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Re: [Phys-l] Master Violin Materials



Michael Edmiston wrote:
.... A biochemist retired from Texas A&M University, Joseph Nagyvary has been publishing work about violins since about 1978. He also makes and sells violins that are mistaken for and sometimes believed better than the "Italian Masters."

His website is:

http://www.nagyvaryviolins.com/

One of his early discoveries was that the pit-hole membranes in the wood of the old violins are missing. His idea was that the water-logged wood in Venice subjected the wood to bacteria or fungi that "ate" these membranes. No doubt the fungi used by Fran­cis Schwar­ze is doing the same type of thing to the wood.

But Nagyvary has shown there is more to it than this.

In one reference (Nature v444 Nov 2006) Nagyvary also mentions the practice of
boiling and baking wood.
It is well known that steam and water make woods pliable, and that ammonia solutions can produce
wood laths with the consistency of prepared spaghetti. These methods were known to antiquity,
no doubt. My interest was piqued by the proposition that named fungi can serve to provide wood of
a desirable quality.

This lead me to inquire where such fungi are to be obtained. A person wrote me from Yale
Physics Dept to mention that both USDA and a Canadian research entity offer catalogs of named fungi.

At first glance the USDA entity does not catalog the Physiporinus strain for Spruce application,
but does register the Xylaria strain. In the course of the initial search I happened on the Belgian fungus facility which provides
surprisingly facile on-line ordering of priced, named, fungal goods in commercial style.

This appears to be a topic at which one can dabble with some hope of producing interesting results.
I did read a warning though - that some fungi can be pathogenic, so one needs a certain caution.

Thank you for responding.

Brian W
For the new vi­o­lins, Schwar­ze uses Nor­we­gian spruce wood treated
with the fun­gus / Physi­por­i­nus vit­rius/ and syc­a­more treated with
/ Xy­laria lon­gipes/. /snip/ "

*****


I wonder if strains of such fungi can be obtained commercially?

Brian W