Make Your Own Cymbal

19/09/2026

Brilliant session today, Becky made this 16" crash cymbal and personalised it in the best way possible - by writing on it with sharpie! Love it!

The dual surface finish is popular at the moment, lathing only part of the top of the cymbal means you can see your hammering work as well as the shiny stuff the lathing reveals.

Booking now for autumn and beyond, gift cards available at the newly designed site: https://www.makeyourowncymbal.com/

13/09/2026

Make Your Own Cymbal has had a rebuild.

The standard experience is still a three-hour, one-to-one session in Bristol where you make your own 16-inch crash cymbal from finest Turkish B20 bronze — no experience needed.

You can now buy the full experience online, download a gift voucher straight away, or choose your own gift-card amount if you’d rather contribute towards a session. Gift cards can also be combined.

Christmas isn’t that far away, apparently.

Have a look:

Make your own cymbal in a one-to-one hands-on workshop in Bristol. Hammer and lathe real B20 bronze, then take home your finished cymbal. Gift vouchers available.

30/08/2026

Thanks to the students and volunteers from UniBrass for booking a cymbal-making Q&A and hand-hammering demo. It was the first time welcoming so many people to the workshop and I'm very pleased with how it went.

Several of the participants had a go at hand-hammering, and now I'll finish the cymbal we were working on ready to donate to a good cause.

I'd love to say I was prepared with time to spare, but the truth is I was assembling Ikea chairs until about 3 minutes before they arrived! Pressure is often a good motivator.

If you're interested in booking a cymbal-making presentation and / or demo, get in touch and let's make it happen!

24/08/2026

An amazing Make Your Own Cymbal session with Anthony over the weekend - very creative and enjoyable. He guided his 22" Turkish cymbal blank into this beautiful partially-lathed versatile Ride.

Get in touch to book your session! Gift cards available.

https://www.makeyourowncymbal.com/

20/08/2026

David Nathanial Jones getting a really, really good look at how closely matched these 22" Ride Cymbals' profiles are, with Henry not really helping.

https://www.makeyourowncymbal.com/

Just finished a very enjoyable and very deeply-dived 2 days' cymbal making with Dave. Showed him some new tehniques, talked about the philosophy and psychology of cymbal making, and drank *plenty* of coffee.

14/08/2026

I currently have the second half of November available for training bookings, following the Norway Drum Show on the 14th and 15th. Because I'll already be travelling, I'm happy to do deals for bookings in Europe / Scandinavia, so let me know if you'd like to talk about learning with me at your own premises.

Buddy up with another cymbal maker to split the cost, and I'm also open to the idea of collaborative events / demos.

I'd also travel further afield (anywhere in the world). Let's talk!

13/08/2026

Who am I to tell others how to make cymbals? Here's a quick bio.

Meet Dave Collingwood, Bristol cymbalsmith and teacher behind Make Your Own Cymbal. From touring drummer to self-taught maker and teacher of cymbalsmiths worldwide.

04/08/2026

Learn about cymbal-making with me and a bunch of other makers & cymbal nerds from around the world. https://www.patreon.com/collingwoodcymbals Beginner to pro, deep dives & passing interests all welcome. Tomorrow's online group meet is open to all Patreon members, as is the growing library of 500+ posts covering what you need to know as a cymbalsmith. Tutorials, interviews, essays... get involved!

01/08/2026

Anyone interested in cymbal-making beyond my Make Your Own Cymbal sessions, I host a community via Patreon with regular tutorials and meetings. New membership levels available very soon for learning either casually or as a deep-dive.

Following a bit of a sanity-retreat from much of social media and the dreaded-but-necessary "content", I'm stepping back into Patreon https://www.patreon.com/collingwoodcymbals with some renewed energy and will be running the August Group Cymbalsmith Meeting via Google Meet this coming Wednesday, August 5th. Open to all subscribed Patreon members, whether actively making cymbals, just interested, or anything inbetween.

New tiers and training levels will be added very soon, signing up now gives access to the 500+ posts to date including video tutorials, interviews, concepts, insights and so on.