If you really want to use wood, and can find it, live oak is probably the best wood for strength. It was highly sought after for knees, etc. of the wooden sailing ships of the 1700-1800s.
Live oak was widely used in early American butt shipbuilding. Because of the trees' short height and low-hanging branches, lumber from live oak was specifically used to make curved structural members of the hull, such as knee braces (single-piece, inverted L-shaped braces that spring inward from the side and support a ship's deck). In such cuts of lumber, the line of the grain would fall perpendicularly to lines of stress, creating structures of exceptional strength. Live oaks were not generally used for planking because the curved and often convoluted shape of the tree did not lend itself to be milled to planking of any length. Red oak or white oak was generally used for planking on vessels, as those trees tended to grow straight and tall and thus would yield straight trunk sections of length suitable for milling into plank lengths. Live oak was largely logged out in Europe by the latter half of the 19th century, and was similarly sought after and exported from the United States until iron- and steel-hulled commercial vessel construction became the standard early in the 20th century. Live oak lumber is rarely used for furniture due to warping and twisting while drying. It continues to be used occasionally when available in shipbuilding, as well as for tool handles for its strength, energy absorption, and density, but modern composites are often substituted with good effect. Dry southern live oak lumber has a specific gravity of 0.88, among the highest of North American hardwoods Charlie Nelson Water Phantom C&C 36 XL/kcb cenel...@aol.com -----Original Message----- From: Alex Giannelia <a...@airsensing.com> To: cnc-list <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Sent: Wed, Aug 7, 2013 11:15 am Subject: Stus-List MAST STEP MATERIAL White Oak is highly rot resistant, not like teak, but similar to mahogany. Red ak gets fungus in it and goes pretty quickly if soaked and should be avoided on oat parts unless somewhere unlikely to get wet. My .02 Cdn worth. ALEX GIANNELIA CC 35-II (1974) WILL BE RENAMED N THE HARD SINCE NOV. 2006 oronto Ontario -----Original Message----- rom: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of nc-list-requ...@cnc-list.com ent: August 7, 2013 9:38 AM o: cnc-list@cnc-list.com ubject: CnC-List Digest, Vol 91, Issue 19 Send CnC-List mailing list submissions to cnc-list@cnc-list.com To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://cnc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/cnc-list_cnc-list.com r, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to cnc-list-requ...@cnc-list.com You can reach the person managing the list at cnc-list-ow...@cnc-list.com When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific han "Re: Contents of CnC-List digest..." oday's Topics: 1. Re: C&C 30 mast step yet again (Ed Dooley) 2. Re: painting/varnishing wooder oars (Sylvain Laplante) 3. Re: painting/varnishing wooder oars (Sylvain Laplante) 4. Re: Waste fitting stuck (Colin Kilgour) 5. Re: painting/varnishing wooder oars (Paul Baker) 6. Re: C&C 30 mast step yet again (Steve Thomas) 7. Re: C&C 30 mast step yet again (Della Barba, Joe) 8. Re: Waste fitting stuck (Stevan Plavsa) 9. Re: Waste fitting stuck (Joel Aronson) ______________________________________________ his List is provided by the C&C Photo Album ttp://www.cncphotoalbum.com nc-l...@cnc-list.com
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