This could be big!! Fire AND water resistant??? Bring it on, Time to move past those Da%$ glass slivers And I thought it was just for cooking Pig. Vincuis, glad you brought this to the forum. S’Ding, do you have experience with this? The thought of just a banana leaf on my deck as a visual sounds neat. I know we’re talking fibers here but the whole leaf could look cool too.
I wonder how the veneer would stack up compared to bamboo. I know it takes a fairly obnoxious process to make bamboo veneers - maybe the banana version would be a little less toxic.
good to finally see the rest of the world catching up with plant fiber, like good ol’ quentin here showing off an expensive barong shirt he got in manila :
made from sturdy banana & pineapple fibers, the fabric’s translucence makes it ideal for glassing. i have no doubt we’ll soon see cork-like board blanks made from corn cobs, rice hulls and banana peels hehe
Reverb: I would be the first one to try Banana Veener. I think it’s brilliant and I will persue it.
American’s being coined (cocooned) is a funny type of insult. It’s like calling Americans a bunch of sheep!
During the Clark years
I was in a co-op with other Huntington Beach Shapers buying Australian Foam by the container load. It was better that Clark at the time and cheaper. Since that time foam made in the US has gotten better and with quick service and with fair prices there is no need to buy this type of commodity elsewhere. I don’t care were the material is from as long as it is priced fairly and performs well.
The video was great and I loved it. Sustainability that has beauty is a good thing in my book and whatsoever country it’s from doesn’t matter.
I will source the Veneer. Guatemala would be the first place I would look for pricing. However for now I think the AUSSIES have it down. Remember it was an Egyptian Engineer that perfected the process. I’ve worked all over the world and there are advance technologies in every country that contribute to the world as a whole.
Reverb we are not all white trash Jerry Springer types here in America. Yes we have our fair share or ignorant people like everywhere. However the company I keep are not closed minded to Developments that improve our way of life regardless of where it comes from.
I have a friend around here that is right into making "green" surfboards and he has used a lot of different plant based materials.
He has a sample block of eps, (6 inches square), with a banana cloth laminated on it. it is really strong as in hit it with a hammer type of strong. it looks a bit like a hessian bag so its not real pretty, and not sure how heavy it would get on a full board, but if it could be made in a lighter weave then I think it would be a valid option.
I think the technology displayed is probably the greenest we’ll see for a while. This is taking a waste product from the food industry and making a variety of products that are better than the currently available ones. I am looking forward to seeing the veneers, I’ve already sent an email asking about them.
Hawaii would be another great place to start up a franchise. We have quite a few banana farms on several islands. It would be a great way to utilize the waste product, if there is enough. I know that banana stumps are important for imus (Hawaiian underground ovens) and umus (Samoan version, but on top da ground). I think it would be great to see a variety of products being made from Banana trees, and not just throw away the stumps after they fruit.
Maybe we’ll see that the cores make a good wood for blanks, I bet no one has tried that yet. I may have to add a banana tree to the Agave tree I have drying in my yard. The wiliwili is all cut up and waiting to be used. Maybe a wiliwili/agave blank skinned with several layers of banana veneer held together with sap from an ulu tree.
As far as those shirts go, in 1968 my Dad went to the Philippines for a DOD job, and he was there for about 8 months. He brought back a couple of those fancy see through Barong shirts. They were considered formal attire over there. I think my mom may still have them.
Even if it starts a new type of paper and ends up with nothing to do with surfboards it’s still a viable project. Do you know what paper mills waste is like??? Talk to the folks in Arcata, Ca.
banana trunk sections rot pretty nasty here under tropical heat given that much of it is water stored within its cellular layers. IMO freeze-drying could help the material ward off discoloration so if there’s anyone who could make it happen, i bet it’s gonna be some haole specializing in materials engineering x)
i bet the shirt front’s all covered in fancy embroidery hehe that stuff really lasts a long time, some museums here display well-preserved barong formal wear worn back in the days when America was still a british colony " )
I did a lot of day trading when I lived in France. From what I see it’s still very early in the Developmental stages and if your serious about investing you will be sorry if you don’t do it now. In 5 years it will have been a good investment.
