Ski Builders Forum

i use rubinia for sidewalls, its local, and the most mechanical and weathering consistent wood in europe, you just need sharp blades

Completely out of curiosity, has anybody ever looked into using Australian Buloke for sidewalls? Possibly some of you guys down under? In the US, it seems you can only buy it in chunks big enough for knife handles. I would imagine that full sidewalls would be hella expensive and you would need to replace your bit/blades a few times over the course of profiling. I'm not really looking into trying it myself due to the price and inconvenience, but surely as the hardest wood in the world, with a Janka hardness of 5060 lbf (1376 higher than Ipe), somebody has had to at least think about it.

When attaching the wood sidewalls to the cores which is better wood glue or epoxy?

backyardskier wrote:When attaching the wood sidewalls to the cores which is better wood glue or epoxy?

Use exterior wood glue. It's cheaper and it works just fine.

skidesmond wrote:

backyardskier wrote:When attaching the wood sidewalls to the cores which is better wood glue or epoxy?

Use exterior wood glue. It's cheaper and it works just fine.

Check!
Even regular wood glue works fine

I use Maple for my sidewalls; Its hard enough for my purposes and its easier/cheaper to get that other exotic hardwoods. I put the maple in as my outside stringers when I make the core so I don't have to cut the core to shape then take another step to put on the sidewalls.

Once the board is trimmed out, I go back and wipe on a thin layer of epoxy on the sidewalls for added protection and waterproofing. Haven't had any problems with water getting in except on one where my friend ran me over and cut a huge gash through the sidewall and then water got in. It was a pretty easy fix though once it dried out by reapplying some epoxy and clamping it down under a heat lamp.

A far as glue goes, if your gluing wood to wood, use wood glue. It s a better bond than epoxy (in my experiments at least).

Do any ski builders here use teak as their sidewalls??

I think it would be very good because it resists moisture and thats why it is often used for boats and other marine applications. How strong is it though, I imagine not as tough as maple.

I have teak on some boards that I'm waiting to test when the snow starts to fly. Historically it was used for battleship decking in WW2. It also has a high silica content which gives it a fair amount of durability. It's pretty dense stuff, so make sure your tools are sharp. I think it would work well but that's all theory until I try it.

Just got my first ipe, or iron wood or Brazilian decking... The local wood store carries it as decking. Super heavy and hard. It glues up very well if you acetone wipe most of the oils out. Getting close to my first press with the stuff and am pretty excited. Thanks for the ipe idea y'all.

FlamingYeti wrote:Completely out of curiosity, has anybody ever looked into using Australian Buloke for sidewalls? Possibly some of you guys down under? In the US, it seems you can only buy it in chunks big enough for knife handles. I would imagine that full sidewalls would be hella expensive and you would need to replace your bit/blades a few times over the course of profiling. I'm not really looking into trying it myself due to the price and inconvenience, but surely as the hardest wood in the world, with a Janka hardness of 5060 lbf (1376 higher than Ipe), somebody has had to at least think about it.

Buloke (or bulloak) is not too easy to get in large pieces because it splits a lot as it dries, anything that hard has the same issue. I don't know how you would work with it either, seriously, this stuff is that hard I wouldn't be surprised if you had to cut pieces out in the shape of a sidewall rather than pull it up against a core.
If you find a bull-oak burl, chuck it in a nice hot fire and it will burn all day and night, or wood turn it into something, the burl has some of the most beautiful grain you will ever see, some looks like a flame.
The tree is also the home of our native black cockatoo which is endangered so probably best to leave it all as trees anyway.

I've used poplar, maple, granadillo, paulownia and cedar. I've tested all of them for 10+ days (except the paulownia) and have had no issues. For the porous woods I make sure to put a couple cotes of Teak oil on them to prevent any water from seeping into the sidewall. Wood is good.

I talked to some other local ski makers who swore that the impact strength of wood was far inferior to UHMW, but I haven't had any issues.

You've used paulownia as sidewall material? That stuff can be dented with a fingernail!

It was a full paulowina core on a pair of BC ultralights. Risk of them in the park or crushing ice is low.

Jekul wrote:
I talked to some other local ski makers who swore that the impact strength of wood was far inferior to UHMW, but I haven't had any issues.

No doubts about UHMW superiority in impact resistance compared to wood. Sharp objects rocks, edges, etc. can make bigger damage to wood sidewall.... So what..... it can be easily repaired if needed.
Personally I like the looks of wood sidewall especially with wood tio/tale spacers