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For almost 40 years, Vic Firth Inc. has produced the finest drumsticks and mallets available. Innovative design coupled with uncompromising quality control - highlighted by the recent improvements to our proprietary tone pairing system - truly provide our customers with the "Perfect Pair". It is this commitment that makes us the world's largest manufacturer of drumsticks and mallets. We'd like to take you on a tour of our production facilities in Newport, Maine. Each segment of our manufacturing process is highlighted below, with links to more information, pictures and video! |
Here's an overview of each step in the manufacturing process:
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As
every Vic Firth drumstick passes through the manufacturing process,
it is inspected and reinspected to ensure the highest quality product. |
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After reaching the proper moisture level, pallets of wooden squares are brought into our manufacturing facility. Each wooden square is then processed individually into a round dowel. |
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The wood dowels are then carefully inspected and graded into several categories, based on color, grain straightness, mineral streaks, blemishes and structural defects. |
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To become a Vic Firth drum stick, a system of grinding takes place. The dowels are positioned in front of a stone grinding wheel which is turning at a high speed. The dowels are spun and pressed into the wheel which grinds the wheel profile into the stick. |
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Most of our timpani mallets and bass drum beaters are not made on centerless grinders, but instead on a lathe that is called a "back knife". The wood dowel is loaded between centers and spun at a very high speed. Then, the carriage strokes the length of the wood and cuts off the excess. Finally, a knife cuts the profile of the stick. |
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Sticks or mallets with complex profiles are shaped on a machine known as a "CNC", or Computer Numerical Control. The CAD specifications for the stick are first loaded into the computer. As the dowel is spun at a high rate of speed, the computer selects a particular type of knife to cut the profile as determined by the numerical configurations of the design. |
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All clear finished sticks are placed into large hexagonal tumblers. Small wooden balls are added to the tumblers to carry the finish to the tapered part of the sticks. After being inspected once more for all possible defects, sticks that meet our quality standards are printed with our logo. |
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VIII. Weight Sorting The stick is checked one more time for straightness by rotating it under an infared fiber optic sensor. As the stick is rotated, the computer detects any variation in the straightness of the stick. The sticks are then loaded on a conveyor and are placed one at a time on a computer scale. The computer records the weight of each stick and places it into a bin containing sticks of a specific weight. |
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IX. Tone Pairing The sticks are loaded into a testing station where they are struck three times as they rotate under a hammer. The computer analyzes the frequency spectrum to find the value of the fundamental frequency that the stick produces. The computer records this hertz cycle and places it into a bin of sticks with a matching hertz frequency. |
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X. Color Matching & Packaging After the sticks have been weight & tone sorted, an operator then chooses two sticks from each bin that match in color and places them in our pairing sleeves. A label is then applied to each pair, along with a bar code. The paired sticks are then "bricked" into groups of 12, bound, shrink wrapped and shipped to our distributors. |