|Some of the wood storage at
THE PARIS WORKSHOP
Many different woods are used in musical instrument making. If you live in Australia, you will probably not find many of these timbers in your local timber yard. The woods shown here are just some of the wide variety used by leading makers involved in recreating early keyboard instruments. The best harpsichords today are often made from similar, if not identical, timber species to the originals. In this regard our Northern Hemisphere colleagues have a natural advantage.
Each timber must be carefully chosen and appropriately prepared for its purpose. Probably even more important than the choice of timber is its quality and treatment—The end result cannot be certain just because a particular species is used! A most obvious example may be the arrogant use of a European spruce soundboard, poorly selected and dried, and insufficiently aged, instead of perhaps a more reliably obtainable “lesser” timber which all other design considerations being equal, would give a more desired end result.
The aesthetic consideration is also important: It may be quite incorrect, for example, or even upsetting to some, to use a highly figured hardwood as a keycovering, no matter how elegant it might seem. There are no Australian timbers found here, not because they are not beautiful or useful, but because generally we have few equivalent species to the European timbers necessary for the traditional construction practices of keyboard instruments, or even violins for that matter. (It took an American flute maker, Professor Felix Skowroneck, to discover and show us what enormous variety and beauty can be found among the natural Australian hardwoods.) What can be made from local timbers may be remarkable, but in all likelihood, meet the perception of neither player nor audience.
One of the largest problems we all face is that wood is just so useful for so many things, and has until now been so plentiful, that far too much has been wasted without thought on items of little use or doubtful lasting value. Conservation must be of utmost concern to everyone. Fortunately, many of these timbers are now farmed and can be regarded as a truly renewable resource. Others can be sourced more efficiently from ethical suppliers with regard to the preservation of our environment, or, in the case of some tropical species now becoming rare, appropriate substitutes found.
All the samples are direct scans of aged, 400-grit sanded surfaces of the actual timber.
|Alaskan yellow cedar
|Fine, light, stiff & stable, remarkable aroma||Italian cases & mouldings|
|Fine grain, distinctive aroma, highly resistant to fungal and insect attack, darkens to honey color||Italian cases, mouldings & veneers|
|Strong & light, stiff, now rare in high quality||Soundboards, bracing, large Italian cases|
|Strong & light, once used for aircraft||Bracing, soundboards|
|Uniformly fine texture, straight-grained, stiffer than basswood||Cases, panels, key levers|
|Fine, straight-grained, easy to work, comparable to the European lime (linden)||Cases, panels, key levers|
|Fine, somewhat harder surface than basswood||Case parts, trestle stands, turned & fluted legs|
|Hard, heavy, straight-grained, good for steam bending||Virginal bridges & mouldings|
|Fine texture, easy to work||Registers, jack bodies, clavichord bridges|
|Interlocking grain||Jack tongues|
|Fine, even spotted texture, good for steam bending||Bridges, mouldings, registers, turned stands, music desks & lid sticks|
|American red oak
|Hard, very coarse-textured||Wrestplanks|
|Hard, coarse-textured, attractive figure||Wrestplanks, turned stands, music desks, lid sticks|
|Hard-wearing, polishes to a fine smooth surface||Key covers|
|Soft, straight-grained, subtle figure||Bentside spinet cases, panels & turned stands|
|Medium texture, open grain, strong cabinet timber of great beauty||Fortepiano & clavichord cases; turned stands, music desks|
|Fine, often attractive wavy-grained wood||Clavichord cases & stands|
|Hard, straight-grained, takes polish well||Fortepiano cases & panels; virginal key covers|
|Very fine-grained, natural lubrication when polished||Bridges, mouldings, keycovers, jacks|
|Straight to wavy-grained with attractive color & figure||Clavichord cases & stands; Italian wrestplank veneer & accidentals|
|Extremely heavy & hard-wearing, polishes to a fine surface||Reverse key covers, solid accidentals|
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