has anybody out there ever made any stretching boards out of cottowood, and if so how did it work out?

seems like it would be a soft wood, that would accept pins easily.

MAY be too soft...need SOME rigidity to it...

Most times the wood thickness is about 5/8" on basswood, and tapered on the side edges. Maybe if you used cottonwood, you could get it custom cut a little thicker and still tapered on the edges and be ridgid !?!

As cottonwood dries, it gets extremely hard. Would be a pain in the b u t t to pin anything to them after they have aged.

trapperkeck is correct. They make a lot of pallets out of cottonwood and after they dry you cant even pull the nails out w/out breaking the heads off. Way to hard for boards, hard to keep its shape when drying as well. Look at some of the boards on a pallet, far from straight.

I have heard of guys using pine w/ success, but use knot free sections so the sap/pitch isn't a problem.

I use basswood boards from Cumberland's.

thanks yall, i have plenty of boards, just thought i'd make some extras.

have some basswood boards and made some cypress boards that work well (pin friendly), pine wasn't pin friendly for me.

guess the cottonwood was not such a good idea, better stick w/ the cypress.

I have made some boards out of catalpha and they are not much different than basswood. I even planed some to a 3/8 thickness and have not had any warpage I made these boards 3 seasons ago and they seem to be working great. They are easy to get push pins and stapels into and out of the wood.

Are the cypress full of knots or can you get some decent boards from it? Does it warp badly?

Ditto !



Pine is too hard too but spruce works well.

Don, the boards i used didn't have knots, but a knot or 2 could be worked around.

haven't had a warpage prob. at all, have stretched coon, coyote, greyfox, & bobcats on em.

Of all woods to make boards I prefer Western red Cedar. My second choice is spruce, but it even hardens up somewhat as it ages. Never tried basswood as we do not have it here.

Yes cottonwood when dry is a very hard wood. Cottonwood planks were the material of choice at one time for barn floors because it dried so hard.

Cedar?

I made some boards out of cypres about 5 years ago. They didn't warp, but they will crack and split very easy. I started using popular about 3 years ago and they work much better. I don't use push pins only staples and they work fine.

Mr. Malone do you know of a place in Arkansas to get cypress boards in the correct thickness for stretchers? I am from Pine Bluff and have been thinking about making some stretchers this spring and summer.
Neil

there is a cypress mill at in the stuttgart area, don't know the contact info, but that is pretty close to ya, shouldn't be to hard to find out.

git em a little thick and have em planed.

there is also a cypress mill a couple of miles from me.
the owner of it is a trapper & and a member of this forum..... cypert2

Tony do you have a bandsaw? I got the planer and router but to cheap to get the bandsaw.

naw, no band saw.

used a jig saw on the last ones i made, definately not a production line. LOL

What does ol cypert2 get on his cypress? If you need to plane some let me know.

When Tony describes me as a trapper he is using that word very loosely. But if any trappers on here need cypress boards to use for fur let me know, and I will get you some select boards at a resonable price. BTW, if tonymalone ever invites you to an "ice cream party" don't show up. LOL

I like to have some for coon boards and a few adjustable boards. shoot me a pm with some prices when you get a chance.