<HTML><HEAD> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3059" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>Perhaps there is some benefit to soaking spruce for musical instruments for years or decades in salt water.  I have seen no studies to prove the point to my satisfaction.  If nothing else, the practice may have a simpler rationale behind it, i.e., postponing the milling of massive quantities of logs until it is practical to mill the logs in smaller production units.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>I have no first-hand experience with drying, seasoning, and milling lumber.  I do have a cousin in Alaska, who selects the trees from the forest, dries and mills it for some very meticulous violin makers.  According to him, if you do not rough cut the logs green, you may as well just throw it in the firewood pile.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>Frank Emerson</DIV> <DIV><A href="mailto:pianoguru@earthlink.net">pianoguru@earthlink.net</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt Arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=tunergeek@gmail.com href="mailto:tunergeek@gmail.com">paul bruesch</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To: </B><A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech List</A></DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> 3/23/2007 8:28:58 AM </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Seasoning wood: was facts and not facts : was Recommend Rebuilder?</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV><FONT size=2>This thread reminded me of a sequence of news articles a few years ago... about trees that had been discovered after many years in Lake Superior, and how violin makers wanted them desperately.  I googled <<trees "lake superior" violin>> and came up with some relevant hits: <BR><A href="http://www.exn.ca/Stories/1998/04/02/59.asp">http://www.exn.ca/Stories/1998/04/02/59.asp</A><BR><A href="http://www.pulseplanet.com/archive/Nov00/2272.html">http://www.pulseplanet.com/archive/Nov00/2272.html</A> <BR><BR> <DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 3/23/07, <B class=gmail_sendername>RicB</B> <<A href="mailto:ricb@pianostemmer.no">ricb@pianostemmer.no</A>> wrote:</SPAN> <BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">Terry<BR><BR>I've seen pictures of masses of sikta logs soaking in salt water for<BR>long periods of time. Yamaha I think I remember had these pics in one of<BR>their marketing thingys I ran into once.  Cant quite remember what the <BR>bit about salt water was... but I remember running into this again in a<BR>paper about piano building in the 1850's..<BR><BR>Perhaps you know something about why logs would be soaked in sea water<BR>for a while before drying ? <BR><BR>Cheers<BR>Ricb<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>