Ski Builders Forum

Hi All,

So I am nearing the end of my college career, and plan on starting on my ski building after I have a real job.

In the meantime I want to start a thread about sustainable/renewable materials. I'll be posting an article of sorts on my findings about renewable materials this semester, and also companies that have sustainable practices in place.

In the mean time I thought I would start a threat that had some material substitutes, and links to suppliers for them


Epoxies: http://www.entropyresins.com/

Basalt Fiber: http://www.sudaglass.com/fabrics.html

Sidewalls: http://www.blacklocustlumber.com/

Metal Edges and Ptex Base?

Soybean Topsheets. Do not have supplier yet.

Rubber Substitutes for tip/tail and on top of edges?

I was thinking that there will be a substitute material for rubber on the tip/tail and edges, but as for metal edges and ptex base, the closest I have come up with is recycling edge and ptex (curb recycling that is).

Sourcing metal edges domestically would be ideal, but I cannot find an edge supplier in the U.S.

Core Materials: no brainer, use local lumber mills that plant trees, if they do not plant trees maybe make a donation to a company that plants trees for the wood you use.

There has been a ton of discussions of this topic on here for years, but never a collecting point with every thing, so I like this.

Bamboo, although not locally sourced at all typically, is at least ridiculously sustainable for cores.

I have been saving up scrap ptex pieces for a couple of years now with a crazy idea of grinding it all up into a powder, and melting it into a sheet of ugly mess that might be usable.

that could make a cool base, unless it becomes a mucky brown/black color

I've looked into getting edges locally or even made in the US, but out side of CDW I haven't found anything. Thought I had a lead locally but it turned out that it would be too expensive and honestly the guy would be trying to break into a market that is sewn up. Unless he had a guaranteed amount to make it wasn't worth the while to make a few hundred feet of edges a year.

I like the locust wood. I'll have to look into it. IPE seems off the charts in hardness.

Hey guys, I have not posted much on here as I mostly read and search. Somthing I think most should do, instead of ask questions that have been already answered 100 times in other places. Anywho, I Just looked into the Basalt fabric as a possible fiberglass replacement.

Triaxial -28.7 onces per sq. yard
Quadaxial - 19.9 Onces per square yard

both 13 micron roving.

So how is it possible that the quad which has a full extra layer runnin 90 degrees is lighter?

Has anybody considered using this stuff?

I know Mervins Lib tech and Gnu boards use this fabric, what weight I am not sure? If you where to use it, do you think the quad would give to much torsional stiffness though a light wieght fabric? And would you use triaxial considering it seem heavy (for a touring ski, splitboard at least)

Any others views would be great?

So, I called up the distributor and he told me the strands are smaller which make it lighter, though the micron rating stays the same.

Next question: has anybody used both triaxial and biaxial in the same build.

As in Biax above core/ triax below! Basalt or Glass!

Fibers running laterally will do nothing but add weight. Diagonal fibers add torsional stiffness, leave out the 90 deg fibers.

Who has flax details? Idris?

I have good success in getting samples and good service regarding eco composite from these guys,
http://www.compositesevolution.com/

twizzstyle wrote:Fibers running laterally will do nothing but add weight. Diagonal fibers add torsional stiffness, leave out the 90 deg fibers.

for skis...

I've been playing around with using bamboo fabric to replace the 22oz. triax I generally use. I purchased the bamboo fabric from Greenlight Surf Supply.
I'm guessing the fabric is manufactured for clothing, which is not what I expected. It feels like a super stretchy and soft t-shirt material. It's much lighter than the 22oz triax so I decided to apply 2 layers each above and below the core. It's also wickedly stretchy which makes for a tricky layup. The major benefit in my mind is that it cuts like butter after it's cured. I couldn't believe the difference between trimming the triax and the bamboo. It was a god send when I was trimming with a jig saw. Now that I'm using a bandsaw, the difference is less noticeable. I should also note that I've been using Entropy resin.
The 1st skis turned out much better than I was expecting, but I wasn't really expecting much. That being said, my sister-in-law now skis on them exclusively and swears they are the best skis she's owned. Not bad for a trial run with a new material. I can't speak to the environmental impact of the fabric. I've heard that the clothing fabrics made from bamboo are so heavily processed that ultimately have a pretty significant footprint. And the fabric I got from Greenlight is definitely processed. It's so soft I'd wear it as tighty whities - if I wore them.

What kind of weave was it? Just a biax? I've been very curious about bamboo fabrics, but hesitant because of how light/thin they are.

The thought always occurs to me though, if I do a bamboo core with a bamboo composite... is there really any point to the composite, other than something to hold the epoxy in place?

We heard you like bamboo, so we got you some bamboo for your bamboo.

Yeah ... think bio-diversity :D

twizzstyle wrote:What kind of weave was it? Just a biax? I've been very curious about bamboo fabrics, but hesitant because of how light/thin they are.

The bamboo fabric I've used is biax. I have been surprised with it's torsional stiffness but I haven't done any quantitative analysis yet. From purely subjective on-the-hill performance testing they still perform on par with similar skis I've made with 22oz. triax glass. I'm still not totally sold but that's just the skeptic in me. Next in the cue are two identical skis in all respects except the composite. Then I can accurately test the differences between the triax glass and the bamboo both in the lab and on snow. Should be interesting.