Official Luthiers Forum!

No, not a joke. Any arborist will tell you when the best time to cut or trim your trees is. Those principles have been in place for centuries. Heres a couple of quick sites to gleam the principles behind the methods.

http://www.ecodesignarchitects.co.za/ecodesign-projects/current-projects/category/22-moonphase-wood-harvesting.html

http://www.tonewood.ch/moonwood.html

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Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

Yes, trees vary with the phase of the moon, as well as with the season. There is nothing preposterous about the idea that living organisms have cycles that track the lunar cycle. Such patterns are seen in organisms from one-celled to humans.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cac ... X3rGSJT0lQ

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I suppose this post has the potential to be a thread killer, which I regret, as the discussion about laminated necks is interesting. However, as a forest tree scientist with 35+ years’ experience and a bunch of formal qualifications, I wanted to bring some of the fact-vs-myth discussion down to earth. I don't mean to step on anyone's toes or single out statements made in the vein "Yes, of course it's true, everyone knows that!", but some may feel that's what I'm doing.

Does the season of harvesting affect log moisture content and thus durability (resistance to fungi/insect decay) prior to processing? Absolutely, and temperature also affects how these organisms will attack wood.

But, what about this "lunar phase" business on “wood quality”? The impact of lunar phase on growth rhythms and particularly wood moisture content has been something of an obsession for Earnest Zücher, who is the usual scientific authority cited as confirming the "ancient rules". Unlike most members of this forum, I have university access to scientific literature search engines and can review many electronic journals on-line. Zücher's latest effort to investigate lunar phase on wood water relations was just published this year (2010) in the peer-reviewed journal Trees: Structure and Function (24: 31-41). He took over 3400 samples of Norway spruce sapwood and heartwood, and indeed found small but statistically significant variation with lunar phase in moisture content, shrinkage on drying, and relative density (green:oven-dry ratio). In fact, all of these criteria are directly related to moisture content itself (any wood at lower MC will shrink less and have a lower relative density). This is easily the largest single study on the subject to date, but Zücher himself concludes “These first large-scale results however do not permit the estimation of the practical validity of single traditional rules: here too, further research is needed, especially on dimensional stability under changing hygrometry and concerning the effect on wood durability against decay.”

What to draw from this? Moisture content certainly varies with season and, it seems, to a much lesser extent with lunar phase. Freshly cut wood with higher moisture content is more vulnerable to decay and is both more difficult and requires more energy to dry to service moisture content. Is freshly cut wood with less moisture more “stable” or superior in any other quality? Zücher makes no such claims (although "moon-wood" merchants often do), nor could I find any scientific evidence to support that statement, and in fact there are a several articles that claim to have proven that this is NOT the case.

Water relations in wood and the drying of wood are complex topics, but fundamental to the processing and utilisation of timber. Freshly cut wood that has less moisture is easier to dry, requires less energy, and will “move” less during the drying process. However, if wood is dried properly, there is NO evidence of differences in behaviour of the dried wood related to original green moisture content. It is much more likely that the “ancient rules” around the felling of wood when moisture content is likely lower evolved to decrease its vulnerability to decay and hopefully make drying of timber easier.

Good stuff, thank you Tim.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

No worry Tim. Doesn't have to be a thread killer at all. It didn't have anything to do with the original post anyway but I do find the whole notion, um, interesting. Could be fun to toss that one around in a separate thread over Christmas.

Dennis, I think your laminated heel is a cool idea. The book match looks good. I think I might give that a try.


I would that effort. That would be a tough one being the number of variables you would have working against you. I suppose if you used the same body and just change necks it would eliminate some. You'd more than likely want to do a full bolt on. I'm guessing your not a bolt on type of guy Todd?

Danny still dreaming of the big Mahogany board in the PRS clip.