I haven't seen a piece of balsa like this for a long time!
Veering slightly sideways, in Europe, much balsa now originates in
Australasian plantations and comes through Eastern Europe to get
here. I've noticed that this material tends to be whiter than normal
and some 'hobby shop' wood and sheets cut specifically for indoor
are very stiff. Much of Charles Leeson's wood was like this and I
also hear that the wood is genetically modified specifically to be
stiffer than usual.
Nick. (Still believing that the next piece of balsa I buy will be
the most perfect piece in the world!).
Balsa trees which sways severly in the wind when growing will
have 'wind
> check' marks in them and make the wood act this way. If you hold
that
> sheet up to a bright light, you will probably see faint darker
lines
> going across the wood grain or at an angle, and the wood will
crack at
> these areas very easily. I give wood like this to my son to play
with.
>
> Don
>
>
> > off a piece and it immediately splintered into 1-2 inch
fragments. With
> > a little magnification, you can see a very weird grain pattern
that runs
> > at a slight angle to the sheet. Where this crosses the edge of
the
> > sheet it breaks. The wood is also an odd color- it's almost
gray, as if
> > it had weathered. My question is, what can I do with it?
> > Nicholas Huang, Boise, ID
>
Received on Sat Jan 21 2006 - 03:44:29 CET
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:44 CET