. So it shouldn't be too difficult for a person living in the modern age to manage. However, some approaches are easier than others. The simplest method doesn't involve making anything at all. It just involves going to the local specialty craft store and purchasing a preformed drum hoop. But beyond that, if you want to actually create the frame of a drum, there are two options.
The first method is to make the frame from a hollow log. If you do this, the most important detail is to be sure that you clean out the inside of the log so that no loose wood or rot remains. Once you're done, the resulting shell should be one to two inches thick. A thicker the shell will result in a deeper the pitch in the final drum.
The second method is to make a hoop frame from separate branches. This process is more involved, but it also allows you to more specifically determine the size and shape of your drum frame. After all, with the log method, you're basically limited to what you can find in the forest. To make a drum frame from braches, here's what you do. Cut two branches, each about 36 inches long and an inch in diameter. Ash, cedar, willow, hazel, wild rose runners, sycamore and birch are all good options.
Boil some water in a kettle and once steam begins to form, pass one of the braches repeatedly through the steam. As the branch becomes more pliable, very gradually bend it to form a circle the size of you want your drum to be. Wood can usually be bent once for every five minutes of steaming. Any faster, and you're likely to break your frame. Once the stick has been bent all the way into a circle, tie both ends together so that they overlap. Repeat the process with the second stick, measuring it against the first so that the circles are the same size.
Cut another branch into about a dozen pieces, each approximately two inches long. Using small headless nails and Elmer's Wood Glue, nail and glue these pieces between the two hoops as spacers about every two inches, spaced evenly around the hoop. Then go back around your drum head with a small nail punch and sink the heads of the nails down below the surface of the wood. This will prevent them from snagging or tearing the rawhide. Place a weight on top of the frame so that it does not change shape as it dries, and let the whole thing dry thoroughly in a warm place with good air circulation. Once it's dry, your drum frame is complete.
