Flax really dampening so well?

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pmg
Posts: 479
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2012 8:59 am
Location: Sonthofen

Flax really dampening so well?

Post by pmg »

Hey,

I am not sure which fibres I should use for my new on-piste GS Race like ski. Definitely carbon, but either additional flax or glass to dampen the ski a bit - pure carbon is a but "jumpy".

I read quite a lot of times that carbon and flax are a great combination, expecially due to the great dampening of the flax.

To those who built with flax: Is that true? Does Flax really dampen so well in combination with carbon?

Thanks
Philipp
Hannes
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Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2011 2:20 am
Location: NRW, Germany

Post by Hannes »

I made four very similar skis. The first was the first.
The next two had the same geometry, same core and the same sidewalls. The layup of the second was just 750g triax glass, the third (the one you saw at last years skibuilders meeting) 400g uni glass and the biax flax from Skibaumarkt.
The fourth (see my journal) had a sligthly different geometry (only at tip and tail), besides that same core but no sidewalls, layup biax carbon and uni glass. All cores were Ash.
The one with flax had a very nice damping and a somehow smooth ride. But it was significantly heavier than the other two pairs. The flax was very thirsty and I had only a little squeezeout with my vacuumpress.
But was it really the flax being responsible for the smooth ride or was it the higher mass of the ski? Or both?
Give it a try but control the amount of resin you use.
Actually I wanted to built that ski with uni and biax flax but I read somewhere it might be to damp. So I used the uni flax for my longboard :)
skidesmond
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Post by skidesmond »

I've switched to using flax/cf instead of FG. Flax is lighter but stronger per ounce. And yes it is more damp per weight when compared to FG. Can you tell the difference in practice? That I think is subjective. I know that my skis are lighter but I haven't sacrificed performance and they feel just as damp as an equivalent FG ski. The big plus for me is not having to deal with the FG dust generated when deflashing the ski.

It does use a bit more epoxy but the trick to spreading the epoxy is to do 1/2 or 1/3 the ski at a time and you'll have to spread the epoxy. Otherwise if you lay down the epoxy over the entire ski first it can penetrate the flax and be difficult to get it edge to edge. The weave of flax is not as tight or dense as triax FG.
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