Woods I Can Access To Make Lures, But Not Sure What To Choose

[Tallbald]

Here in Southcentral Kentucky, I have access to these local hardwoods in quantity.

 

Oak (red and white)

Tulip poplar

red cedar

Black walnut

Sassafras

Black cherry

Bradford pear (one of my favorite rescued turning woods)

Soft and hard maple

Sycamore

Honey locust

Hickory

Sweet gum

 

Pine and yellow pine can of course be bought at the lumber store.

 

Can't think of any more right now, and any would work fine for oversize folk art style lures meant to be displayed not used, but understanding which woods would make true usable lures is important to me. I'm sure my ancestors in Eastern Kentucky use whatever they could find. But some work better than others.

Please think over the above list and help guide me in my wood choices.

Another concern I have with wood choices, aside from sectional density and grain structure, is a particular species ability to take and hold a screw eye. I had thought that as with my art works of years past, I might be able to "harden" the wood at a screw site with cyanoacrylate glue. Hardwoods with a tight grain structure take fasteners better in my experience, so woods like balsa (very expensive here if bought at hobby stores) would easily strip out I would think. I wonder about pine doing the same.

.Thank you. Don

[HickoryHollow]

Don, Here is Ohio we have about the same lumber available. I have been using nothing but poplar to make my hand carved lures. I love working with poplar. It is soft to work, but dense enough to hold screw eyes well when epoxied into the wood. It finishes nice and smooth with sanding too. Hard to beat in my book.

 

Tim

 

P.S. Keep that Bradford pear for carving wooden spoons! :-)

Edited October 29, 2013 by HickoryHollow

[Travis]

I personally would skip most of them and go ahead and get some basswood.  Balsa is fine also and will hold hooks no problems, lots of threads over the years with regards to this topic.

[Tallbald]

Travis I understand your point, but I'm retired. Actually I'm learning to live on social security. Basswood is hard to come by here, and balsa is quite expensive, so those two are not really an option for me. But HickoryHollow as I said there's lots of poplar. Although a plain looking wood, I really like its working properties. In the past I have used it for secondary construction wood in case goods I built. It machines easily,turns well, takes pretty good detail and has the benefit of a fairly close grain structure and  even density. And it's inexpensive here.I had been thinking that it would be a pretty good choice for my lures. 

The Bradford pear I collect after spring storms goes for bowls I turn on my lathe. Although it has wide annular rings from fast groeth, it turns very nicely and has a wonderful golden honey color. And again, it's free for the taking all over towns like mine 

Thanks folks. Don

[RayburnGuy]

Another thing you need to take into consideration is the density of the wood depending on what style of bait your building. Wood densities can be found with an online search. While heavier woods might be alright for deep diving cranks you probably wouldn't want to use them to build top waters or shallow square bills. Lighter woods are much livelier than heavier woods. That's why balsa is considered one of the best woods for shallow cranks. When you run it into something it will deflect off of the cover much better than a heavy wood. It's high buoyancy also allows it to back up out of cover better than say a piece of oak.

 

Balsa can be made to accept screw eyes by drilling a hole where the screw eyes are to be placed and then gluing in a dowel from a stronger piece of wood. Balsa also comes in several different grades which relate to the varying density of each. The type of balsa that model planes are built from is the lightest. I think there are somewhere between 4 to 6 grades, or densities, of balsa. It can range from something like 4 lbs. per cubic foot to something like 18 or 19 lbs. per cubic foot. (These figures may not be exact as I am trying to do this from memory.) With the higher densities of balsa you could probably be OK with screw eyes for fish like bass. I know you said balsa was probably not an option in your area, but this should give you some insight into choosing the type of wood you plan on using.

 

I started using paulownia wood a couple years ago after finding out about it here at TU. It's a little heavier than the heaviest balsa, but with enough buoyancy to build a quick reacting bait as well as being strong enough for screw eyes or glued in twisted wire hangers and line ties.

 

I personally haven't tried poplar, but quite a few folks here at TU do and they swear by it. If it's cheap and readily available in your area I can see no reason you shouldn't use it.

 

hope this helps,

Ben

[woodieb8]

for us here in Ontario Canada we use cedars. it has excellent capabilities for holding sealers/paints. it buoyant and affordable. albeit its dusty and needs tlc sanding,its water qualitys are far superior then many others..

with toothy critters musky/pike your paint/clear will be breached thru teeth and hook rash. cedars will not swell like poplars and other softwoods.

just my 2 cents

Edited October 29, 2013 by woodieb8

[Tallbald]

Thanks again. I hadn't thought about palownia in years. It does grow over in Eastern KY, but I seem to remember that much of it gets bought up and sent to Japan for, I think, ceremonial boxes. As to the cedar, the kind I have access to here is common red cedar with red wood mixed with the white sapwood(?). Does the color matter from a mechanical perspective? I actually have very little experience with cedar. Thanks. Don

[joliepa]

I've got no experience to add, but how come people don't use pine?  Even doing big searches it is barely mentioned.  (though it is, at least mentioned- clearly it is used by some people).

 

 

... anyways.  I bought pine.   The price was right, it seemed light and workable but firm enough for screws.   and its very widely available.  The stuff from lowes billed "craft wood" didn't have any knots.  

[mark poulson]

I've found that the white sap wood of both cedar and redwood don't have the oils in them to make them as water and insect resistant as the darker red wood.  I never built a lure with either, but I have used them both in residential construction.

Pine is easy to shape, buoyant, and strong.  It just needs to be sealed well, since it will soak up water, swell, and ruin your lure.

Edited October 29, 2013 by mark poulson

[scrubs]

Is Sweet Gum the same as Tupelo? Used to use Tupelo a lot in my decoy and decorative bird carvings. Easy to work with a density similar to heavier balsa.

 

Used air dried bass also. Wish I still had access to that stuff at $1.25 a board foot. :-/

bill

Edited October 29, 2013 by scrubs

[Tracy G]

 I have used Pine, Cedar, Popular, Basswood, and Balsa. Kinda partial to the cedar, and white pine due to its availability. I have 1 crank made from white pine that has caught waaay more fish for me than anything else that I've built, but as mentioned above you have to make sure it is sealed properly.  Popular has a nice action also. I had a guy bring me some black ash last week, but I haven't had time to mill and dry a piece to try it yet.

[granddadslures]

TALLBALD, if you have ready access to (Eastern) Red Cedar, use it. have been a yacht carpenter for over 35 years and have used/worked with every type/exotic wood grown. for the past eight years have been using Eastern Red for all our lures and will continue doing so. great wood, great price.

[wchilton]

If you can easily get Bald Cypress it will be one of the best for water resistance and I think a medium density/hardness.  A lot of builders like Alaskan Yellow Cedar.  I've tried AYC but not cypress.  It's worthwhile to just test a screw-eye in a sample of wood you're thinking of using before building a bait or trying anything too complex to strengthen the holding power.  A drop of epoxy or super glue in the pilot hole may be more than strong enough.

[woodieb8]

cedars . look at the end grain on the plank.. you will see how close it is by growth rings. cedars normally have soft and harder substrate within it. we sand only to 80 grit mechanicly. finish sand by hand. to scuff raised grains we use sanding sealers. that removes fuzzies. cedar holds screws better then pines. eastern wh/cedars xcellent also.

matter of taste for woods..what actions you need and such..

when you make thousands cost becomes a factor. .