Hello Martin, There's the address for one.
According to Sacconi, Stradivarius used ebony dust mastic for his inlays, and veneered his necks in ebony - but then he is a bit later. All the artists I know tell me that black doesn't exist - the only "old" blacks I've heard of are burnt things, like ivory (!) and bone, or the bits in the smoke, i.e. soot/lampblack. I can't imagine a solvent that would make such large particles penetrate. Still thinking and got to go to work, Tony ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Shepherd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2007 10:01 AM Subject: [LUTE] black stain > Dear All, > > Apologies - probably this should go just to the lutebuilder list (if it > still exists) but I can't remember the address. > > I'm trying to reduce my use of ebony, partly for reasons of authenticity > and partly because I simply don't like getting covered in black dust! > So the question is, what kind of stains could the Old Ones have used and > what could I use now? The items and requirements in question are: > > 1. Pegs - probably made from plum or holly - need to have good depth of > stain to allow small adjustments when fitting. > > 2. Bridges - probably made from pear or plum - no need for great > penetration. (I would never dream of making a bridge out of ebony, of > course - at the moment I use pear, stained with indian ink or acrylic > black, the latter being obviously the most authentic alternative!) > > 3. Fillets between ribs - probably made from sycamore - good penetration > needed and absence of bleeding essential! The nice thing about ebony is > it doesn't bleed and it's the same colour all the way through, but I > think the Old Ones used it rarely, if at all. > > 4. Neck - I rather like the idea of a thin dark stain, not uniformly > black, on a beech neck. I wondered if any dark stain could be added to > a drying oil like linseed oil so that one ended up with a more or less > matt finish which did not lose its colour when scratched by fret knots, > etc. I'm mindful of the fact that the little treble lute in Vienna > (C39) has a beech neck (though the dark colour may just be due to age) > and also of the Mary Burwell lute tutor whose author is very much > against veneering the neck with ebony because it's "cold" and the frets > slip too easily - also he/she seems very keen on keeping the weight to a > minimum. Avoiding ebony (except for the fingerboard) could result in a > considerable weight saving/change in balance for an 11c lute. > > Your thoughts, please! > > Martin > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
