I am a life long woodworker, and have extensive extensive experience with many different species of woods. I have built nearly 1600 plinths for the LP12, the Garrard 301/401, and the Thorens TD124. I made the armwands for the Teres Illius tonearm, and have been working on a tonearm design of the past several years. I also build instruments as a hobby.
Wood is a great material for a tonearm wand, what separates the end results, are exactly what wood is chosen, species, grain orientation, age, moisture content, how it is worked, and how it is finished.
Some woods are more susceptible to continuous change corresponding with environmental changes than others. Some wood species, if there is no internal tension, are very stable after the sap moisture in the wood has come to relative equilibrium. Changes in relative humidity have less of an effect on some of these woods. Internal tensions can be mostly sorted out in the wood selection stage, and can be very effectively further checked in the preparation stages of turning the wood into arm wands, or whatever.
Quality instrument makers prepare neck blanks by rough milling, and then storing them. Then years later, roughing out the neck shape, cutting the neck top plane, and neck sides, then leting the blanks 'rest' again. After some time, if the blank has proven itself to be stable, it is finished into a neck. This is a relaible method for taking the factor of warpage out of a wooden item like a tonearm wand.
Vacuum wood stabilization is very effective in checking wood movement, as well as increasing the damping factor in a given wood. To someone above who questioned the 'integrity' or 'ethics' of stabilizing wood, or whether or not stabilization with vacuum impregnated polymers turns the wood into plastic, no, it is still wood. And how many metal arms out there that employ some sort of damping strategy to reach a desired end result? Many top instrument builders say that the finish actually does more than just protect the wood, that the finish is part of the synergy that comes together in tempering an instruments 'sound'. The changes that occur to a piece of wood that is vacuum stabilized, still leave the treated piece of wood well within the range of mechanical characteristics that make wood a desirable material to work with, only more stable, and perhaps with more desirable sonic characteristics, in the case of a tonearm wand.
I have one of those Cherry tonearms that were sold here on agon, it was given to me by a customer who I built a deck for . It IS warped. However, it is clear from looking at it, that very little was done to prevent warpage. It is not stabilized, and it is not shaped in a way that would tend to prevent it from warping. To compare those Cherry tonearms with a Reed, or a Schroeder, is like comparing apples and oranges, it has no relation.
Wood is a great material for a tonearm wand, what separates the end results, are exactly what wood is chosen, species, grain orientation, age, moisture content, how it is worked, and how it is finished.
Some woods are more susceptible to continuous change corresponding with environmental changes than others. Some wood species, if there is no internal tension, are very stable after the sap moisture in the wood has come to relative equilibrium. Changes in relative humidity have less of an effect on some of these woods. Internal tensions can be mostly sorted out in the wood selection stage, and can be very effectively further checked in the preparation stages of turning the wood into arm wands, or whatever.
Quality instrument makers prepare neck blanks by rough milling, and then storing them. Then years later, roughing out the neck shape, cutting the neck top plane, and neck sides, then leting the blanks 'rest' again. After some time, if the blank has proven itself to be stable, it is finished into a neck. This is a relaible method for taking the factor of warpage out of a wooden item like a tonearm wand.
Vacuum wood stabilization is very effective in checking wood movement, as well as increasing the damping factor in a given wood. To someone above who questioned the 'integrity' or 'ethics' of stabilizing wood, or whether or not stabilization with vacuum impregnated polymers turns the wood into plastic, no, it is still wood. And how many metal arms out there that employ some sort of damping strategy to reach a desired end result? Many top instrument builders say that the finish actually does more than just protect the wood, that the finish is part of the synergy that comes together in tempering an instruments 'sound'. The changes that occur to a piece of wood that is vacuum stabilized, still leave the treated piece of wood well within the range of mechanical characteristics that make wood a desirable material to work with, only more stable, and perhaps with more desirable sonic characteristics, in the case of a tonearm wand.
I have one of those Cherry tonearms that were sold here on agon, it was given to me by a customer who I built a deck for . It IS warped. However, it is clear from looking at it, that very little was done to prevent warpage. It is not stabilized, and it is not shaped in a way that would tend to prevent it from warping. To compare those Cherry tonearms with a Reed, or a Schroeder, is like comparing apples and oranges, it has no relation.