Last summer at the Farmers Market, my banjo suffered a serious injury -- a cracked nut. (The nut is the slotted thing at the end of the neck, near the tuners, that holds the strings in place.) The nut held together for almost a year, but finally about a week ago, it succumbed, and the first string fell out of place. I thought about buying a new one from www.elderly.com, but instead of shelling out 55 cents, I decided to make a new one out of a small piece of hardwood. I think what I found was either oak or maple (I'm good at identifying live trees, but not types of cut wood.) It took some cutting, shaving and sanding, but I made a passable nut in less than an hour.
In the picture, I'm holding the old, cracked nut next to the new one in place on the banjo neck.
Here's a sample of what it sounds like now (it's a traditional fiddle tune on which I'm a little rusty):
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