The finite life of wood grain

[William Monroe]

Right, Terry,

>From Answers.com:  Although considered a gem, amber is a wholly-organic 
material derived from the resin of extinct species of trees. In the dense 
forests of the Middle Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, between 10 and 100 
million years ago, these resin-bearing trees fell and were carried by rivers 
to coastal regions. There, the trees and their resins became covered with 
sediment, and over millions of years the resin hardened into amber.

Just the facts, Ma'am.........

;-]

WRM



> Picky, picky. Sure sounds good though. Come to think of it, I do think 
> I've heard a few pianos that sounded like there was some ossification 
> going on.
>
> The part that got me was the formation of amber. My geology background 
> suggests to me that even Christifori's first piano isn't old enough to 
> have a whole lot of amber forming in the soundboard.......
>
> And wood cells becoming more vacuous? So, the density of the wood changes 
> substantially? Hmmmm....
>
> Terry Farrell
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> As I understand it, ossification is the formation of bone - I'd hazard 
>> that this is not the process taking place in aging soundboards.
>>
>> William R. Monroe
>>
>>
>>
>>>     Well, "good sound" is subjective-----I'll grant them that. But the 
>>> ossification process that's occurring in old wood ( as the resins 
>>> progress on the road to becoming amber--classified as a gemstone- and 
>>> the cells become more vacuous due to this and shrinkage of the resins, 
>>> certainly effects the tone in some way. Whether you like it ( as I do ) 
>>> or not is a matter of opinion, and no-one's opinion is better than 
>>> another's.
>>>    They're just opinions.
>>>    I will say, though, that the increasing stiffness of old wood, and 
>>> the already-culminated ( for all practical purposes ) compression set 
>>> lends credence to the argument that a properly recrowned soundboard ( if 
>>> it can be effected ) is less likely to develop cracks, or fail again, in 
>>> the future.
>>>    And it saves some beautiful trees.
>>>
>>> Euphonious Thumpe