Hi all,

Many thanks to our Australian friends for the info on Roo pouch
leather.  Where else but here in our beloved AMD would such immediate
and friendly responses occur?  Thanks to all!!

Speaking of sources for exotic and rare supplies for musical
instruments, I've located a couple of web sites of interest, I think.

Rick Cavasin up in Kanata, Ontario, Canada makes high-quality,
hand-done parchment for Calligraphers, drum heads, banjo's, etc.  If
you want a *real* parchment drumskin for your Orchestrion, he's the guy
to contact.  He makes it, by hand, from goat, kid, calf and deer, and
it is stocked in the following thicknesses:

•   Thin       - .003" to  .006" (.08 - .15 mm)
   Med. Thin  - .006" to  .009" (.15 - .23 mm)
   Medium     - .009" to  .012" (.23 - .30 mm)
   Med. Thick - .012" to  .018" (.30 - .50 mm)
   Thick      - more than .018" (.50 mm)

•Prices range about $25.00/Canadian per square foot.

Rick has a web page explaining it all, with pictures showing and
explaining the whole tanning, scraping, stretching process (very
interesting, and fast loading).  If you're curious about how hides are
processed by hand you'll learn a lot here:

   http://www.niagara.com/~acavasin/rick/rcav.html
   email: cav@nortel.ca

Address:

   Rick Cavasin,
   68 Lightfoot Place,
   Kanata, ON, K2l 3L9
   Canada
   (613) 591-8612

A great source for all sorts of ethnic instruments and musical supplies
from all over the world (Australian to Zulu) is "Lark in the Morning".
Need Chinese Temple Blocks, Leather Maracas, Gourd Guiros or Bagpipes?
They have it! and much, much more!

Their web site is HUGE (largest I've encountered anywhere), with
hundreds (maybe thousands) of pictures, so be prepared to spend a lot
of time.  Their entire illustrated catalog is on-line, but all those
little pictures are slow loading.

http://www.mhs.mendocino.k12.ca.us/MenComNet/Business/Retail/Larknet/larkhp.html

 (to go directly to their catalog, use /catalog instead of /larkhp.html)

  Or, to send for a catalog ($3.00 U.S.; $6.00 elsewhere):

   Lark in the Morning,
   P.O. Box 1176,
   Mendocino, CA 95460 U.S.A.

Thanks again!

Ron Yost <ryost@fix.net>