# Little bit confused



## Resigned User (Jul 4, 2015)

I read on a facebook group something about boardcuts and olive wood and now I'm a little bit confused because they are saying that it is not a good wood for slingshot making until you put a core inside

So my question is... Plywood birch or any other GOOD plywood aren't good for slingshots?

Why are a natural olive wood good and a slingshot cut out of an olive tree not?

All my slingshots are made of birch plywood with no core inside and I see a lot of other slingshots (on this forum too) made without a core... So... How dangerous are they?


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## Phoul Mouth (Jan 6, 2015)

Widget said:


> Why are a natural olive wood good and a slingshot cut out of an olive tree not?


It has to do with the grains of the wood. A board cut has all the grains flowing relatively straight from one end to the other. A natural has the grains actually following the fork, which gives a lot of added strength.


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## flicks (Feb 16, 2013)

Birch ply or even boards are strong enough for slingshots IF you take care for the right dimensions and for the flow of the grain. Especially when making board cuts. But I don't see any problems with the cool little shooters you made


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

Birch plywood is an excellent medium from which to fashion a slingshot given it is at least a half inch thick and the laminations are not really thick. The reason is that the grain runs at right angles to each lamination assuring of no break with the grain as mentioned by Phoul Mouth. A slingshot made of one board, depending on the design, can be pinned with a metal rod, most of 'em use brass brazing rods, say, 5mm or more in diameter. Some board cut designs won't accommodate that to make them stronger.

Plywood such as the multicolored stuff often has the grain running the same direction of all layers/laminations, Spectraply is one such. By itself it's likely to break from band tension for heavy bands and from fork hits then subsequent pulls breaks the fork at the weakened wound. Just make sure using a scrap piece, separating the layers with say a knife or chisel, that the grain is running at right angles to the previous lamination.

As flicks said above, all this depends on the actual dimensions of the frame, really thin fork areas are of course subject to breakage more than thicker areas. I go for thick forks especially using plywood. I use pine plywood, the weakest available, but my forks are hugely thick to compensate for the medium's weakness. Check it out...
http://slingshotforum.com/gallery/image/23985-pineplyplinkerlefthand/


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## wombat (Jun 10, 2011)

It's mostly scaremongering from the cheap plastic brigade!! If you go back to the beginning of this forum you'll see a lot of forks were board cuts.

Ally cores, G10, HDPE (i.e. plastic milk bottles ) are recent innovations.

Tex shooters classic slingshot ( he has a video explaining grain orientation ) Bunny buster's catties are still wood and day hikers oringinal chalice was made of wood.

If it's a natural fork, no worries, if it's a board cut keep your thickness to a minimum of 19 mm and your grain vertical.

You might also want to take a look here. http://kookaburrakatties.blogspot.com.au/p/streng.html


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## Imperial (Feb 9, 2011)

the other problem was/is that a lot of people put too much rubber/tube strength on the boardcuts, thinking that more is faster and powerful. over powering the boards therefore causing breakage !


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## Lacumo (Aug 18, 2013)

I think plywood SS frames are OK---at least when it's an 11- or 13-ply plywood and not that cheap 3- or 5-ply crap. That feeling doesn't include "real" board cut SS frames, which are made from a plain wood board. Further, I have to admit ignorance of the durability and handling characteristics of olive wood. There isn't any growing around where I live (near the US/Canada border).

As knowledge and technology advance, yesterday's norms frequently fall by the wayside. External combustion engines gave way to internal combustion engines for safety reasons, sail-powered watercraft gave way to motorized watercraft for shipping and military purposes, etc... Similarly, old-fashioned board cut slingshot frames have mostly given way to laminated, metal and plastic frames. When I was a kid, I had an original 1950's Wham-O Sportsman slingshot, which was the state of the art back then. I now shoot Milbro cast bronze and aluminum frames, a poly PP HTS and a polycarbonate Scout and Rambone. Time has definitely moved on.

On a related note.... When I make my own wood SS frames, I use Wombat's split frame design concept with dual oversized palm swells to further strengthen and stabilize the frame. But---I'll pass on real, pure, "old-fashioned" board cut frames. I don't need broken SS frame pieces flying back into my eyes or face after a total frame failure while under the stress of full draw.


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## Resigned User (Jul 4, 2015)

Edit


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## Piney Creek (Jun 18, 2015)

This whole discussion cries out for an explanation of bent wood laminated forks. They are not plywood, not board cuts but are more like natural forks in that the grain of the laminated members follows the curves of the forks. The grain of the individual laminates are reversed and are under tension when glued together making the whole assembly stronger than the sum of all its parts. Piney Creek


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