How to repair a damaged Didge using glassfibre: Some Didges have been worked on when still green and wet and had their walls shaved to thin,or unevenly, the result being splits appearing, some of which can be filled with bees wax, but these must always be tended to, or better still, treated with 'Captain Tulley`s Creeping Crack Cure' a flexable boat glue, which will work as long as the splits don`t turn into cracks forever getting bigger and wider. If however all else fails, then binding the Didge with glass fibre will sort out the problem once and for all. Please ventilate the room well when using the resin, and don`t worry, the bad chemical smell will dissappear after a day or so from your didge. Two layers of matting is ideal,cut 12cm wide and spiralled, overlapping down the Didge.Let the first layer dry before adding the next.Once dry and finished, the fibre will protect and bind your Didge and from then on you don`t have to worry about the baggage handlers at airports.etc.......

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(3)Photo above: The same Didge plus another badly cracking Didge (due to a thin wall on one side of the throat and thick on the other) being treated with glass fibre. First a coat of epoxy resin, then spiral a strip of overlappig glass mat and then brush in another coat of resin. Note all paint has been firstly removed from surface and the surface has been coarsely rasped to better the bonding.

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(5)Photo above: The worst job, sanding down, first a rasp then with coarse grained paper.Use rubber gloves, glass powder is very irritating to the skin.You may have to add an extra coat of resin to fill up any holes or bubbles. The more you sand the better the finish. (6)Photo below: Now finished, sanded and rinsed down, painted and standing tall in my collection. Now sounding, playing and looking much better and guaranteed no more splits.

My collection

(1)Photo below: This Didge needed tuning, its` sound for its` length was dull and looking inside from the bell end, there was to much wall thickness extending to far up, so by sawing in half, a quarter way from the bottom and chiselling out the excess meat from below & above the cut to a taper to meet the throat, the key was raised and the back pressure became more ideal for traditional styles of playing. I didn`t have an extra long chisel.

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(2)Photo below: The cut was rejoined using a high strength epoxy glue and held together for 24 hours with a stretched bicycle inner tube. I marked prior to cutting, the join so the ends would rematch up.

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(4)Photo below: Close up of top ,note a 12cm extention to the throat is also added to give this Didge more length.

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