<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> Thanks Ron and Del for your answers. There are a couple stickers for me personally that I wish you could clarify closer if you would. Let me try to explain by way of example... On the one hand you have the following statement....   <blockquote>There is far to much internal fiber damage, it will never again support the kind of internal compression needed to form the stress interface between the panel and the ribs to support crown."</blockquote> Fair enough... no problem with anything here..... then you have this..   <blockquote>"If there is still enough structural integrity left in the original panel to hold itself together I see no reason why this won't work. And work just about as well as a panel made out of new wood. The age of the wood is purely incidental. The only thing of any real consequence would be the fiber compression that has taken place over the years."</blockquote> Then I begin wondering where we are going with this point about the "consequences of fiber compression".... Follow me for a bit and you may see my problem.... Given three rib crowned panels, one of new wood, and one of old compression damaged wood, and an old panel that was rib crowned origionally. If fiber compression damage is of consequence with respect to acoustic performance then the board that was made from compression damaged wood should clearly be inferior sounding.... right ?... and if then all three sound very much the same...then doesnt it follow that this fiber compression damage is then, in itself, of no real consequence at all in this perspective. ? Do you see my quandry with this ? Ok to take things a step further then... if it turns out that fiber compression damage then is of little or no consequence to acoustic performance of said panel... then isnt this a rather large point removed in the argumentation against compression crowning to begin with ? (we arent into the structural integrity / strength of the panel assembly question just yet ok ?... ..cuz I will conceed that point no problem anyways..I first want to get at how this fiber damage eventually affect the performance capabilities of the wood isolated from all other factors.) Ok... so then we would have to confront the strength of these panels over time..and if you dont mind... can we take this one step at a time... dealing with the above first and as isolated as possible... and get into the structual strength issue in the next episode ?     Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. Bergen, Norway <A HREF="mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no">mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no</A>  </html>