A good wood for soundboard crafting for excellent lutherie instruments should have close and uniform growth rings, a good workability and a solid strength-to-weight ratio. Just a small percentage of the trees is selected for soundboard crafting: once the best tree trunks have been chosen (the specimen in the photo is 200 years old), they … Continue reading Lutherie wood: Val di Fiemme’s spruce
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Willow is one of the most used woods when it comes to lutherie. In the past it was mainly used for crafting blocks and linings, thanks to its firmness and workability. This tree grows in humid areas and in fact we often find it alongwatercourses, where it propagates easily both by seed and by cutting. … Continue reading Lutherie wood: Willow (Salix nigra)
Only part of the trunk is used and made into quarters, then split again manually along the fiber and its grain. This last phase is crucial in order to check for any flaws, such as knots, resin pockets and alterations that would not otherwise be seen with the use of mechanical saws.
Most of the logs are sent to the sawmill to be sawn into lumber; only a small part of it will be carefully chosen for the production of soundboards. The trunks chosen are mostly large plants that in these mountain climatic conditions range from 100-200 and over (20-50 cubic meters per year).
One of the most important places in Italy where resonance wood can be found is Paneveggio. The spruce forests are located between 1450 and 2050 metres above sea level. There, the trees can reach more than 2.5 metres of width at their base, in an optimal high mountain climate. The state forest of Paneveggio is … Continue reading The forest of Paneveggio