Actually this is very interesting. Here is link to a photo of Equisetum:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum_hyemale#/media/File:Dried_Equisetum_hyemale.jpg
used for centuries in Japan to polish swords. I doubt that it would as well on
nails as modern abrasive paper.The first ’sandpaper’ was supposedly invented in
China in the 13th century. 'Glass paper' was manufactured in London in 1833 by
John Oakey, whose company had developed new adhesive techniques and processes,
enabling mass production, but modern ‘wet or dry’ paper with silicon carbide
grit was not invented until 1921 (by 3M). Metal finishing centuries ago in
Europe, like for polishing armor and swords, was done primarily using stones.
My father was a wood hobbyist, refinishing wood from the time I was a child,
and none of the abrasives he had access to in Philadelphia in the 60’s would
have been useful for for preparing nails for playing, by today’s standards.
So, I submit that if deVisee played with nails, it would not be anything at all
like a modern player using nails finished with modern 3M papers.
A. John Mardinly, Ph.D., P.E.
> On May 7, 2019, at 1:44 PM, John Mardinly <john.mardi...@asu.edu> wrote:
>
> Pure speculation. Where are the facts? Can anyone document good nail
> polishing techniques that may have been used centuries ago? I would
> love to see it. Techniques used to polish things from telescope lenses
> and mirrors to razors would not work well on fingernails. The chamois
> stropping technique used by Segovia because there was not much better
> in the mid 20th Century would be deemed laughable today among those who
> play with nails.
>
> A. John Mardinly, Ph.D., P.E.
>
> On May 7, 2019, at 4:48 AM, Yuval Dvoran <[1]yuval.dvo...@posteo.de>
> wrote:
>
> Hahahaha good point!
> To add something substantial to the discussion, I'd like to remember
> you that also plants exist which were used for thousands of years to
> polish wood (and maybe also fingernails), e.g. Equisetum
> ("Schachtelhalm" in German).Am 07.05.2019 13:31 schrieb jslute
> <[2]jsl...@cs.dartmouth.edu>:
>
> Dear All:
> Might I suggest that a culture sophisticated enough to build
> lutes and
> craft overwound strings could have figured out a way to file and
> polish
> their nails.
> Jim Stimson
> Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
> -------- Original message --------
> From: John Mardinly <[3]john.mardi...@asu.edu>
> Date: 5/6/19 6:51 PM (GMT-05:00)
> To: Roland Hayes <[4]rha...@legalaidbuffalo.org>
> Cc: Lute List <[5]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
> Subject: [LUTE] Re: De Visee
> More lacking than glue-on-nails might have been some of the
> modern
> files and abrasives used to polish the nails. Badly prepared
> nails give
> a terrible result for both sound and playability. My teacher back
> in
> 1965 had studied with Segovia, and showed me how Segovia prepared
> his
> nails: after some filing, he used a wooden block with a saw-cut
> slot in
> it and a piece of chamois wrapped around the wooden block. The
> nail was
> then rubbed back and forth on the chamois over the slot, which
> acted as
> a track to guide the nail. When I began to study metallurgy and
> the art
> of cross-sectioning and polishing metals to view their
> microstructure,
> I experienced a revolution in materials to polish the nails that
> were
> quickly adopted by many people playing with nails.
> A. John Mardinly, Ph.D., P.E.
>> On May 6, 2019, at 3:34 PM, Roland Hayes
> <[6]rha...@legalaidbuffalo.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> Do we think he played with nails? Lutenists did not as I
> understand,
>> but
>>
>> I have always thought his lute pieces were merely
> arrangements of
>> guitar/theorbo pieces. For those instruments we can establish
> the
> use
>> of nails.
>>
>> And if deVisee played guitar with nails, then he most likely
> played
>> theorbo with nails as well. Yes? Glue on nails had yet to
> arrive on
> the
>> scene.
>>
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>> References
>>
>> 1.
>
> [8]https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__aka.ms_ghei3
> 6&d=Dw
>
> IBAg&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp9vYR0n1GycN4_2jInuKy6zbqQ&r=VLPJ8OE-c_C6joG
> eE1
>
> ftlvxMmQPq9N6mpKZONBRt90E&m���1m2M37zO3KCb5uTRtTMLYbh6c_tcz94RkH1fvv
> Jqg&s
> =ctn5UU2dPJsBEQxzJcHstOUeERuDkBtXhs4pd0M0t-c&e=
>>
>>
>> To get on or off this list see list information at
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> [9]https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cs.dartmo
> uth.ed
>
> u_-7Ewbc_lute-2Dadmin_index.html&d=DwIBAg&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp9vYR0n
> 1Gy
>
> cN4_2jInuKy6zbqQ&r=VLPJ8OE-c_C6joGeE1ftlvxMmQPq9N6mpKZONBRt90E&m���1
> m2M37
>
> zO3KCb5uTRtTMLYbh6c_tcz94RkH1fvvJqg&s=9RqBccAKKlP3oVcnl4UNupxF1MvNw_
> jgZ
> 4VyNvSGyDk&e=
>
> References
>
> 1. mailto:yuval.dvo...@posteo.de
> 2. mailto:jsl...@cs.dartmouth.edu
> 3. mailto:john.mardi...@asu.edu
> 4. mailto:rha...@legalaidbuffalo.org
> 5. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
> 6. mailto:rha...@legalaidbuffalo.org
> 7. mailto:i...@legalaidbuffalo.org
> 8. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__aka.ms_ghei36&d=Dw
> 9. https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cs.dartmouth.ed
>
