what wood for a sinking swimbait??

[spidergrub6]

Hi guys, I've recently had the inspiration to try to make a sinking jointed swim bait like the Sebile magic swimmer. Up till now I've made mainly floater/diver bass cranks and used bass wood. The problem is that bass wood is far to buoyant to use for a slow sinker/suspender even with lots of added weight:drool:. I've heard of people on here using maple, is this a dense wood? Will it sink with litlle added weight? At the area hardwear store they sell hard wood dowels that I'm thinking about trying. I think they're either maple or ash. Do any of you swimbait guys out there know of a good wood that will sink real slow with little weight. As always I appreciate any help.

[speedbuggy]

Maple is fairly dense. But there are other woods that are much more dense, but also more expensive. A lot of the exotic or South American and African woods are very dense. Purpleheart is one of the less expensive dense woods.

Wood Properties and Uses

http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/gtr/uncaptured/gtr_so088.pdf

Wood Densities of Tropical Tree Species

These links may be of some help.

[mark poulson]

Try poplar. It's a bouyant hardwood that shapes and carves well, and is strong.

Keeping the wood light, even though you want it to sink, lets you concentrate enough ballast in the belly to keep the lure running true at all speeds.

Another thing to try is to try to achieve a V cross section from top to bottom. That seems to help keep a sinking bait running true.

Look at a rattle trap, for example.

[Seeking 56]

Janka hardness test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This should give you an idea on the density of most woods.

Hope this helps.

s54

[bdhaeh]

Poplar would probably be your best bet, I have made swimbaits out of maple but they were best suited as fast sink baits. You don't have to add much ballast to maple after hooks, hardware, and D2 and it sinks pretty quickly.

[spidergrub6]

Hey thanks guys for all the advice. Is poplar available at most building supply stores in the U.S. or would I have to order it? I'll have to check out the link on wood hardness and see where bass wood fits but it seems really buoyant.

[Howard Capone]

I would recommend Iron Wood. I have also used red oak.

Carpinus caroliniana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[bdhaeh]

Good luck finding ironwood. I had a tough enough time finding maple or cypress, which have similar densities. Use poplar, the denser woods are way more finicky and hard to carve. You would rather be able to dictate the ballast yourself than let the wood do it for you.