Hi Folks!
Just wondering if anyone out there has ever fooled around with super-heavy wood shafts made of woods that are denser than water, like lignum vitae or ebony?
Either would make a beautiful super-heavy shaft but I wonder what the spines would be like.
I've seen shafts made from Ipe and Purple Heart. I think they ran 700-800gr and 900+ gr respectively. Allegheny Mtn had them at Denton Hill last year.
I have some ipe and osage I just turned and barrel tapered. The ipe is 925 without feathers.
I have some Ipe that are 5/16, 70+ spine, and 880 grains. I would like to get a supply of Ipe to make some shafts out of.
Dennis
I've turned a few from ipe and bulletwood. They are in the 800-900 gr. range and 70+ spine.
Mike
Ipe would be interesting but I can't find a density for the wood. NY Yankee says it is lighter than purpleheart, while the impression I got from the others is that it is considerably denser than purpleheart. I thought it should be similar in density to purpleheart/hickory (0.88g/cm3). The 5/16", 880gr, 70#+ spine sounds pretty good but that weight must be for a pretty long shaft. Even for a 32" shaft, the density must be running 1.45g/cm3 to hit 880-900gr. What shaft length are you guys running for these weights?
Lignum vitae runs 1.25g/cm3 while ebony runs 1.45g/cm3. Both sink like a rock in water.