then wiliwili it is…
FYI
wiliwili is a hawaiian version of balsa. Being one of the lightest woods it was the wood of choice for the surfcraft of the highest ali’i(chiefs) while the rest had to settle for heavy koa or ulu or hao. It was also used along with Hao for the ama’s of the canoes because of its floatation capabilities. BTW they say wiliwili attracts tigersharks…
An invasive wasp is causing the extinction of the native species as they are having to be cut down everywhere because they are dying from the wasp’s larvae. It’s been in the bnews for years. Just like the sandlewood trees traded into extinction by the chiefs for metals and weapons the native wiliwili will be gone one day soon too.
We were blessed to salvage a dozen or so small tree limbs (all we could carry) from a wiliwili tree they fell on the sacred grounds of Iolani Palace but probably 99% of it ended as chips in the land fill. They were worried a tree limb would fall on a tourist and the state would get sued. It was heartbreaking for us and the story about the whole adventure is right here on swaylocks if you look it up…
We’ve made some composites skinned with panels of the wood as well as some canoe paddles for my nieces but the letter openers in my opinion are the most efficient long term use of what’s left of that once great tree.
I use it for the handles using Koa or Milo or some other exotic hardwood for the blades. I also like to leave the finish a little rough so as you hold it the tree “talks” to you when you open your mail…
Call me silly or deranged… Just my way of giving something back to that tree.
if you are willing to measure your daughter and wife’s closed hand like they would do sliding it through a bracelet and send me the info I’ll also check into santa’s chest for something to that might make them smile too…
The starting points are 2 1/4", 2 1/2", 2 3/4" and 3". they can be adjusted a tad wider as I first cut them with a hole saw on my drill press before hand finishing them all. Since they are hand finished (rounded and sanded) they are all a little different and never perfect… Even with gloves I usually leave bits of flesh on the bench sander grinding them round using 50 grit. that part of the process reminds a bit of that movie “the red violin”.
I gave in this year and bought a tabletop “jet” adjustable speed mini-lathe to make exotic small bowls and pens/pencils this year. Every shaper needs an eternal good soft lead pencil in their shaping room…
Making things out of wood as a hobby runs in our family for generations.
As far as that “bamblue” thing I coined for my lams and “wood is good” which is something else I coined here awhile back that I now see Tom Wegener is using. I also once told Brian that bamboo was nature’s version of carbonfiber or titanium. You don’t want to be around when the stuff blows just like blue…
Being backyard hackers we make our own foam blanks using super junk and super cheap home depot/lowes insulfoam sheets and woven bamboo mat wall covering. We’ve also started using blue dow XPS inplace of insulfoam but more recently as higher density waterproof rails in place of very expensive corecel which is what Gary Young uses. You can get a real nice finish with the blue especially on the rails versus waht you can get with the cheap sheet EPS.
I’m probably giving away more than I should but…
We use specially cut patterns of the woven bamboo mat epoxied in between two flat sheets to act as a horizontal springer to hold the bent in rocker as well as a binder to “lock” in the fin boxes you route in later. We also insert vertical “cross hatched” strips of bamboo mat into the 1" bottom sheet that you would route through for your probox or fusions to futher lock in the boxes to the core to prevent movement in the soft EPS foam. As long as you use a thick skin say 1/8" cedar, paulownia, wiliwili or balsa or this 1mil woven bamboo mat, you can use blue as a core cause you won’t be compressing the skin enough to cause a pressure that would lead to the gassing problem.
We’ve tried Brian’s bamboo jersey but haven’t figured it out yet. We still can’t seem to pull it tight enough prior to glassing which causes us big headaches during glassing and a milky look after…
I’m experimenting with ResinX as well to see if it loosens up some of these stiffer composite 1/8" skinned structures with the bamboo cloth. Matt also has a real low viscosity epoxy LM35 that Brian recommends for saturation of his Bamboo jersey. I think a really finely woven bamboo/silk cloth if it can be found in china somewhere might make a better lamination than pure bamboo jersey or hemp cloth. Take in mind that Gary Young doesn’t use cloth just multiple layers of epoxy saturated custom flat cut ultrathin bamboo veneer in place of fiberglass. I think a blue core with high density rails and a veneer skin glassed in bamboo cloth with ResinX might be a good experiment… ResinX works best with a core that has alot of “spring memory” like blue does.
EPS core, with blue rails, wood skins and bamboo mat stringers are our current favorites.
Blue cores with wood rails and thick skins and bamboo mat stringers are our second.
The blue is more expensive and ends up heavier like a heavily glossed poly.
Attached are some old logo’s I use to use…
