Is All Balsa Made Equally?

[sammy01007]

I was looking online for Balsa wood. I was wondering if I could buy it cheeper on line (even after shipping costs) than purchasing it here in NYC. It seems like I could get it at about half the price, depending on where I buy it from. I have read that not all balsa is the sasme. There are differences in density. The less dense, the cheaper it tends to be. I was looking at wood from http://www.balsawoodinc.com/balsawoodproducts and am thinking about giving it a try. Does any here buy Balsa online? And from where?

Also, has anyone though of creating some sort of page where members can list materials and suppliers. When I first came to this group, one problem I encountered was figuring out exactly what evrything was, especially when names of items are abreviated ( i.e. DN, D2T ). I see source questions come up a lot of newbies trying to figure out where to buy certian items. I think some sort of page with a list of links attached to specific item members purchase from those links would be benificial to everyone, as long as it was well organized.

[BobP]

Sammy, balsa varies in density from 6 lbs/cu ft to 18 lbs/cu ft and the more dense it is, the harder it is. Most bait makers prefer 12-18 lb/cu ft balsa. There is often an extra charge to order a specific density of balsa but it is definitely worth it. You can make baits with very light balsa (aka "tournament balsa" used for model aircraft) but it requires extensive reinforcing to yield a durable bait and it will inherently be weaker than one from more dense wood. Sorry, I can't recommend an online source. It's been awhile since I got some and my source went out of business.