>With due respect ot Bill J. - his assertion that
>soundboard wood was always rived and not sawn is not so.
>Hubbard shows an illustration from Diderot(?) in which
>soundboard wood is being sawn!

Peter, I did not say it was always split, only that is was usually split,
and I have seen so many traces of this on extant boards. The engraving
shows a water driven saw cutting boards, nothing more, the purpose is not
given.
Of course wood was also sawn. Even some luthiers used sawn wood instead of
split. That was always a matter of expedience. A lot of French used fir,
not spruce (Taskin, Donzelague), and this was not floated down the Rhine.
The floating down the Rhine with all the encombant wheelings and dealings
of the wood merchants most of whom were Dutch. Such rafts gained
proportions of up to a kilometer in length complete with housing on board
which was dismantled and sold in Holland. Anyway, the reason  the wood was
mostly dealt with in Holland is because that is where the Rhine flows. And
because England and the low countries were such a big market.

regards,

b