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estebanana -> RE: Humidity (Jun. 9 2017 1:48:32)
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Kevin,
Many people today do have the ability to control relative humidity in the total square footage of the shop, but many do not. The seasonal averages of humidity will keep your stocks of materials tools safe in most places. I would worry in equatorial regions, or in higher latitudes, but not temperate regions.
Historically as Anders pointed out artificial control of humidity was not possible, and even today some of the most important builders still don't have totally climate controlled shops. Off the top of my head I could name about 15 or 20 - It is really contingent upon where you live. The only thing that really matters is assembly on a day or in a room that is under 50 RH.
An older now retired maker who worked for 50 years told me in the mid 90's you can feel it after a while, he said you can feel the right day to brace a top. He said just wait for those days. In California there are four months in the year more or less, when you can reasonably brace a top in normal daily RH. And it was noted that Torres worked carefully at certain times of day to catch the offshore wind that brought dry inland air into the shop.
In wet countries you may want to dehumidify 24/7, but in California- Spain latitude it just a matter of waiting for the right day. If you ever go to Spain or California and live next to a chaparral cover hill side and feel the Earth drink the water out of the air you'll develop a sense for which day is right. Where I am now there is a rainy season that lasts 6 weeks and a fairly uncomfortable summer, it's like Northern Florida, not ideal and case could be made for 24/7 dehumidifying, but it is cost prohibitive with the price of energy in this country. So makers here create dry rooms and simply don't brace tops in the wet seasons. There are still about two months of the year when I can find a dry enough day to open the windows and brace in the afternoon. But I don't for uniformity sake. And when I walk in and out of the dry room I can feel the wetness in my lungs on the way out.
The shakuhachi makers do the same thing, they store the take' wood outside for years and let seasonal averages do the work. Now if I were a dealer and had tens of thousands of dollars of built instruments...that is another story.
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