Boatbuilding with Paulownia?

[Ken_Potts]

Is anyone familiar with Paulownia as a boatbuilding material? I'm thinking of using it to strip plank an 18' rowing shell. I've never heard of the stuff outside the interwebs...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulownia

Also, has anyone done business with these folks? It looks like I'll have to mail-order the lumber - I'm used to being able to go to a yard and pick out the lumber in person, but this plantation is a bit too far away from me. One of these days I'll figure out where to get stuff around Canberra , but until then I guess mail order will suffice to keep me working.

http://www.paulownia-timber-sales.com.au/index.html

[oceansky]

G'day Ken,

As a boat building material, it's great ! We use it a lot in all our strip plank designs

Highly recommend it

regards

Mark

[Hirilonde]

Wow that stuff grows fast. I thought Eastern White Pine in my region was fast. It has almost as low a specific gravity as our Western Red Cedar.

It seems that it is an invasive genus in the US. Like many imported plants it seemed like a good idea to bring it over, but turns out not to be such a good one for unseen reasons. Kind of like Kudzu.

[hokeyhydro]

Wow that stuff grows fast. I thought Eastern White Pine in my region was fast. It has almost as low a specific gravity as our Western Red Cedar.

It seems that it is an invasive genus in the US. Like many imported plants it seemed like a good idea to bring it over, but turns out not to be such a good one for unseen reasons. Kind of like Kudzu.

Well, if the stuff is invading fast than we need to BUILD MORE BOATS to stay ahead of it.

[oceansky]

It has almost as low a specific gravity as our Western Red Cedar.

Actually it's less. WRC is typically around 380 kg/m^3 whereas Paulownia is 260 kg/m^3.

Great material to work with !!

[Ken_Potts]

The two biggest advantages I've seen so far are density and cost. Both much lower than Western Red Cedar (another exotic species here).

[Hirilonde]

Paulownia vs Western Red Cedar shows them virtually the same density. The other sources I used for my statement above showed the specific gravity of WRC as .34 and .4 for Paulownia. Either way, the difference is minimal. But I am sure local woods are a lot cheaper no matter where you live.

[oceansky]

When we were first looking at Paulownia, the first thing we did was had it tested through the Queensland Testing Services for its mechanical properties and also a comparitive test against WRC.

Paulownia was far lighter in its density (260kg/m^3 compared the WRC 384kg/m^3) and as far as its mechanical properties were concerned, not that much less than WRC.

The reason we had it tested was so that when we design to classification society standards (commercial) we've got the data sheet for the said timber.

There are various species of Paulownia, some heavier than others. The species grown here in Australia are typically the lightweight species, yet I have heard that in the states, its the heavier species which is grown. (Hence the little difference in weights)

All that aside, as a timber for planking, I much prefer Paulownia. Top Stuff

[Ken_Potts]

I've ordered the wood from John White - The price seemed alright (though I have nothing to compare it to) and he seemed like a good guy. Once it arrives I'll start posting photos of the progress.

[Pete T]

Paulownia is also used in building hollow wooden surfboards, surfboard stringers and kiteboard blanks. There was a saw mill and lumber yard in South Carolina USA that handled it but they closed down, due to the economy. Ken check out Tree to Sea and Grains surfboards. Tree to Sea blog has information on using Paulownia for hollow wood surfboards.

Pete

[Ken_Potts]

Wow, Pete - There's a lot of surfboards being built out there!

I've got Paulownia strips out in the garage now - 3.5 meter strips to build a 5.5 meter boat, so I'll be joining Scott D in his scarfing misery soon I've also got a piece of Queensland Silver Ash ready to be made into a keel plank. I'm working on adjusting the plans to deal with the slightly differently-dimensioned keel, so once I start cutting wood for real I'll post some pics.