Using different woods at the tip and tail...

Eight · Post by **Eight** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:58 am

I was reading a skiing catalogue last night and noticed that some manufacturers use a different wood near the tips and tails than they do in the middle.

Is the join (which presumably goes across the ski) actually going to be strong enough to cope with the amount of flex the ski moves along its length? Or do they have some clever way of attaching the wood types that I'm too dumb to think of?

skiingfreak · Post by **skiingfreak** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:13 am

I would guess that they did something like BigKam did with his pallet project? Here's the link to that thread: viewtopic.php?t=810&highlight=pallet
It seems like as long as you staggered the joints a bit the ski should still have some good strength.

Eight · Post by **Eight** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 12:09 pm

Ah that's cool.

Thanks for the link. Even more ideas to play with now.

Nick's Sticks · Post by **Nick's Sticks** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:29 pm

If you are really concerned about the strength you could use scarf joints. In boat building people often about a 10:1 ratio. This give you lots of surface area for glue. It also prevents gaps that might be in butt joints.

Eight · Post by **Eight** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:34 pm

Had to Google that one

But its genius - thank you for mentioning that. Why can't I think of solutions like that!!!

iggyskier · Post by **iggyskier** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:09 am

you could also finer joint them....

Eight · Post by **Eight** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:16 am

iggyskier wrote:you could also finer joint them....

Would that be strong enough? It looks like it might be a little flimsy given the relative thiness of a core - but I don't know enough to really judge.

iggyskier · Post by **iggyskier** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:41 am

Eight wrote:
iggyskier wrote:you could also finer joint them....
Would that be strong enough? It looks like it might be a little flimsy given the relative thiness of a core - but I don't know enough to really judge.

When i was talking with Armtex, which was a canadian ski/snowboard core supplier that is now gone I am pretty sure, they told me that they did this in their ski cores, but I was never able to get some of them so I don't know first hand.

The email said...
"Hello Scott,

Finger jointed material is material where defects have been removed (cut
out) and wood has been glued back together with a joint that look like a
finger.

This is what 99% of companies are using."

Eight · Post by **Eight** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:03 am

That's good to know - sounds like either of those two methods would be worth a try if I decided to mix woods that way,

Not sure I ever will - I anticipate having enough problems with the regular cores.

Wannabebuilder · Post by **Wannabebuilder** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:43 pm

iggyskier wrote:
iggyskier wrote: This is what 99% of companies are using."
That guy in vashion that built cores for k2 and virtually every other boutique ski company in the US finger joints his cores.

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Using different woods at the tip and tail...

Using different woods at the tip and tail...