Ski Builders Forum

I picked up a couple nice 12" logs of River Birch before doing any research on it. Now I can't find any information on it. I hoped like most other species of Birch it's going to be hard and relatively light now I just don't know.
do I got good stuff?

janka rating - 970
average dried weight - 37 lbs

I know it to be very strong wood. I dont have a number for elasticity, tensile or compressive strength, but have worked with paper birch that is the same weight, but a tad softer. Its very stiff and is indeed "good stuff".

Birch is very hard to air dry without cupping and warpping. So mill it alot thicker than needed, and just cut slabs (dry with the live edge on).

Dtrain wrote:janka rating - 970
average dried weight - 37 lbs

I know it to be very strong wood. I dont have a number for elasticity, tensile or compressive strength, but have worked with paper birch that is the same weight, but a tad softer. Its very stiff and is indeed "good stuff".

Birch is very hard to air dry without cupping and warpping. So mill it alot thicker than needed, and just cut slabs (dry with the live edge on).

I found same numbers and they are doesn't looks that impression.
is indeed "good stuff".===> that sounds promising.so as I understand you correctly river birch good choice to used in ski making

Why so much precautions for air drying?
why mill thicker does it shrinks a lot? Why dry with life edge?

If the wood cupps while air drying, you will need to plane it flat again. So it would be best to cut it thicker than the needed final board requirements to have room to do so after it's dry. Loke to make an inch and a half boards if you expect a good finished dry inch!

You don't need to leave the edge on the wood. I just like to keep the boards wide as possible till dry, then I know if there is defects from drying, I can cut and choose, and have not "commited" the wood.

If you glue your cores from individual strips, one at a time, the second part about width is not as important.

Hope the stuff turns out great. don't get too excited until it cut up. Might not be a the pot of gold inside that your expecting, but I hope so;)

if the wood "cups", could you mist both sides with water and put it in a hot flat press?

much like you can do to pre-bend a core?

Not with one inch wood, if I was to guess

how about yellow birch? Numbers looks good.
http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-ide ... low-birch/
I'm thinking to get some of yellow birch as an alternative to hard Maple

should work nicely birch/popular core with black Locust sidewall

Yellow birch is a good alternative to maple. The grain is not as linear as maple and the yellow birch tends to be finely knotty but it is hard, dense and strong. I use it in all of my cores as a 4-5 mm stringer on either side of my maple mount stringers.

vinman wrote:Yellow birch is a good alternative to maple. The grain is not as linear as maple and the yellow birch tends to be finely knotty but it is hard, dense and strong. I use it in all of my cores as a 4-5 mm stringer on either side of my maple mount stringers.

any idea what kind if any properties Birch added to the core/skis?
Did you make same design with and without Birch?
How About yellow birch instead of Maple?

Not really able to compare. If you look at the properties of maple and yellow birch, they are very similar in elasticity, density and hardness.