# Best natural wood for boardcut (not ply)



## bazil (Dec 3, 2010)

Hey guys,

Just wondering what type of wood is best for a board cut, besides plywood. I'd like to make a nice natural looking boardcut, I have made one from cherry but I'm not sure it could take a lot of use with heavy bands, and a fork hit might kill it lol. I have a bit of thick waney oak, with a nice straight grain, and I saw someone made an oak boardcut on here a short while ago. Just wondered how much punishment an oak boardcut could take, and if there is any better natural wood boards to make a boardcut from besides plywood.

Any help appreciated!!!

Cheers,

Baz


----------



## ZDP-189 (Mar 14, 2010)

Some are just to weak to make into a slingshot, but essentially no wood is guaranteed to resist a fork hit. There are some tricks you can employ from knifemaking that mean you can make a strong slingshot out of a weaker wood.

A knife often uses wood too weak to be a structural element in itself, particularly if you plat for it to take some abuse. The answer is to include some reinforcement in the handle. The basic method is to sandwich some metal inside. Jim Harris's EPS is a good example, but you can make more of a feature of the metal. This was my first slingshot that I made myself in recent years that wasn't a slingshot bow: Desert Ironwood (link)










Here's some snakewood that I used for a knife handle. I didn't want to show the tang, so I scribed out the tang profile and milled out both sides so that there was a 2mm gap all round the tang. (external link)










I also showed this Bolo on this forum. (external link) It uses the same construction method.










Here's an approach that requires less skill and tooling. Instead of carving out both sides to fit the tang, just insert a spacer layer. I did a tutorial on this (external link)










I also showed people how to do stick tangs. A stick tang method might be applied to slingshots (external link). Here's a popular tutorial I wrote on snub tangs. (external link)










Here's a tutorial I did for stick tang knives with ferrules (external link)










If the material is really weak, you can inlay it. Blacklip mother of pearl is a good example (external link).










You can make a handle out of pretty much anything. Just stabilise it, soak it in plastic resin, or lay it up. Here's a slingshot I made out of denim (link):










There's a million and one other techniques too.


----------



## bazil (Dec 3, 2010)

What can I say but thanks for all the information!!! that's really impressive! great looking knives and slingshots! that denim one blew my mind!

Thanks again!!!

Baz


----------



## The Gopher (Aug 25, 2010)

Dan, your work amazes me!

Baz, if you are wanting a one piece natural wood board cut and are looking for the strongest wood, i woudl start with hickory. Hickory is heavy, dense and most importantly has interlocking grain. Another good choice if you can find it would be elm. Although elm is not as heavy as other hardwoods it also has really interlocking grain, ever try to split a dry elm log? If you looking for some general rules of thumb; any wood that has a specifici gravity above 0.55 should work just fine for a boardcut *IF the grain is also running parallel to the forks! this is the most important part.*


----------



## lucifer93 (May 4, 2010)

Dan i love reading your Tutorial's, amazing work mate. I am after buying a drill press in the new year to try my hand at knife making.
You have some truley amazing skills


----------



## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

Boards that are bought in lumber yards and Home Depot kinda scare me. But, if they are oak, hard maple, ash, etc., I think they are okay if you drill a rod or spike down through the forks the way Perry (A+ slingshots) does his.

However, boards you make yourself from a log, the way MXRed did on this forum, and I have done myself with some ash logs, are more trustworthy because you can control the curing of the wood yourself, and you can make them a little thicker if you want to. Now, I can't defend this opinion, but it's just the way I feel.

I have made a few slingshots out of boards salvaged from cargo pallets -- these can be real good or real bad, and many of these boards are nice full 1-inch slabs of poplar. I made about 4 slingshots from such a board. Dan has one of them. Poplar is a borderline hard wood. But as for myself and a guy like Dan, I have no compunctions about using it, even without the rods. It will withstand the strain of any bandset you could put on it -- it's just the fork hits that would worry me. So I wouldn't give it to someone who had Joerg's strength and "power" mentality, but not his knowledge, because a fork-hit with a 16mm lead ball launched from a double set of tapered, Gold, Thera Band would probably blast it apart and come back in his (unprotected) face. For my kind of shooting, though, I feel in no danger at all with the same fork, nor would I worry that Dan or Joerg would hurt himself with it. I think many people worry a bit excessively about how strong their frames are. Such strength as some advocate here is not necessary in most cases. But not all.

Naturals, on the other hand, can be made of any wood, hard or soft, and be strong and safe for slingshots. I have soft pine natural-fork slingshots that are stronger than some oak board cuts.


----------



## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

To answer Bazil's question, Hard Maple Sometimes called Rock Maple is the most split resistent wood that I have used for a board cut. That may not be available in the UK though. Yew is easy to work, not hard but strong. Yew is toxic so wear a mask if working with it. I like any hard curly grained wood! I seem to make it more split resistance. Ask if more information is required. -- Tex-Shooter


----------



## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

Tex, I have a curly maple frame from Flatband that took some wicked fork hits and only dented. Is curly maple as good, do you think?


----------



## bazil (Dec 3, 2010)

Thanks for all the help guys! you've given me a lot to consider!

The bit of oak I have is nice and thick, around 2.5 inches, so I can make it nice and chunky for extra strength. Just trying my hand right now so I don;t expect to produce anything amazing, but I would like it to last and be shootable! lol

Thanks again!

Baz


----------



## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

BTW, Dan that snakewood handled knife is one fantastic piece of work!!!


----------



## bunnybuster (Dec 26, 2009)

1. Hickory
2. Curly maple


----------



## flippinout (Jul 16, 2010)

#1 Rock Maple
#2 Hickory


----------



## Delaney (Nov 22, 2010)

Im about to have a big hickory tree taken down in my side yard and ive just been talking to the tree removal guys about getting out some natural forks and some chunks to split into boards for boardcuts im very excited to see what i can get out of it(I might have some extra to spare too if there were an interested party or two)
Brian


----------



## Dayhiker (Mar 13, 2010)

*I am!!!*


----------



## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

Most people that use Maple like it. The trouble is Bazil lives in the UK and I don't know what wood is available there. Curly Maple comes in both hard and soft so be sure you get the Hard variety. Here is a picture of a Hard Curly maple fork. -- Tex-Shooter


----------



## flippinout (Jul 16, 2010)

Yes, please pay attention to what Tex said. There is a big difference between hard "rock" maple and other maples, especially those from the southern part of the USA. I learned that the hard way. I bet English Oak would be a good choice if it is still available. And don't forget Ash- it should be available in the UK. Beautiful character and grain.


----------



## PJB21 (Nov 1, 2010)

Delaney said:


> Im about to have a big hickory tree taken down in my side yard and ive just been talking to the tree removal guys about getting out some natural forks and some chunks to split into boards for boardcuts im very excited to see what i can get out of it(I might have some extra to spare too if there were an interested party or two)
> Brian


keep me informed, quite interested in getting some naturals, especially hickory, hard to find much easily avalible here in urban london...

ive often wondered about the strength of materials and their suitability, but after reading some of this it seems you dont need anything too strong, may see what wood i have in the shed and if i can make any board cuts... still need to find a decent source of natural wood though (forks and slabs) may have to venture out into the surrey countryside with a saw


----------



## Ace (Oct 24, 2010)

Hard straight grained maple is in my opinion the best lumber to make boardcuts, it's very hard, easy to find good straight grain. But make lots of relief cuts and if drilling drill slowly and back out cool it by blowing air over it then continue drilling(drill press) otherwise you will burn the wood.

-Ace-


----------



## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

I use brad point bits for small holes and forester bits for large holes and have no trouble with burning the wood. You do need to be more carful with a metal drill. Also it is easy to burn the Maple when routing if you tarry in one place. Use light passes if using a power sander to avoid burning. -- Tex-Shooter


----------



## Flatband (Dec 18, 2009)

Maple is a favorite wood of mine also. I like Osage a lot too for frames. I hear Hickory is great but have never had the opportunity to work it. Some of the Exotics are nice but can be troublesome to finish. Flatband


----------



## bleachbone (Nov 15, 2010)

for a really fancy and strong wood i would suggest angelina pedrom it is strong and very beutiful


----------



## longshot (Jan 14, 2010)

Maple is a great wood. I have a natural frok made from sugar maple (one of the treess often referred to as hard maple.) and it is my favorite. The heart would of ash is good as well... I am not sure about english ash but I would imagine it would be even better. I have not tried hickory but have worked some with red oak. They are great woods to work with but they are harder than maple and can be a challenge if you are only using hand tools. I recently aquired some black walnut and planked out then planed down a board from it and I am going to make a shooter out of it. has anyone else used black walnut before?


----------

