Ski Builders Forum

I'm looking in to making a ski with woodside walls, from what I gathered Ipe is a good go to but hard on tools, also found people use Maple. My question is what wood do you guys find works best as a sidewall.

Maple is hard enough for sidewalls and easier/cheaper to get than Ipe. I use Ipe and it is hard on blades. I use a grit blade with a jig saw to cut off the flashing. I've used both with excellent results. Ipe has more oil in the wood and is water repellent. And I think it looks better as a sidewall.

I had a piece of Ipe in a bucket of water for 3 days. I wiped off the excess water and cut it in half and there was no signs that water penetrated at all.

I ve tested bangkirai, it will be very similiar to ipe, not oily and a bit cheaper. This summer i am putting black locust. Cutting out theese hard wood destroys plates of my jigsaw, one plate for one and half pair of skis aproximately. But now i ve tried some very raugh plate designed for epoxy composites and after cutting one pair of skis no signs of any use...

one probem i d like to solve is that i am not able to bewel my sidewalls without black places cause of the heat. I bought high quality bit, which is still sharp but without succes. If i slow down there is just dark stain on my sidewall. If i decrease rotations of router it starts to chop out the wood grains...

probably any wood for outdoor application will work.
I using IPE. Like it looks. Mahogany would be a cheap alternative to IPE. One problem I noticed it not consistent have ipe from two different sources if compared one substantially softer and lighter. As far work with it I didn't notice any difference except in router profiler and only ipe from a second source which is harder.
Next skis I going to make with black Locust sidewall

Pavel I think you need to move router faster to eliminate burnout

Probably I encounter with wood sidewall it difficult to bend into the tip/tale when making five dimensions skis.... Almost always ipe breaks

Madrussian - You don't use tip fill of any kind? Ipe, even when it's very thin is very difficult to bend because it is so dense. I use Ash or Poplar veneer for tip/tail. The veneer is about 1/16in thick and I use 2 layers. I sand then down to get a 2.5mm tip and tail.

As for the router bit burning the wood, use a quality bit with a bearing on it. It takes a bit of practice to move the router to match the speed of the spinning bit.

Tear out in the side wall can be caused by a couple things. Pushing to hard with the router, or some times the wood grain is running in a way to cause it to splinter, dull router bits.

I'm using p-tex tip fill but core ends further into the tip approximately 1 to 2 inches pass the widest point where taper begins other way ====only the problems. last pair I made tip spacer at 45° cut worked much better

skidesmond wrote:Tear out in the side wall can be caused by a couple things. Pushing to hard with the router, or some times the wood grain is running in a way to cause it to splinter, dull router bits.

What I do when I rout along the grain and have to take away quite some material (more than 1mm):
I rout in the wrong direction. So I move the wood in the direction the router moves it anyway (Moving the wood in the turning direction of the bit - normally you do it opposite).
The result is a less nice surface, but I have no trouble with torn out wood parts or burned parts.
I move quite quickly when doing this, taking away 2mm takes 4 passes. And the less nice surface doesn't bother me at all, as it is inside the finished ski. And if it was on the outside, some quick sanding would do the job.

Oak - nice and simple, good enough for castle doors and battle ships so good enough for skis.

I've probably made 100+ pairs and no problems so far.

Pmq, i do it exactly like you. But for example the difference between ash and black locust is huge. I have no burned places when i am routering ash, even if i slow down... But routering real hardwood needs to be very exact and quite quick... Now i am able to do edge for example with "only" one black place... In future i hope my routering skills will be a bit better :)

oak seems to be good as a wood for sidewalls but i have read that it contais some sillicis (not sure about this word) which cause steel oxidation... If it is varnished - no problem. But varnishing sidewalls would be pain in the neck... But maybe i am wrong with that and also there are several oak species.

pavelbozak wrote:Pmq, i do it exactly like you. But for example the difference between ash and black locust is huge. I have no burned places when i am routering ash, even if i slow down... But routering real hardwood needs to be very exact and quite quick... Now i am able to do edge for example with "only" one black place... In future i hope my routering skills will be a bit better

oak seems to be good as a wood for sidewalls but i have read that it contais some sillicis (not sure about this word) which cause steel oxidation... If it is varnished - no problem. But varnishing sidewalls would be pain in the neck... But maybe i am wrong with that and also there are several oak species.

I've used oak and ash for sidewalls, they are fine as well, Idris knows. You need to put some type of protective coating on the sidewall. Exterior poly , linseed oil, epoxy.... something.

skidesmond wrote:

pavelbozak wrote:
oak seems to be good as a wood for sidewalls but i have read that it contais some sillicis (not sure about this word) which cause steel oxidation... If it is varnished - no problem. But varnishing sidewalls would be pain in the neck... But maybe i am wrong with that and also there are several oak species.

I've used oak and ash for sidewalls, they are fine as well, Idris knows. You need to put some type of protective coating on the sidewall. Exterior poly , linseed oil, epoxy.... something.

I have oak topsheets on my skis so the whole lot gets sealed and then varnished together.

Yes unvarnished oak turns black when wet (sitting wet, or imersed - not just get wet then dry).

I've seen untreated Teak and Bamboo used for sidewalls in both homebuilt and production

Not technically "wood," but, we have been using strand woven bamboo for our sidewalls. In terms of the Janka hardness test, Ipe is about 3700. The bamboo we have been getting is about 2900 on the Janka (still pretty damn hard). It works fine in terms of tools and we can just buy it at Lumber Liquidators. It was about $90 per box there and there is enough for I think 8 pairs of skis. Plus it looks sick once it is finished. After we finish up the flashing and everything, I just rub some boiled linseed oil on the wood and it has been working fantastically.

This is the stuff we have been using: http://www.lumberliquidators.com/ll/c/S ... 5/10027694

FY, that LL stuff isnt vert lamed is it?

Idris wrote:
I have oak topsheets on my skis so the whole lot gets sealed and then varnished together.

Yes unvarnished oak turns black when wet (sitting wet, or imersed - not just get wet then dry).

I've seen untreated Teak and Bamboo used for sidewalls in both homebuilt and production

I have tried several different topcoat products none so far withstand abuse we put two of the skis. While it's not necessary for me ( ipe sidewall) I put topcoat over top and sidewall together but varnish disappeared from sidewall rather quickly within 3--5 ski days

MontuckyMadman wrote: "FY, that LL stuff isnt vert lamed is it?"

No, I don't believe so. It's strange. As you can see in the picture on the Lumber Liquidators website, it is brown and yellowish. Each part that is yellow is a "chunk" of bamboo and each part that is brown is a "chunk." So it's not really horizontally laminated or vertically.