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Author Topic: Heavy wood  (Read 16803 times)

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Offline Dan K

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #60 on: December 20, 2013, 03:58:22 am »
I got a piece from the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden.  It's about as big around as your leg and weighs about 30lbs
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mikekeswick

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #61 on: December 20, 2013, 04:04:18 am »
Umm interersting...all the rhododdendran we have here is heavy when you cut it it but once it's dried you are left with a brittle ,very ligth,piece of junk!
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Don Case

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #62 on: December 20, 2013, 12:57:25 pm »
Quote from: Dan K on December 20, 2013, 03:58:22 am
I got a piece from the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden.  It's about as big around as your leg and weighs about 30lbs

Do they know you got it ;) ;)
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Offline Dan K

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #63 on: December 20, 2013, 12:59:14 pm »
Yep. The smaller pieces I have dried very lightweight. There are so many varieties though its a wonder we have so many different experiences.
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Offline Dan K

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #64 on: December 20, 2013, 01:02:51 pm »
Yes Don. I was with the city hordiculturealist responsible for that area.  He showed my all kinds of different plants and was fascinated about making bows.
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Offline Carson (CMB)

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #65 on: December 20, 2013, 03:02:12 pm »
I knew you were going to say Indian Plum, but found the thread too late.  I have my doubts about it being denser than OS, or Nine-bark (or seven-bark as some of us know it  ;D), but hey I haven't found any worth cutting yet, so I don't know.  I do like it for shoot shafts, doesn't check as easily as OS.   

Great Pic Don.  I do like Tim Baker describes in TBBI or II and dry samples in the oven for an hour or so at 425. I wonder if it still sinks after that treatment.  I wouldn't be surprised! 

Bryce cut me some dandy OS last spring, and some of it is coming of age nicely.  Several were lost to due neglect on my part and I knew better :(   Those are destined for some creative Laminate projects. 8) ...but there are two absolute stunners in that stash.  Beautifully clean and even natural reflex along a nice 60-66 length. ~ 1" diameter and they should make some fine bows. Thanks Bryce! 
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Offline Bryce

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #66 on: December 20, 2013, 03:18:24 pm »
I'm not entirely sure it's denser either. I took some 1'sq. prices into water and it was back and forth between the OS and Indian plum.
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Offline Bryce

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #67 on: December 20, 2013, 04:11:10 pm »
I guess it Just depends on the individual bush.
Floating is OS just under the water surface.
Bottom is plum.
Two pieces picked at random.


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Clatskanie, Oregon

Don Case

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #68 on: December 20, 2013, 07:02:14 pm »
I just put a piece in the oven, we'll see in an hour or so. I have tried to float 4 or 5 pieces and they all sunk. Granted, they were collected in Aug or Sept  so they may be dampish. The piece that's in the oven now got soaked for a half hour two days ago in a different experiment so I put it in the microwave for a minute and it was steaming when I took it out so there is some water in it. It weighed 34 grams when I put it in the oven.
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Offline Bryce

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #69 on: December 20, 2013, 08:07:55 pm »
What wood are you testing don?
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Clatskanie, Oregon

Don Case

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #70 on: December 20, 2013, 08:40:57 pm »
OS, we don't have Indian Plum this far north. When I was guessing yesterday I was going through my Pojar and Mckinnon and posting names. I got to Indian Plum and thought," if I win it would cost an arm and leg to ship it to Canada." So I didn't post. Twenty minutes later Dan posted.

The OS in the oven is down to 31 grams and is starting to smell like dry hay. I'll wait til the weight stabilizes and then float it, or try to.
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Don Case

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #71 on: December 20, 2013, 09:35:46 pm »
Weight never went down any more. It was already pretty dry and had 2 1/2 hours at 400 degrees . It still sinks. Local OS has an SG greater than 1. :D
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Offline Jim Davis

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #72 on: December 21, 2013, 01:08:23 am »
There's a myth woven through this thread. Go to the Forest Products Laboratories web site and look at the mechanical properties of wood, in particular, specific gravity.

If you look at the values for green and oven dry wood, you will find that dry wood ALWAYS has a higher specific gravity than green wood. After oven drying, it will weigh considerably less, but it will have shrunken even more, so that its weight for a given volume has increased. That means, it will float lower in the water or sink faster than green wood.

Specific gravity is the ratio between the mass of a substance and the mass of an equal volume of water.

Jim Davis
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Jim Davis

Kentucky--formerly Maine

Offline Accipiter

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #73 on: December 21, 2013, 02:03:54 am »
A little bit off topic here, but has anyone noticed that when you heat up OS (toasting the belly or when you get it hot on a power sander) it starts to smell like popcorn? Toasting the bellies on ocean spray bows is a treat!
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Don Case

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Re: Heavy wood
« Reply #74 on: December 21, 2013, 02:08:30 am »
I wondered about that when I was cooking it. I did think that the water might leave air spaces when it left which might leave the wood more buoyant. Anyway it was just a curiosity thing because as far as I know there is no direct relationship between SG and bow quality. We already knew that OS was a very heavy wood, it's just a little heavier than I thought
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