I was just curious to know if anyone has any ideas or has experimented using hemp cloth instead of fiberglass as a laminating material since the last hemp thread on 8-22-03. From that thread there was no definitive answer so I ask again. I have done some tests with hemp cloth swatches that I received from a supplier using epoxy. They seem to be quite strong in the aspects of impact and pressure. Then again these are only 3x3" squares of EPS laminated on one side and am not sure if it would lend the same qualities to a full size surfboard or if it would cause any negative effects to ridability. Thanks for any advice.
I saw somewhere on the net a guy in Oz was using hemp to glass his boards. Try searching yahoo.
John Gillis in Sydney, who makes 'J’boards, glassed a few boards using hemp cloth. He says it worked, but was hard to saturate. The one he showed me was rather brown, but has an interesting look…like a woven basket. -PK
My ding guy who makes his own backyard boards did a full deck inlay with hemp. It worked, was kinda ugly, a little heavier, and I don’t know how it held up.
An entrepeneur in North Queensland, Australia is making banana plant paper and is looking to expand its use into commercial areas. The material is extremely tough and strong and is very fire resistant. It is quite a remarkable and versatile material. Its nothing like hemp or bamboo. A TV program called “Landline” on the Australian National Broadcaster, the ABC network, covered this story about 6 months ago. It certainly looks like it could be useful for skinning surfboards (no jokes thanks).
I’ve built a few Hemp boards and along with being quite good looking, they were quite strong. The problem was that the fabric needed to be covered with a layer of fiberglass because it just wouldn’t lay down any other way. This made the boards a bit heavy. I could see it being useful for inlays now but if this material ever going to happen in composites, it needs to be woven in a more useful manner.
Many of the hemp cloths that I have found are made with other materials woven in with it. Such as silk and cotton. Would these aleviate some of the problems that have been described above?