Red Wood Crankbaits

[Ken 6645]

While cleaning out my garage I found an old redwood post[4x4] and wondered if anyone here has made lipped baits from redwood.I cut out a few this afternoon and they are really light weight .. The wood seems a little soft but I'm new to lure making.If you have used this wood ,let me know ..Pro/con your thoughts

Thanks for your time

Ken

[airbrushextreme]

I have made several baits out of redwood mostly fat square lip baits . they make great very bouyant baits but are very soft wood I normally glue my screw eyes in and add any weight to the belly before I seal the bait. after the sealer dries I sand or scotchbrite it then paint it

[BobP]

I haven't tried redwood because it contains oil that can leach through and stain undercoating and paint unless you use a solvent based undercoat.

[mark poulson]

Some redwood is very hard, but most is not. Typically, the harder redwood is full of pitch, so it's not very buoyant, either, and probably wouldn't make good baits.

Reinforcing the screw eye holes with crazy glue, once you've run them in one time to cut the threads, is a good idea. I actually do that, and then brush some crazy glue onto the threads before I run the eye in again when I make a balsa bait, or any bait, for that matter.

I might seal the whole blank with crazy glue, like I do with balsa, just to harden it's surface. I use two coats with balsa.

I've read here a lot of people use propionate for their balsa baits, and that would probably work, too.

But, other that dissolving the bottom of a solo cup onto a workbench top when I put some acetone in it, I haven't had any experience with propionate.

I do so few balsa baits that I've never investigated it.

Edited October 4, 2010 by mark poulson

[Toxicbaits]

I never like the way redwood acted when i shaped it. to gain some strength for holding the screw eyes into the bait (redwood is usually soft) make sure the grain runs horizontal so the screw eye has the dense year rings to grab and aid in holding. From what I noticed, the year rings (grain) of redwood are very dense compared to the rest of the wood. Sorry I dont know the technical terms for these. Besides that treat the wood with hardner or super glue to water proof it ,paint and catch some fish! good luck

[mark poulson]

I haven't tried redwood because it contains oil that can leach through and stain undercoating and paint unless you use a solvent based undercoat.

Bob,

I forgot about the oils in redwood. That's a whole 'nother can of worms.

I'm just guessing that a good sealer will do the trick.

I would do some testing before putting all that work into a finished bait, only to have it ruined by oils bleeding through the sealer and softening/ruining the paint job and top coat.

[airbrushextreme]

that why I said you have to seal it I have several hundred linear feet of sawmill cut redwood from the late 70's that was given to me I used it for a while but its not a favorite of mine I like douglas fir the best followed by cypress they are both hard dense woods that can stand up to a lot of abuse

[mark poulson]

My first Pupfish knockoffs were made out of douglas fir, some really dense VGDF I had left over from a job.

It was a little harder to shape than pine, but it is dense, and takes a lot of abuse.

They were very durable lures.

I used rattle can paints at that time, so there were never water intrusion issues.

My friend broke one off on a buoy line when he and I were fishing from shore one weekend when the lake was blown out.

The next week, when we were able to launch, we motored over and cut it loose from the rope. The finish was still perfect, and I still have that lure and still throw it.

I realized later that all my problems with wood baits centered around using water based paints.

Dieter (Diemai) told me years ago that he soaked his wood baits in linseed oil to water proof them.

That's probably what makes rattle can paint schemes hold up so well, since most solvent based rattle can paint have linseed oil in them, or at least they used to.