Here in Canada, the summer time is precious and must be enjoined before fall catches us again.
I find the handpan community has been trough major cultural change / evolution this summer where the ‘elitist hand playing the vibes’ thus far has been brushed away – allowing the true nature of the instrument to come into play – even Karib steel drums now seems to have toned down his furry as he himself has learned the finer tuning of his own handpans.
If you’re looking for a nice DIY site to make your own handpans and want a direct approach to tooling and such check out this page : handpanmolds.nl
Please keep in mind the original material back in the days was a oily steel drums – the older the better – so buying expensive tools and nice material will not make you a guarantied good instrument. You will need to practice many hours to ‘coordinate’ your ears to your hammer blows.
Less dints and more stretching could perhaps explain what the handpan community was been thought in its on learning curve and now is interring the finer more interesting part of tuning – stretching those tensions 😉