How drumsticks are made

The world's biggest drumstick maker skips the lathe and grinds its sticks to shape underwater.

stations: 8
things upstream: 30
raw sources: 8
steps from the ground: 8

The short version

Most drumsticks start as straight-grained hickory, kiln-dried and sawn into square blanks. At Vic Firth's Maine plant the blanks skip the lathe and are ground under water in several abrasive stages, which keeps them cool and straight. Finished sticks are paired by weight, color and the pitch they ring at when struck, then stamped and sealed.

Kiln-dry the hickory

Hickory is the usual choice, with maple second and oak third. Vic Firth's plant buys hickory from Tennessee and kiln-dries it, and in 2008 it went through 75 pallets a day.

Goes in
Lumber
Reject wavy grain

Workers examine the wood again and again for defects. Only straight grain passes. Waves break up the long fibers and weaken a stick, so figured wood that a furniture maker would prize gets thrown out.
Cut square blanks

Planks are cut into square strips a little longer and thicker than the finished stick.
Grind under water

Abrasive wheels take the blank down in several stages, all under water. The maker calls this very accurate and very fast, and the water stops the machines from burning the stick. Each shaft tapers toward a slightly convex shoulder and then the tip.
Form the tip

The tip, or bead, is shaped from the same piece of wood. Common shapes are acorn, barrel, oval, teardrop, pointed and round.
Glue on a nylon tip

Some sticks get a nylon tip instead, a design on sale since 1958. Nylon tips last longer and give a brighter sound on cymbals.

Goes in
Nylon Adhesive
Pair sticks by tone

Sticks are sorted by color, weight and the frequency they sound when struck, so a pair feels alike in the hand. A machine now does this.
Stamp and finish

The logo and a size such as 7A or 5B are stamped on, and the stick typically gets a clear finish.

End of the lineDrumstick

Worth repeating

Vic Firth got the idea for matching sticks by pitch after dropping a bag of them in his basement and hearing different notes.
A wavy hickory or tiger maple grain that looks beautiful on furniture is junk to a drumstick maker, because it makes the stick weak.
Nylon tips were introduced in 1958, and acetal tips arrived in the 1970s.