One quick note on humidity...
The definition of relative humidity is the amount of wapor vapor contained in a parcel of air divided by the maximum water vapor the parcel can hold (its saturation point). As temperature goes up, the maximum water vapor that the parcel can hold also goes up. At lower temperatures, the air cannot hold as much water. This is why Antarctica almost always has near-100% relative humidity, but the air contains almost no water vapor at all -- at the extreme cold temperature, the air simply can't hold much. That's why 70% RH when its warm means there is a lot more moisture in the air than 70% relative humidity when it is cold. Heating the air with a light bulb (which is what I'm assuming David is recommending -- I need to get that CD!), will in fact lower the relative humidity because the temperature will go up without changing the amount of water vapor in the air. The actual amount of water in the air doesn't change, though. If I understand the important factors in lute-making, though (a BIG if), I think that what David proposes is, in fact, the way you'd want to do it. Water that is in the air is water that is not free to enter your wood. If the air becomes saturated (low relative humidity), then that water in the air will condense out onto whatever surfaces are around -- like your wood. So, it seems to me that warmer is definitely better, since that keeps the RH down and keeps the water in the air where you want it and not on your lute. Everything up to the last paragraph I'm quite certain is correct (I'm an astrophysicist and just gave my students an assignment on RH yesterday by coincidence); I'm not at all certain about the logic of the last paragraph, though, because I'm too much of a newbie to lute building! Any further direction is welcome -- I'm quite curious! Best regards, Keith -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
