Welcome to my luthier workshop!

Hello! 

My name is Jouni Kurki and i am a luthier and musician from Finland. I began building musical instruments in the 1980s. I mainly work with handworking tools and make individual musical instruments such as classical guitars, kanteles, ukuleles and djembe-drums.

The materials I use are primarily domestic and european woods and I avoid the usage of tropical timber whenever it is possible. Nowadays I am also using more shellack frenchpolish, oils and waxes for finishing, instead of plastic or other synthetic varnishes. This makes the instruments a bit more fragile towards scratches, but I find it better soundwise. For gluing i partly use hideglue.

My workshop is located in a small rural village called Leppävirta, in Eastern Finland. I am collaborating with a couple of luthiers there to produce Finnish zithers called Kantele, which have an excellent sound and advantaged artistical design.

Thank you for your visit!

Jouni