Wood Core Ideas

[zack726]

I want to build a ski riding the line between race and midfat (179cm long, Tip:Waist:Tail 110:70:100) and don't know what wood I should use for the core. I'm looking for something stiff but responses (more to the stiff side though). Would 3 materials be best? A flexier one in the center, then two very stiff for good flex, then a moderate stiffness on the edge? And what wood would you reccomend for each of these?

[zack726]

Also, would 30mm of camber be too much? Would it break the wood? or would it just be stupid? The industry-made skiis ive ridden have much more than 10-20mm of camber, such as some atomic race skiis.

Or should I go higher than 30?

[bigKam]

Also, would 30mm of camber be too much?

the skis we've made (by accident) with 30+mm of camber did not ski well. in particular, they did not work well in soft snow. i'm not sure if a lot of camber is a good idea, but on hardpack it might be okay. i personally prefer 5 - 15mm of camber.

as for wood, try mixing maple, birch, and poplar. poplar is soft. maple is the relatively stiff. we usually keep the maple on the outside.

[zack726]

I want to run this by you guys to see if you think It's a good idea or not.
My Core idea:

22mm of Soft Maple (Rails)
18mm of Hard Maple (Binding power transmission)
30mm of Southern Pine (Ski Flex)
18mm of Hard Maple
22mm of Soft Maple

I wnated to use poplar instead of pine, but couldn't find it near me. I also prefered Paper Birch over Soft Maple, but again, couldnt find. Anyway, what are your views on this setup? Has anyone used pine before and does it behave well?

[collin]

I don't know where you are, but I swear I saw some poplar at Home Depot recently. So may be near you...

[zack726]

Well they have a generic brich, maple and poplar available. What species are these generic woods? I'm in SoCal

[littleKam]

if you're in SoCal then you can try Ganahls. That's where I get my wood. Where do you ski?

[zack726]

Big Bear and Snow Summit locally, then I get all over the country to other spots (Park City and Whistler/Blackcomb Canada mainly)

[collin]

Well they have a generic brich, maple and poplar available. What species are these generic woods? I'm in SoCal

I don't know, but going off of the USDA "Comercially Important Woods" pamphlet for a good guess...

The only poplar they list is yellow. The physical properties are pretty close for all the maples, as are those of the birches -except- paper birch.

Maybe this helps.

[collin]

Ok that was easy to find, and it was the FS not USDA whatever.

Wood Handbook--Chapter 4--Mechanical Properties of Wood (pdf) and the other chapters here.

[powdercow]

The poplar at my home depot is definately yellow poplar so I imagine yours will be the same. As for ash it feels like the default when buying ash is white ash unless otherwise specified so I think you can feel fairly safe with those two assumptions.

Thanks for the link collin that was useful.