Scan 112
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
10 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 96. See the scan on archive.org.
1which are known by the name 'pith rays' or 'pith bands.' By the structure of these peculiar streaks or rays, a special brilliance is imparted to the surface of the wood when split, which the workman call the looking-glass."
3In our southern mountains, whence came the wood for Stainer's violins, and to some extent also that used for the Cremonese instruments, grows the pine which makes the most excellent bellies; though even here it is only one of four varieties of pine, all well known to the mountaineers, but which remain quite unknown to the botanists. Of these four varieties of pine, which in the south Bavarian mountains and in the so-called Bavarian forests bordering on Austria and Bohemia, grows the pine which gives the best musical results—the so-called "hazel pine," though this name does not appear in any of the botanical books. The essential marks by which this pine is known are these:—a pale rose-red male flower, and a green female flower; cones which when young are light green, but which when ripe are long and of the colour of rust; and a bright green crown, visible a long way off.
5The best hazel pine is that which grows in deep valleys, well protected from winds and storms, and where the soil is rather poor; it must be of sufficient age for the tubes of the woody fibre to have become well filled out and permanent in structure. Stainer always selected his own wood, and would used none but what came from trees the tops of which had already begun to die off.
7It is a mistake to maintain, as some do, that the finer and closer the grain of the pine, the better it is suited for violin bellies; and it is equally an error to seek for the desired excellence only in pine of a very broad grain. It may be taken as a rule that the grain should be neither too fine nor too broad: for a very close grain may mean that the tree has been stunted in its development, and a very broad grain may indicate a too rapid and luxuriant growth—and in both cases the growth and development of the tree may not have been normal.
9But there are exceptions even to this rule; and while
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