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From: avi z <aviam.zinkin_at_gmail.com>
subject: [Paddlewise] Stitch and glue playwood matirial
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2006 18:41:10 +0200
Hello,

All the companies selling kayak kits uses Mahagony playwood.
What about other type of wood? Birch playwood? is it also saficient?

Thanks,
        Avi.
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From: Dave Kruger <kdruger_at_pacifier.com>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Stitch and glue playwood matirial
Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2006 07:36:08 -0800
avi z wrote:

> All the companies selling kayak kits uses Mahagony playwood. What about
> other type of wood? Birch playwood? is it also saficient?

Avi, I suspect there are folks on this list more knowledgeable than I am 
about wood types, but birch ply is a bit stiffer and significantly less 
rot-resistant than meranti and okoume, the two principal types of 
"mahogany" used for stitch and glue boats.

IIRC, neither meranti nor okoume is a mahogany species.  Meranti is denser, 
harder, and more rot-resistant, but much stiffer than okoume.  I've used 
meranti for frames on a power boat I am building, and I would not choose it 
for a kayak.

Sapele is sometimes incorporated into an otherwise-okoume plywood as the 
outside veneer, for its color and beauty.  Don't know how sapele compares 
for rot resistance.

I've built a couple sng boats, both Pygmy kits, and even though I gave my 
boats heavy use, the wood never experienced any water exposure, so I 
suspect okoume is the species of choice.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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