Balsa Wood Applications

 The world of wood is very diverse. Wood is one of the most important natural materials that has been widely used in human life since the beginning of human existence on the planet. The variety of textures, colors and designs of woods has increased the range of effectiveness of this natural substance in human life. Balsa wood is a Latin American native of the Malvaceae family that grows well in a high range of lands from southern Mexico to southern Brazil. In this article, we want to talk about the properties of balsa wood as well as its applications. If you are planning to use wood in the interior and exterior decoration of your home or to make some furniture, this article will definitely be very interesting for you.

Introducing the Balsa Tree

At the beginning of the article, let’s talk more about the balsa tree. This tree is a flowering plant and its wood is widely used in industry. Due to its rapid growth, it will be a very good option for the woodworking industry and the manufacture of wooden tools because its wood production is very high. When the wood of this tree is supposed to be utilized in wooden tools, the trunk of the tree should be cut between the ages of 6 and 10 years, so that its wood can be easily used to make all kinds of tools.

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Characteristics of Balsa Wood

To study the use of Balsa wood, we need to get acquainted with its properties:

– In terms of weight, balsa wood has a light structure and that is why it is used for insulation purposes and also to make replicas and various types of tennis racquets.

– It is interesting to know that despite the low weight of balsa wood, it has a very high resistance and in terms of strength, it can be compared to oak and pine wood.

– Another feature of balsa wood is its soft texture. When it comes to this, you may think that balsa wood is not at all suitable for making tools because it is soft and that will make it brittle. But this is a completely wrong imagination. The softness of wood does not mean that it is fragile, but it shows that the flexibility of wood is very high and as a result, it will be very suitable for carving, inlaying, chopping and cutting.

– If you look at some species of balsa tree, you will notice that there is a heterogeneous color composition inside. Therefore, when using, we must choose the best balsa wood based on our final product.

– Since the thickness of balsa wood is less than other trees, when working with this wood, carpenters and artisans should be more careful because it may become brittle.

– Balsa wood’s adhesion is excellent and if you are going to glue some wooden parts together with a special glue, there will be no restrictions for you in this regard.

– In general, balsa wood is excellent for shaping different tools and, in this regard, carpenters do not have limitations for polishing wood and making various tools.

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Balsa Wood Applications

Let’s talk a little about the history of balsa wood. During World War I, the Allies were thinking of a great alternative to cork in order to reduce the cost of the war. It was at this time that they accidentally found the balsa tree wood. Of course, the problem with using this wood was the difficulty of cutting it and shredding the tree trunk. It is still a bit difficult to harvest this wood. Due to the fact that balsa trees do not grow all at once and are scattered, it is not possible to use industrial methods to cut all the trees at once and carpenters must act one by one. According to the characteristics that we have mentioned for balsa wood, the most important usages of this wood are:

– This wood is used to make the interior walls of aircraft and aircraft replicas, as well as structures and civil maquettes.

– Balsa wood is used to make sports equipment such as ping pong and tennis racquets and even fishing equipment, yachts and surfboards.

– Another use of balsa wood is to make guitar bodies.

– It is interesting to know that even balsa sawdust is used because sawdust is light in weight and is therefore used to fill boxing bags.

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