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.... 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.
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