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Intro to P.E.G.

Intro to P.E.G.

by H.E. Huttig

Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #35, 1976



This is an abstract of an article written by Mr. H.L. Mitchell, retired Chief of the former Division of Wood Quality Research, Forest Products Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Not all material contained may be useful to luthiers. I leave it to the individuals to choose such things as they may wish to try and to apply to instrument building.


Wood is an exceedingly complex and variable material. You will know that wood shrinks and swells with changes in atmospheric moisture. This plus problems of checking, splitting, warp, and broken glue joints are all too familiar to you. Treatment with PEG (Polyethylene glycol–1000) greatly improves the dimensional stability of wood and eliminates many of the problems.

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