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Strip planking is popular amongst canoe builders. A 1/4inch thick core of cedar has fiberglass on either side. The glass provides tensile strength and the wood

by pacaro 9y ago

Strip planking is popular amongst canoe builders. A 1/4inch thick core of cedar has fiberglass on either side. The glass provides tensile strength and the wood provides both compression strength and a useful offset between the fiber layers. I can lift the bare hull of an 18 foot long sailing canoe with one hand. The downside is in maintenance/repairs, and the critical requirement to keep through holes absolutely watertight. If water gets into the core it's a total PITA Also, strips of cedar that are 3/4" by 1/4" by 18' are really weird to handle.

Yaggo 9y ago
Also bigger (sail)boats have been home-built using strip blanking technique. The downside is weight penalty over balsa/foam core.
doikor 9y ago
Snowboards are kinda similar with usually having a wooden core for tensile strength with plastic bottom for gliding, plastic top for protecting the wood and metal edges to cut into snow/ice. Get a hole all the way to the wood (usually by hitting some rocks on the rather soft/porous plastic bottom) without keeping it dry and patching quickly will destroy the board very fast. Also modern boards have multiple different kinds of wood in fancy layers/placements inside to give the correct amount of "pop" in the correct spots for the wanted ride. Some of the more expensive/extreme boards have started to replace parts of the wood core with carbon fiber in the cases where weight is very important and a very stiff board is preferred (mainly backcountry/split boards)
jdietrich 9y ago
End-grain balsa wood is a surprisingly common core material in high-performance composite structures.
coredog64 9y ago
GM used balsa wrapped in carbon fiber for a previous version of the Z06 'Vette for similar reasons [0]. It's light, it's strong, and it's cheap. [0] http://www.autonews.com/article/20050912/SUB/509120708/balsa-wood-helps-put-the-zip-in-the-z06 http://www.autonews.com/article/20050912/SUB/509120708/balsa...
KGIII 9y ago
The Mosquito, a plane from WWII, was largely made of wood and is considered one of the best planes from that era.
- andyidsinga 9y ago
  YES!

by pacaro 9y ago

Yaggo 9y ago

Also bigger (sail)boats have been home-built using strip blanking technique. The downside is weight penalty over balsa/foam core.

doikor 9y ago

Snowboards are kinda similar with usually having a wooden core for tensile strength with plastic bottom for gliding, plastic top for protecting the wood and metal edges to cut into snow/ice. Get a hole all the way to the wood (usually by hitting some rocks on the rather soft/porous plastic bottom) without keeping it dry and patching quickly will destroy the board very fast. Also modern boards have multiple different kinds of wood in fancy layers/placements inside to give the correct amount of "pop" in the correct spots for the wanted ride. Some of the more expensive/extreme boards have started to replace parts of the wood core with carbon fiber in the cases where weight is very important and a very stiff board is preferred (mainly backcountry/split boards)

jdietrich 9y ago

End-grain balsa wood is a surprisingly common core material in high-performance composite structures.

coredog64 9y ago

GM used balsa wrapped in carbon fiber for a previous version of the Z06 'Vette for similar reasons [0]. It's light, it's strong, and it's cheap. [0] http://www.autonews.com/article/20050912/SUB/509120708/balsa-wood-helps-put-the-zip-in-the-z06 http://www.autonews.com/article/20050912/SUB/509120708/balsa...

KGIII 9y ago

The Mosquito, a plane from WWII, was largely made of wood and is considered one of the best planes from that era.

andyidsinga 9y ago
YES!