What is...........
 

the most bouyant wood to feasibly make plugs out of? I am trying to gather materials for the after X-MAS plug building time with the new lathe and tools. I want to spin some birds for tuna trolling and most birds are highly compressed foam or Balsa. Any help is appreciated and thanks in advance for your help.

Flap gonna try the same thing; thinking AYC or Pine should work OK... lexan wings and extra heavy wire....

Western Red Cedar would get my vote. It's readily available,inexpensive, very buoyant ( moreso than AYC ), naturally water repellent (I would still seal it) and it turns nice.

1 note of caution though.......wear a respirator as the dust is not very good to breathe.

Bernzy

Alabama Swamp Cedar Steve. Next time you going thru my area lemme know and I'll throw a few sticks to you. The good stuff is chocolate in color. Wicked pretty bare too.

Alabama swamp cedar? Is that another name for swamp cypress? If you're looking for a buoyant wood I would go with white cedar.

BA,It's a cypress that grows in some sections of Alabama and the Mississippi Delta area. It is a very slow growth wood, very similar to red cedar but properties are closer to a white cedar. Because it's slow growth the grain is very very tight on the heartwood, in some cases you cannot distinguish the grain lines from one to the next they are so close.

Red and white cedar and basswood. Red and white would probably hold up better.

Jigman

Thanks to all that replied! Scott that sounds interesting, next time I am up at my Uncle's in Uxbridge I will call you.

Is it hard to find? Expensive?

Good Old Jersey Cedar would work just fine, Played with Tuna birds years ago used pine.

Ya got a source for the white ceda, Flapster. :huh:

Flap would you like to try some old growth redwood?
I'll ship you some if you send me the lengths you wil need.
If not the western red is very bouyant but the stuff really is a batch to get it smooth.

BA hard to find yes sometimes because it's a old growth wood and because of where it lives it's not a big production wood because of what it takes to get it. It's not usually expensive to get it if you can hook up with the right guys. It's a popular wood for outdoor furniture down south.

Hey Scott.. I been getting this pine its 2x2.5 say and the put it on the floor as dunnage to pile steel stud on during building construction .. I was told it was swamp pine .. Pine that grows in the swamp and the grain was all screwed up in it ... well the grain is tight... turns excellent ..U ever hear of swamp pine ?

Tagger I think swamp pine is also known as southern yellow pine (syp)

I think there's like/up to 6=7 different kinds of pine that can live/grow in low wet area's..they tend to lump them all together under one name,,swamp pine...long leaf and s. yellow is two of them in that group. but you wouldn't want that to turn with..could be you have either loblolly- -slash.

My limited experience with southern yellow pine was that it was pretty heavy. Now I'm wondering what it really was....

SYP is fairly heavy Steelhead, in fact while its a pine and a softwood its heavier than several hardwoods(poplar, elm and maybe chestnut are all I can think of right now). And there are definately no shortage of different pines east of the Miss.

this swamp pine is pretty light stuff..

Balsa

Ed so is the cedar too. It floats pisser.

Slip;
Is it easy to get 2x2 Balsa? and if so do you actually turn it or just sand it on a lathe?

I don't know how easy it is to get.
I would think that birds would be cut on a bandsaw and edges rounded over. But if they are turned , then yes you can use chisels and then fine sand on lathe.

I think you would go crazy deciding what wood to use, You are troliing these birds at how many knots, It would not really matter..................Pine, Bass ,Cedar, Portageee Marble.......They will all work.

Pourtague marble :D hmmm where does one get that wood?
and will it make good floaters?

Habs is right
just make the damn things