I have found that I sometimes have to be very explicit about what I mean when I say that I build these devices from scratch.  I start with an idea – no plans, no instructions, no "kit."  Then I find the raw materials I want to use.  My favourites are: hardwood, brass, copper, steel, "ivory" (i.e. antler), glass.  Sometimes I use aluminum if the thing I am making does not need to have an 18^th- or 19^th-century feel to it. I hate plastic – it has become a scourge upon the Earth.

Sometimes the wood starts out as a tree that I cut down or salvage from one of the hurricanes that are becoming so frequent where I live in Nova Scotia.

I work these into the shapes I want with various hand-tools and machines.  Brass for example, I commonly shape on a lathe.