Wood as an engineering material

[yeoman]

Not sure where this is best placed, so here it is.

I recently came across this fantastic resource on wood:

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/products/publi ... eader_id=p

It's free, huge, and as tons of information on how trees grow, mechanical properties, how it is used mechanically, and all sorts of other stuff that makes nerds like me very happy.

I got onto this document through this website:

http://www.wood-database.com/

which started off as a one-man project and has grown into what I think is another valuable resource. I'm thinking of contributing my bend test data and scanning in some samples. I'd encourage others to do the same, if they are of a like mind.

Enjoy. Or not. I can't control how you feel.

[yeoman]

I also just noticed there was this article:

http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/bow-woods/

Having read the disclaimer about him not actually being a bowyer, I find myself agreeing with his hypothesis, and also *some* of the antagonist's argument.

While the ratio of MOE/MOR is a good start in the right direction, I think there needs to be an acknowledgement of the wood's density, or the absolute value of either MoR or MoE. This way one hypothetical timber which has twice the favorability of ratio as Yew, but has three times the mass, can be seen to perform less well because of the higher MoE/MoR to Mass quotient.

I think we discussed this elsewhere some time ago, but now I forget.

[bigbob]

thanks heaps for those links Yeoman. I have bookmarked them for reference purposes.

[Stickbow Hunter]

I moved the thread to here Dave as it will be of interest to those making wood bows. I will make a link to it in the Featured Threads forum also to make it easy to locate down the track..

Jeff

[yeoman]

Very good. Thanks Jeff!

[rodlonq]

A very good resource there Dave, thanks for sharing it.

Have you ever done a bending modulus measurement/s for vertical bamboo flooring? I would like to gather some more numbers to see how my first test went. The result was ~7.1 GPa for a 350 mm long specimen (38.1 mm wide x 4.7 mm thick) over 300 mm spaced simple supports.

Cheers...... Rod

[yeoman]

I have not, but I have some samples that I intend on testing before I use it in a bow.