Acoustic and Mechanical Modified Wood Characterization for Woodwind Use
Bastien Talgorn, Vincent Gibiat, Diane Dubrisay, Jerome Selmer · 2010
African Blackwood and other rare species of wood, used for centuries by instrument makers may in the near future be protected or of decreasing quality. More basic species cannot be used to build high quality instruments for mechanical and acoustical reasons. We show that it is possible to modify these woods in order to built woodwinds. We compare their mechanical properties, obtained through ultrasonic measurements, with the constraints of the size of the samples, with the mechanical properties of high quality African Blackwood samples. The experimental set up compatible with the samples used by instrument makers will be described, the rationale that leads to the elastic constants presented and the results for unmodified wood, modified wood and African Blackwood samples detailed We show that our modifications give to the modified wood mechanical properties comparable to that of the African Blackwood giving a wood alternative to the use of rare wood species.