Ski Builders Forum

An opportunity recently came up for me to buy some high quality s4s 100% clear of knots western red cedar boards. In short, I could make red cedar only cores for about $6 a piece but I can't really find a lot on cores like this on the site. All I know is that its soft and needs either inserts or stringers for screw retention. My questions are, compared to poplar, how does this stuff hold up? Is it softer, stiffer, lighter, heavier, easier to work with, harder on tools? Any info is great because I could make about 20 cores and would want to make sure that before I put the effort and money in, will it be worth it for all my boards and skis for next year.

Do a google search for young modulus. There are many charts that tell the strengths of a variety of woods. Poplar is a semi-hardwood. Red cedar like douglas fir is softer and lighter, easy to work with and has straight grain. It can splinter, so be careful with the router.

I've used douglas fir with maple and ash, works great. Use a hard wood or UMHW for sidewalls.

Western red is great stuff. 23 pounds cubic foot dried. Won't rot when wet. Janka hardness is not too low compared to other light ski woods like paulownia, but the elasticity is great and the point of breaking under load is up there too.

I have just scored a bunch myself. We will use it as a mixer to lighten up the cores for next year.

I made a pair of skis with some old red cedar deck boards. Seemed to work great, only got two days on them however before moving on to my next pair of skis (they're a 72mm waist, 165cm long, which isn't good for a guy that's 6'2" 230lbs)