Heavy wood

[Don Case]

A little bit off topic here, but has anyone noticed that when you heat up OS (toasting the belly or when you get it hot on a power sander) it starts to smell like popcorn? Toasting the bellies on ocean spray bows is a treat!

I thought it smelled like hay. It's a nice smell anyway.

[danlaw]

Hmmmm. I've used Indian plum and it's far less dense here on Vancouver island (.65 max I guess -  grows in Parksville Don C); however I have found an indigenous wood denser than OS (which i find somewhere around .85+ usually).
.97 for another mystery wood here in BC. Way tougher than OS in compression.

[Bryce]

Cut pieces off other OS staves(air dried) they all sank to the bottom.

[Don Case]

Hmmmm. I've used Indian plum and it's far less dense here on Vancouver island (.65 max I guess -  grows in Parksville Don C); however I have found an indigenous wood denser than OS (which i find somewhere around .85+ usually).
.97 for another mystery wood here in BC. Way tougher than OS in compression.

Where are you getting the SG, do you figure it yourself? Mystery wood? Another quiz? A weekend of surfing for the prize?

[Carson (CMB)]

A little bit off topic here, but has anyone noticed that when you heat up OS (toasting the belly or when you get it hot on a power sander) it starts to smell like popcorn? Toasting the bellies on ocean spray bows is a treat!

I love the smell of toasted ocean spray.  You have to try it with a coat of shellac....I couldn't stop smelling my OS bow while scraping    Glad I am not the only one!

[Carson (CMB)]

Hmmmm. I've used Indian plum and it's far less dense here on Vancouver island (.65 max I guess -  grows in Parksville Don C); however I have found an indigenous wood denser than OS (which i find somewhere around .85+ usually).
.97 for another mystery wood here in BC. Way tougher than OS in compression.

Where are you getting the SG, do you figure it yourself? Mystery wood? Another quiz? A weekend of surfing for the prize?

Nine-bark? John Kelley pointed out to me how dense that wood is.  I have some billets almost ready to work...excited to see. 

Don, it is pretty much a percentage.  Volume displaced/total volume I believe.  I havent done a proper test in awhile, but I used a graduated cylinder to measure the displacement of pieces.   

Interesting point Ash arrow....for my own testing it works to dry the wood completely in the oven, simply as a standardization step.  I am not sure how you can compare one wood to another if they have different moisture contents when tested.   

[Don Case]

I did a little search and there seems to be at least 3 or 4 accepted methods of measuring SG. Some use "oven dry" wood, some use 6%, some use 12%.
I weigh the piece of wood. I put a container of water on my scale(metric) and zero it out.  I hang the piece of wood on a string and lower it into the water without touching the sides or bottom. When it's submerged read the scale. Because 1cc of water weighs 1 gram what you read on the scale is the same as the volume of the wood in cc. Divide the weight by the volume and you have SG. In my sample the volume was 32cc and the weight was 32 grams. My scale is only accurate to 1 gram and with a sample this small the best I can say is that it has an SG of 1. The real world verifies this because when I hung the wood in the water it almost looked like it was going to float but it went under. So it's right on the cusp. It would be good wood for making submarines As I said before this is all kind of meaningless drivel but that's the stuff I thrive on.

[Bryce]

That nine bark was some HARD wood idk if it's denser....then again it could be.
We all understand that density does not reflect. Woods ability for bow making correct? Ok good! Let's continue!

[Don Case]

While looking for SG info I was looking at lots of wood sites. Is there one factor more than others that we should be looking at. There is elasticity, compression, hardness and others. Elasticity sounds like the right one but what do I know?

[danlaw]

I just cut a length and drop it into a long thin cylinder of water. Just subtract what sticks out from the whole and you have the sg ratio. Wood has to be dry though.

[Don Case]

I just cut a length and drop it into a long thin cylinder of water. Just subtract what sticks out from the whole and you have the sg ratio. Wood has to be dry though.

That's clever, I like that.