Wood upgrade

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Dec 31, 2015
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Location
Peterborough Ontario Canada
Hi guys

Just looking for your opinions. Thinking of buying box wood strips to plank a hull rather than use the supplied basswood. Is box wood that much better? Is the difference noticeably superior?
Thanks for your input on this question.

John
 
Hello John,yes boxwood is superior and much better than bass wood,but more expensive too.

http://navyboardmodels.com/wood-database

Zoltan
 
Thx for your response. Yes I've priced box wood and willing to pay the price but I'm trying to get a feel for why it is superior. When you look at the finished product is the difference obvious? I've always just used the supplied wood but now want to try something different and hopefully better.
 
John, with the boxwood the grain will be much tighter and the edges of the planks will be much sharper. Boxwood holds an edge better than basswood. It also does not split like basswood. Hope this helps.
 
There are different types of boxwood, so I assume you are referring to Castello boxwood. Its truly beautiful wood to use.

Turkish boxwood is also available along with the true boxwood, but thats rare to find and very pricey.
 
boxwood makes a fine wood for carving but not so good for planking. you can use it and it does work BUT Boxwood is brittle and you will snap planks trying to bend them around the bow. The very best wood for planking is pearwood and not the steamed pink stuff but rather natural pearwood. This wood is very close to the same color as boxwood but takes a extreme bend.
Some like boxwood other don't comments, is boxwood has no feature or figure it looks like plastic rather than wood. Those who use it will polish it to an ultra fine finish.

Then the cost of $30.00 a foot and up where as woods like pearwood, cherry and many other woods are in the $4.00 a foot range. Is the high cost worth it? well not for planking but for things like caprails, fittings and carvings I would say yes.

using light colored wood as planking will show off every seam and joint far more than a darker wood so your planking job will have to be tight and right on.

model builders will use exotic and expensive wood to increase the value of the model. However, there are dealers and galleries out there that do not accept Castello boxwood as boxwood. As a matter of fact they are correct Castello boxwood is just a trade name it is not boxwood or anything even close to boxwood.
 
John,basswood usually used for the first layer of the planking,is your ship will be single or double planked?
 
Zoly it is single planked.

Didit you have now put me back in a quandary. I was already decided on the box wood but now having second thoughts after taking in your input.

Decisions decisions.

Thanks guys, have to mull this over a bit more.
 
Didit you have now put me back in a quandary. I was already decided on the box wood but now having second thoughts after taking in your input.

Decisions decisions.

well my intent was to inform, many comments I have seen is "you got to use boxwood its the ONLY wood to use, Boxwood is what all those wonderful admiralty models use, but actually not all many use pearwood

it is hard to make those decisions based on he said, they say
I suggest you try both pearwood and west indian boxwood out for yourself and base that decision on what you like.

contact Ev at the lumberyard and ask her if she has some samples she could send you.

you can see boxwood and pearwood are close to the same color. Boxwood has no figure as where there is some figure to the pearwood. When planking a hull boxwood will give you a mono tone even color where as pearwood will give you shades of color so you can see individual planks


peawood will bend like this and no way will boxwood bend to this extreme


light colored wood will make all the seams show up
 

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Thanks so much for the information. I've built furniture for years but have never had the opportunity to use either of the two in discussion. You seem to know your woods. I will be able to rest assured I've done my research.

Thank you

John
 
also basswood is a very very very soft wood you can look at it and it will leave an impression. where boxwood is much harder and keeps crisp edges. they look similar but properties totally opposite each other
 
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