Reversible and irreversible effects of mild thermal treatment on the properties of wood used for making musical instruments: comparing mulberry to spruce

Thermal treatments can be considered as an accelerated ageing, bringing partly similar changes in properties as naturally aged wood. Thermal treatment was applied on white mulberry ( Morus alba L.), a dominant species for making musical instruments from middle-East to Far-East, to investigate the effects on the vibro-mechanical and physical properties of this wood, and the results compared to previously published data on spruce ( Picea abies Karst.) as a reference for the soundboard of Western string instruments. Thermal treatment (TT) at 150 °C and 0% of relative humidity was applied to five anal-ogous groups of specimens with five different durations (2.5, 8, 24, 72, 261 hours). Humidity re-conditioning of specimens was done to explore the reversibility of TT effects. Physical and vibrational properties such as specific gravity ( γ ), equilibrium moisture content (EMC), CIELab colorimetric values, specific modulus of elasticity ( E ’/ γ ) and damping coefficient (tan δ ) in longitudinal (L) and radial (R) directions, have been measured after stabilisation of samples in standard conditions (20 °C, 65% RH), before and after TT and then after re-conditioning. Untreated mulberry had a low EMC, very low L/R anisotropy and low E ’ L / γ , and relatively low tan δ . Weight loss (WL) and CIELab values evolved similarly during TT for mulberry and for previous results on spruce, however, their EMC and vibrational properties were affected differently. This could be explained in part by the low anisotropy of mulberry, and in part by its particular extractives. The parts of irreversible effects, linked to chemical modification or degradation, and of reversible effects, linked to physical con-figuration, were different between mulberry and spruce. The applied treatments did not bring permanent “improvements” in vibrational properties of mulberry, yet its colour appearance was enhanced.