Moisture control of soundboard wood.

[Richard Moody]

Has there been an experiment to determine the moisture content of kiln
dried vs traditionally dried wood say 10 years after they have been
declared "cured".

We all get "notions" that really should be checked by inquiry or
experiment.  One such notion I have about kiln dried wood is that it is
more of a sponge for moisture than air cured wood.   In other words I
suspect kiln cured wood to exhibit a greater range of internal moisture, or
moisture content than air cured wood under the same condition.   I think
air cured involves 3 to 6 years while kiln dried is 3 days to 6 weeks as a
rough comparison.

I don't know if this question has been researched, and if it has I wonder
if microscopic evidence was pursued?   I wonder if it is the chemical
makeup of wood or physical characteristics that determine moisture content?

While we are on the subject of notions let me quote from Alfred Dolge,
author of Pianos and Their Makers, pub in 1911.  He was a supplier of
soundboards to the industry in from  1874 through 1910.
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    "The first specialists [of soundboard lumber] were the owners of
forests in the mountains of Bohemia and Tyrol.  Instead of sawing the logs
into boards, they were split, like the old time American fence rail, into
boards of about one inch thickness.  The clavichord or piano maker of 100
yhears ago would not have thought of using sawed lumber for his
soundboards.  He believed in the theory that sound waves traveled along the
grain of the wood, and since the saw would not follow the grain, unless the
tree had grown up perfectly straight (which no tree ever does), the piano
maker imagined that the imperceptible crossing of the grain by the saw
would interfere with the sound waves.   Today (1910) with the production of
aprox 650,000 pianos per year, all the lumber is sawed either with gang or
circular saws, and the pianos are better than ever."   p 117
    "The author revolutionized this branch of the supply business in 1874
by manufacturing finished soundboards for the trade at his mills in
Dolgeville, N.Y.  This innovation was welcomed by the piano makers, who
could now carry a full stock of boards on hand, exposing the finished board
to a thorough seasoning in their factories for as long a time as desired. "
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Ha I bet he didn't guarantee the board against "further factory seasoning"

because I don't  know why a put together soundboard would benefit from
being "seasoned" more or further than the individual pieces of wood at an
earlier stage.   Or if it doesn't crack as an assembled board during
"thorough seasoning" it should not crack for a long time after mounted in a
piano, I suppose was the reasoning.   In small print I bet....."But if it
does (crack), don't blame us"

---ric