Choice of wood

[MLReed05]

Going to a lumber yard this weekend to pick out some boards. Birch, Maple, ash and poplar are available. Any suggestions??

[G-man]

Mike,

You prabably already know what I'm going to say... Ponderosa Pine.

I know it's unorthodox ski builder thinking, but I'm not so sure that choice of wood species is all that important... "What!!"... yes, I know. But, consider that I have built 3 pair of skis, all with ponderosa pine cores, but with differing composite combinations. As a result, I have skis that are pretty soft, skis that are nice and firm, and skis that are down right rock hard stiff. They are, however, all quite light and nicely damp. To top it off, they all ski better than anything I have ever skied on (I started tele skiing 32 years ago, so, I've been on a lot of skis... oh, and my skiing still sucks). Anyway, I actually have no desire to go with a harder, heavier wood. I use inserts for binding retention.

A friend gave me some sugar pine to try out. Lots of woodworkers tell me that sugar pine is dream to work with. I'm anxious to get it glued up, but, I have a lot of other R&D stuff to get worked out over the next few weeks, so, it'll have to wait.

Have fun at the lumber store.

G-man

[AndrewT]

I'll have to look into that. I was thinking soft maple for my first pair of skis. It's a fairly stiff, strong and not TOO heavy wood.

[kelvin]

I think the type of wood is not all that important. The thickness profile of the core and fiberglass you use has more of an effect on the flex and stiffness than the core material. I just got some structural foam and will be trying it as core material.

-kelvin