Bamboo Propellers

cavelamb wrote:
Charles Vincent wrote:

I found the reference. It was in Martin Hollman's Modern Propellor
and Duct Design book. It just notes that mahogany tends to splinter
easily and is therefore not a good choice. In any event, mahogany
doesn't grow here in Texas, at least anywhere near me. Bois dArc does
though and has ridiculous strength in compression - double mahogany (I
have a house built on Bois D Arc stumps, the tree is so ugly, termites
won't touch it) I have the compressive strength numbers since it is a
common foundation material, but do not have the normal engineering
values for the rest. I need to find them.

Charles

Are you making propellers from mesquite?

Nope. Hard to find a section of mesquite with straight grain around
here. I have heard of a furniture maker around Austin using mesquite,
but he is using mesquite growing on river banks, as it grows taller and
straighter. I was musing on the applicability of Bois DArc, or Bodark
colloquially. Used by the native for making bows, and by the early
settler for fence posts ( there was once a thriving market in Texas for
bodark seeds and plenty of the material was sent north for fences there
as well. This was just in line with Bob Hoover's "use what is found
locally and cheap" approach.

Charles