New Drum Day (sort of): West Craft Drums by Kaleb Shields

The ethos for repurposing, recycling and sustainability in general runs very deep in my life. After twenty years working in and co-owning a bike shop, I saw a lot of unnecessary waste at every level of the bicycle industry. I spent much of my time and energy looking for ways to reduce our shop's waste, and also argued with sales reps and manufacturers about their penchant for trying to sell new versions of components every single year whether it was needed or not.
Since sales was the name of the game, I was seldom successful beyond the reach of our little shop. But that ethos has carried over into so many areas of my life.

I got this drum from a friend who taught music in the local middle school. I would come in and coach his drummers every spring for a token stipend, just to give them some music to play and enjoy over the summer months.
One year not quite twenty years ago, I strode into my friend's band room at the last week of the school year and found that everything was in boxes. The walls were stripped of their posters and the chairs and stands had been neatly stacked in the back of the room. My friend had not only lost his position with the school, but the district was cutting band, choir and art from the curriculum because of budget cuts. He had gotten three days' notice to vacate the room and turn in his keys.

After handing back all the district-owned instruments he was left with some odds and ends that had no district tags. No one knew where they'd come from and some had been sitting in a closet for yearts, in need of repair. He showed me a couple of snare drums, both missing heads. "Take them," he said, "I've got nowhere else for them to go and I can't pay you."

So I did.

I fixed one up and gave it to a friend who was starting a band and needed a snare drum.















I kept the other one and fixed it up enough to make it playable, and I used it on a few tracks of my album Ten Miles in 2013. I've taken it out now and then for a handful of gigs, but otherwise never did anything else with it. It's an old steel-shell snare drum from the 1980s, probably made in Japan or Taiwan and it's done its job.

As you can see, there was quite a bit of rust all over the drum, and the snares were held onto the strainer by the shoelace I had found on the drum twenty years ago when I got it. (At the time, I'd simply adjusted the snares and called it good.)

Then the pandemic came and I tore the studio apart looking for projects. I practiced Baroque recorder, I practiced rudimental drumming on my pads. And I began assembling a minimalist kit, building it around a suitcase kick drum and my old snare, with a dream of playing out for friends when the pandemic has passed.
I scouted around thrift shops and online garage sales, where I scored a rack tom in pretty awful shape. It was missing a head and the hardware was rusty; the wrap was beginning to crack and warp. Still, it was dirt cheap at only five bucks and the wood was in decent shape, so I bought it.

Eventually, I made my way to West Craft Drums, owned and operated by Kaleb Shields. I'd seen his beautifully refurbished drums for sale at Revival Drum Shop. I admired the workmanship and saw that the prices were reasonable. Since I could provide the drums I figured it was worth asking about refurb'ing mine.

We began the conversation online, reviewing the photos oI sent him, discussing options and ballpark pricing. Since he's local to me, I was able to drop them off at his place. A week and a half later, my drums were done. I picked them up today.

First, the rack tom, which I asked Kaleb to cut in half. I'd invited him to keep one half and just refurb the other for me; but he chose to treat both halves in case I decided to use them both.

The old wrap was removed and the wood underneath sanded. Then, each drum got a fresh bottom edge which was sealed with oil. Finally the both shells were stained ("just pick a nice darker color or stain, whatever you like," I'd said.)
The primary tom got "new" used hardware without so much rust, which Kaleb had cleaned up with steel wool. The "secondary" tom kept its old, rusty hardware, which he didn't need for anything. He had filled in the rack mount hole with wood putty and sealed the hole from the inside with a small patch of wool felt. If I want to, I can choose to clean up or replace the hardware on this drum later. For now, it's going into the cubby hole for storage.

The primary tom, which was cut shorter to avoid the rack mount hole, was given the star treatment, with newer hardware, and cleaned-up rim and replacement head suitable for brushes (he gave me a used one to economize and it will work just fine). This drum will sit on a snare stand just beyond the suitcase kick drum.

Each refurb'ed drum gets a lovely little badge.

And here's the finished refurbished snare drum. Kaleb thought it looked a lot like an 80's Pearl, but since Pearl also owned CB700 and other budget brands, it's possible that the drum could have been a CB700 from that time. IN any event, it wasn't a bad drum to begin with; and after resurrecting with cleaned hardware, four coats of color and three coats of clear lacquer, rebuilding with some new heads (which I'd supplied), this drum is more beautiful now than the day it came off the assembly line. Kaleb was pleased enough to feature it at his Instagram page.

It's stunning. Far more beautiful than I'd imagined. And it sounds great!
I plan to assemble the whole kit sometime in the next week, after I put the finishing touches on my crudely-built, perfectly functional suitcase kick drum.

I'll ask Sweetie to give me some time alone in the house if the weather's not horrible, and I'll put the kit through some paces and figure out if it needs anything else. When it's all where I want it to be I'll make a little video to show it all off. Stay tuned.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And happy drumming.

Although Kaleb is based in Portland he can ship all over the country. See more of his beautiful craftsmanship on Revival's web page and also at etsy.