MOONSPRUCE?

[RT 66]

Hi All
I did a forum search on the topic and nothing came up so here it is for the first time.
No its NOT a species of spruce from Transylvania, but a rather ancient method of preparing the wood for use in musical instruments, most noteably violins.
Anyway, you can read up on it here if you want.
http://www.best-eurospruce.com/4.html

According to the homepage, its a new website. Seems to have excellent prices too. The German Spruce which can be misleading he says is from Bavaria and that a lot of it is this "Moonspruce".
The process sounds reasonable if you don't have to supply a big pile to a factory.

What do you think?

RT 66

 

[sitka_spruce]

I think most things on there make sense, the only exception being the actual lunar parameters.

 

[capnjuan]

Clears it up for me....although I guess I'd always thought that 'Moonwood' was from trees that had been mooned....In addition to paper products and lutherie, there's another historical application for Spruce that has contributed to modern shortages. From an article discussing the construction of wood minesweepers:

"Few species have rays in the tangential direction, but those that do are highly preferred in marine construction due to the increased splintering resistance. The most notable are Sitka Spruce, Live Oak, and Black Locust.".
http://web.usna.navy.mil/~phmiller/en380/wood.doc

For any of you that have ever tried to split air-dried black locust for firewood, I think you'll know what they're talking about. Despite the anti-magnetic properties of fiberglass, the USN was still building wooden minesweepers at Sturgeon Bay WS in the 1980s.

Good thing peace has broken out....

 

[RT 66]

Howdy Y'all
OK! I can see right off that those Euroguys are going to have to change the name of their "Moonwood" or "Moonspruce" to something else if they are going to make a good sale on this side of the Pond.
Suggestians?
How about,
Astro Spruce?
Farmer's Almanac Spruce?
Paris Hilton Spruce?
We'll wire these guys on the new name so they can start selling it to Guild.

You might have to be an old guy to remember this, but do you remember that old Dick Tracy serial where they discovered this deep gorge on the Moon and had all these Moonpeople running around in antigravity buckets in a lush tropical environment? I always wanted one of those.
Maybe they had some Moonspruce there. And maybe some Moonoak and Moonmaple too.
Remember the Moonchick with the cute little antenaes who married an Earthguy? Not Dick though, right? I think he was a confirmed batchelor, or gay. What was her name? We could name the Moonspruce after her.
Might not be as catchy though or current as say Paris Spruce since old Dick and the boys are long gone.
Anyways, any suggestians will be will be welcome and a maybe even a vote so the Euroguys will know what to call it.

RT 66

 

[capnjuan]

Not old enough to remember Tess Truehart but I do remember B.O. Plenty and his daughter Sparkle; some discussion of Dick's 'Moon' period: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Tracy ... s_marriage

Names:
SonicSpruce
St. Cecelia Spruce for the Patron Saint of Instrument Makers
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pst00503.htm

Although she might object to the somewhat pagan image of a monk-led, torch-lit procession of woodcutters trudging up the NW side of central European mountains on lunar phase-specific dates just to moon some trees and then name the wood after her.

I"ve got suggestions but no useful ones.

 

[Graham]

Moon wood sounds kinda bogus don't you think?

Sorta like ice wine?

"Hey Boss, alla da grapes frozed last nite, I told ya this wine thing wasn't gunna work in Canada"

"No problem Vin-ie, squish 'em up and call it frozed wine"

Enter clever marketing type, "This wine tastes like glop! Throw some ice cubes in it or something. Better yet, call it ice wine and sell it at three times the original price and tell them to serve it very, very cold."

"Chin chin"

 

[capnjuan]

Quoting from the Eurospruce.com webpage:

"What now sounds new to guitar lutherie is an old tradition over here in the old world. Most violinmaker here would not discuss about it, because most of them used only moonwood, do so and will most probably ever do.".

Well, maybe, but excellence marketing practice is ever to got a reliable translator do...


From the bottom of the page:

"For learning more about moonwood and for more scientific statements please visit i.e. http://www.tonewood.ch/moonwood.html , use Wikipedia or google for moonwood. Or feel yourself.". (emphasis supplied)

Ya think it's a joke?

j