Balsa ?s

[scoop10]

All my playing up to now has been done with eastern cedar and basswood, but I recently bought some Balsa. Unbelieveable how easy it is to cut and sand.

But I have questions working with such a soft wood. Will it hold eyescrews OK, with a dab of epoxy in the holes? Also, will it require a smaller belly weight than what I am used to? On a Poes 400 sized plug, would 4 grams be too much? Or is it so buoyant that it can actually take more weight?

[Coley]

Checkout these tutorials. Also, after the bait is shaped, clearcoat it

with Devcon 2T and sand it down. You will add alot of strength to the

balsa and you will have a good base for your primer. Balsa is very

forgiving on weight. You will just have to test it to get it to do what you

want.

http://www.tackleunderground.com/board/kb.php?mode=article&k=6

http://www.tackleunderground.com/board/kb.php?mode=article&k=7

Coley

[BobP]

Balsa requires more ballast for an equivalent float level. The most durable method for hardware is a through-wire frame. I scribe a center line on the bait after cutting out the rough blank and use a razor blade to split the bait after shaping, when I'm ready for the wire frame. 5 min epoxy gets it back together and gives the bait a strong backbone. On large minnow baits you can cut a slot in the belly for the hardware instead. However, if you undercoat with epoxy and use screws with lots of glue surface (like hand twisted stainless wire), just screws will do fine for bass lures. Personally, I wouldn't use standard tapered eye screws on balsa. When installing screws, predrill, use a length of wire to get epoxy thoroughly into the depth of the hole, then coat the screw with epoxy and install.