The pair were among several instrument makers and crafts people holding demonstrations and selling their wares at the four-day event at Exhibition Park.

John, 66, a joiner by trade, at one time had his son Andrew as an apprentice.

Andrew went on to become a guitar maker and two years ago encouraged his father to take up the craft. ''He said, 'here's a design, make a ukulele', here I am two years down the track, 200 ukuleles in,'' John said.

''Now I'm his apprentice.''

John said kitchens he crafted had been featured in a number of lifestyle magazines and had won prizes.

''But none of those make your heart sing like someone picking up an instrument that you've made and playing it well,'' he said.

Ilja Grawert had driven to Canberra from Brisbane for the weekend to sell his handmade violins and cellos.

Mr Grawert took up the craft at his home in northern Germany as a 17-year-old apprentice, inspired in part by his father, who was also a violin maker.

''When I was 15, I was thinking whether I wanted to become a concert organ maker, or a piano maker, or a violin maker and it was a pure practical decision because as a violin maker you don't need much machinery, it's all handcraft work and I like that,'' he said.

To craft the instruments Mr Grawert uses European spruce and maple and each instrument takes him between 160 and 240 hours, or about a month to month and a half of full time work, to complete.

''I just love it, it's very satisfying, it's beautiful to have a piece of timber and then later to have it produce beautiful music,'' he said.

The National Folk Festival finishes on Monday night.