Hi Bruce.
The wood I'm describing is very white - some almost snow white. many
FF fliers over here get their wood from a small company
called 'Flitehook' who import from Germany. Derek uses a lot of it
for control line models (sorry Mark!) and Bob uses it for indoor. We
don't have many model shops left in GB.
The best of Leesons wood could have been made by a machine - it's
the straightest and most even grained, finely surfaced wood I've
ever seen. he got his blocks from a supplier in the Sydney area of
Australia.
Anyone over there looking for blocks could try the custom-made surf
board makers. Some types of top board use balsa rather than foam
because it has a grain and longitudinal stiffness - Australia has a
lot of surfers.
There's a lot of balsa in full sized planes and supertankers too.
Nick.
This wood sounds like a few planks I got from Stan Chilton when he
> was unloading a heavier than specified shipment from New Guinea.
They
> are milky white with very straight uniformly dense grain. It may
be
> just my planks, but the grain "pattern"/"texture" reminds me of
Luan
> (fake mohagany). Mine are pretty bendy pretzels so they are used
in
> carved props. As Stan noted, it's beautiful looking wood.
>
> I've heard another tangent to the "genetically modified" story
where
> real planes are using low density balsa in decking composites. An
> Austrailian manufacturer does market these for alternates to
phenolic
> honeycomb/carbon composites.
>
> Bruce in Seattle
>
>
>
> --- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "Nick Aikman"
> <nickaikman_at_h...> wrote:
> >
> > 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 - 10:32:15 CET
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:44 CET