N E W 5 - O C T A V E H A R P S I C H O R D S
I N T H E N E A P O L I T A N S T Y L E
Making the Soundboard Rosettes
End-grain wood used as a backing for punching
In order to be able to punch through the vellum and parchment-backed wood it is necessary to have a a backing which will yield to the punch in a vertical direction without any pulling of the grain horizontally. The only way to do this is with end-grain wood. The cheapest and easiest way to do this was by using a commercially available butcher's block. Various woods were found to be satisfactory including maple (sycamore), beech and obeche. A large block of pear from a trunk of wood cut across the grain was also found to work well.
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