> Anyone out there know a source for bone large enough to make pegs from?
At the risk of sounding facetious - a butcher? It stinks enough when you file a bone nut, so God knows what it would be like on a lathe. I've just tried to find out what Sacconi says about pegs in his book on Stradivarius. The answer is - nothing. The only mention is in the 'Catalogue of Stradivarian relics in Cremona', which houses: "9 tuning pegs in an unfinished state made in jujube wood (species of zizyphus, equivalent to buckthorn)..." "Two tuning pegs in pear wood in an unfinished state one with a ferrule and button of ivory, the other tinted black" As Jon said, the modern choice of the harder material for the disposable bit does seem odd. It also seems odd that the efforts made at the time being directed towards lightness in the fingerboard and tailpiece a heavy wood would be added for the pegs. To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
