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Matthew, We're glad you liked the video. I"m pretty sure you can get a psaltery from the Hindman, Kentucky Artisan center,. If not, they surely can tell you where a psaltery might be available.

We]re glad you liked the video and thank you so much for such a nice compliment on my voice. As you may have noticed on RUclips, we like documenting these old customs that are fading with time. We've done them on chair caning, on a charming old-time banjo player. and on the American chestnut, among others. We're thinking about doing one on a long-time but now retired square dance caller from this area. We are learning that some callers have a unique style and are very good at interposing their own rhymes for the standard moves. We think that needs to be documented. Nina Cornett

That's a real compliment, jirdanson66, and we appreciate it very much. Thanks for being so perceptive.

Our pleasure. We love documenting these old skills.

Our pleasure. We love documenting these old skills.

Thanks for the compliment. I had never heard of a double knife before you mentioned it. Don't know if Randy had. Would it work on a curved surface like a small log?

Yep.

It actually doesn't have three rollers, just two. Something about the angle of the shot makes it look that way. I don't know what gear the transmission is running in. We should have included that, though

That's very interesting information.It seems amazing that five acres could produce so many 55 gallon drums. How long did it take you to squeeze the juice and then to boil it down? And what did you use for heat? I can't imagine keeping a fire going long enough to boil that much sap down.

@@curtiscornett sorry dean I dont always check to see if my keys worked. I have letter miss once in a while as the content shows. It was 15 acres and the heat source was a converted cb1500 boiler they converted to run on propane. last run from my grandfathers farm (eventually my uncles) was in 1998

@@wjgoh653 It's a shame that is gone too.

@@curtiscornett paper company sold back in 84, assorted farms all sold by 2006. the Mann family had nearly 3k acres split between the boys and one daughter. All the children managed to become doctors, lawyers, engineers(me and my cousin Donny) and professional marketing managers. out of 8 of us, I was the only one that continued to ranch and farm and now am retiring myself. Moving on to the last farm plot and going to try sorgam corn and hay silage for my stock. Thanks again for the vid, so nice to remember.

@curtiscornett • 0 seconds ago Not sure which video the comment applies to. If it's Lee Sexton, Lee didn't sing at all. He just alternated talking and playing .

It was a real pleasure for us to have known him for the time we did. He was a great story teller, and told us a number if stories that aren't in the video. He was the genuine article, no pretense, just his natural self all the time.

I'm not sure why you're having trouble with sound. None on this end that we know of, and it appears on several cable channels including KET (PBS). Regret we can't help.

Thanks for all that good information, and in such helpful detail.

He was a pleasure to be around. He enjoyed his music and his stories as much as his audience did. You were lucky to have spent a lot of time with him.

Amen.

Thks, Mr. Shaw. A lot of people have taken the time to explain the ins and out j=s of banjo o us and we appreciate all of them.

Since you clearly know more about banjo than we do, we bow to your knowledge. Thanks for the correction.

Congratulations. He was a really genuine person.

We do too. Either the genetically modified ones, once approved, or some of the backcrosses, or both. Either way it would be great to have them back in Appalachia. There's a lot of activity right now - people finding saplings that are bearing and collecting pollen before they succumb to the blight, nursery forests being established, etc. Lots of hope.

Thanks very much, Preston. It's nice to know people have found and liked what we post.

It is so great that you have trees and plan to plant more.

That is so great. They are such wonderful trees,

So many sprouts die before they bear that it's great to hear about Have you contacted anyone from the American Chestnut Foundation? I'm sure they'd love to collect pollen. I've eaten chinquapins but never American chestnuts. Would love to some time.

Thank you very much for your comment.o It's one of the more perceptive we've received. We had a friend who constantly told people, "The world is a seamless web." He was right.

Thanks for the compliment. It is a shame we humans are so short-sighted and do so much damage.

Thank you. As we put the video together, we were struck with how easy Lee made his chords look. His fingers moved up and down the chords so fluidly and he hardly seemed to need to exert pressure.

Calvin, We're glad you liked the video. It was filmed in Letcher County, Kentucky. The county lies in the Cumberland Mountains right on the Virginia border.

@@curtiscornett Thank you very much, I love that area. Might you know how good Internet access is in that region please? I work as a computer programmer and need good Internet access.

There's an effort to bring good high-speed internet into this rural county, but my assessment would be that it has generally been spotty. Some places have high-speed and others not. We have a local provider of internet and cable TV which is not bad, but not good enough to upload large video files at acceptable speeds. We get ads from Hughes.net, which I think probably provides service through satellite, but we haven't explored that. Whether what we have would meet your needs would depend, I think, on what kind of download and upload speed you'd require. Not related to internet, but if you'd like to know more about the county in general, you might want to take a look at the website www.whyletchercounty.org.

You're welcome, Michael. The North Fork of the Kentucky originates here in this county, so it's nice to hear from someone at the end of the river.

They were, weren't they? It's nice to know they still go on here and there.

We filmed, but friends grew the cane. I'm not good at estimating acreage, but based on the fact that a football field is about an acre, I'd guess it was less than an acre. Even maybe half an acre.

Thank you for watching and we agree that Lee is a national treasure. You sound as if you know banjos. With respect to the question of clawhammer, Lee does use two fingers but that does not preclude clawhammer. While there is some controversy and disagreement on definitions, the bulk of the sources we found specify that the index or middle finger plus the thumb [just two fingers] are essential clawhammer For instance, see this quote: "Simply put: clawhammer describes a method of playing where the strings are struck using the back of your index or middle finger nail, then alternately plucked with your thumb. This is in comparison to 3-finger style, where the strings are all plucked individually by the thumb, index, and middle fingers. The term ‘clawhammer' refers both to the shape of your hand as you play (claw-like), and the way that you strike the strings (by hammering them). Clawhammer banjo is most closely associated with ‘old-time' tunes and traditional American music." It's true that Lee, through a lifetime of playing, took clawhammer to new places. As the documentary indicates, people did wonder how he got so many notes from two fingers,

@@curtiscornett actually he used to play clawhammer until his hand was tore up by a raccoon. This style is called 2 finger. Clawhammer is only down strokes, whereas 2 finger (using the same rhythm) is down with the thumb and up with the index. Clawhammer is softer, 2 finger style is sharper.

We suspect your banjo knowledge is greater than ours, so we bow to you, Thanks for the correction.

@@twospiritbanjo Your banjo knowledge is greater than ours so we bow to that expertise. Thanks for the correction.

Shirley, You are always so perceptive and acute in your reactions, you make a great audience. We appreciate your comments. Ninety-three degrees here today and I guess we're lucky we're not in Seattle.

We hope you do. We tried to do it partly as a tutorial.

Terry, We are aware of your Uncle Chester. He 's featured in the book, "The Caudills of the Cumberlands," witten by Anne Caudill. He made a chair for Anne and her husband Harry, who wrote "Night Comes to the Cumberlands," among other books.

Beata, It would be hard to find a cane press like the one we filmed, because it's over 100 years old and was designed originally for mule power. You can find smaller, more modern presses, though. Just search Amazon, Ebay, Overstock, etc for "cane press" or "sugar cane press." They seem to cost upward of $225,and mostly seem meant to be used indoors. Some are powered by electricity but most are manually cranked. Their usefulness, I suspect, would depend on how much cane you want to press.

@@curtiscornett, I am so after the old one, we want to start a sorghum plantation to help villagers in Congo start making a living out of it, we will get a training on how the whole process is done so we will know how to set it up once we are there.

@@beatamafulu2405 Beata, Your proposal to obtain a cane press and start a village industry in the Congo sounds as if it has possibilities. One of the benefits is that many villages could share one press, as they did in earlier days in the US. Your propinquity to the equator also means that you could grow sugar cane as well as sorghum cane, which might give you options. Unfortunately, while there are still old horse- and mule-driven cane presses here and there in this area and here and there elsewhere in the southern US, we don't know of any for sale. However, we will mention on Facebook that you are seeking one, and perhaps someone will see our notice who knows of one. If so, we will get back to you with that information

@@curtiscornett wow! We will so much appreciate that. Thank you so much. Hope we get a positive reply. In That area they do not need money to improve their life, they need knowledge, this is what we want to do in that part of the world showing them how they can transform things with what many will call in the west traditional way. Thank you so much will keep you posted of the progress. Here is my email address: Conquise81@gmail.com.

​@@beatamafulu2405 Beata, Thanks so much for the email address. Please do keep us apprised of progress. We will put your email address in the Facebook post so that people can contact you directly if they do have a lead to a press., but we would be pleased to know how things go.

Thank you for the nice comment.

Thank you very much, Sandee. Until we ourselves watched and filmed, we too didn't appreciate the time and skill that goes into one chair. Randy let me do a little of the bark peeling, and I can say from experience that it's very hard the get the thickness right, and not end with pieces too thin or with holes in them. Randy could have used a chainsaw to cut the tree, but he wanted people to understand how our ancestors did it.

MG, we don't know of anyone near you to do this, If the video doesn't have quuite enough detail, there is also guidance in the Foxfire books. Together, they might be enough. Sorry we can't help and hope it works out for you.

@@curtiscornett ty for your time and consideration God bless

Thanks very much. It is our pleasure to document these old skills as they occurred in the old days. We're glad you enjoyed it.

@@curtiscornett You really do a great job! Keep the great vids coming!

Loy, In researching in the process of making this video, we ran onto a video showing the process of making wood strips to cane with. I can't be sure the wood was white oak, but the process looked exactly as you describe.

Thank you, Louise. We are glad to help preserve old skills especially those that have held on so long in Appalachia.

Thanks, Amy. Glad you liked it.