This repository is the home of a paper I worked on to create an improved, evidence-based procedure for luthiers to measure the speed of sound through a wood blank before they buy it (a 'wood blank' is the piece of wood that a luthier then shapes into a violin). Wood blanks cost hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars, and evaluating the quality of a blank is a complicated and poorly-documented procedure. One of the main quantitative measures that luthiers use to evaluate blanks is the speed at which the blank conducts sound. There's a tool available to take that measurement, called a Lucchi meter, but it's prohibitively expensive (roughly $3,000). Aside from the Lucchi meter, there's an informal procedure (called the Schmidt measurement) that is discussed on luthier forums that purportedly works as well; it's much less expensive, but it hasn't been evaluated in any rigorous or formal context. I worked with three other students and a well-known luthier to perform some experiments, formalize the Schmidt measurement into a clear evidence-backed set of instructions, and compare the new Schmidt procedure to the Lucchi meter.