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Topic: Hempwood? |
Stu Schulman
From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
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Posted 26 Apr 2019 4:54 am |
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https://hempwood.com, Would this be something that a steel guitar can be made from?
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Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 26 Apr 2019 6:37 am
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I wonder where they harvest hempwood.
Hemp is just a plant not a tree.
We had a hemp plant close to where I live.
They grew hemp to make rope during World War II.
Erv |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 26 Apr 2019 9:13 am
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Hemp is a rapidly expanding industry here in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. The potato farmer who I drive for during the harvest jumped on the bandwagon and began processing it last year. These guys would not be involved if there were not big money in it.
It grows like a weed (which it is), requires very little water, no chemicals, and plenty of sunshine (which is in abundance here). When it's ready to harvest, they send a couple guys with machetes out in a pickup, chop it down and toss it in the bed, bring it back to a pole barn and hang it upside down to dry, and then they grind it into powder and ship it to the processor.
It's processed into the very trendy and rapidly expanding array of CBD products. For a very minimal investment in labor and equipment, especially in comparison to other cash crops, there's a potentially massive return.
As Erv says, it's a bush, not a tree. It's rare to see a stem over an inch or two in diameter, so they're obviously not making lumber out of the Colorado hemp plants themselves without some kind of additional processing.
I'm referring to the crop here in Colorado. In Texas, hemp quite likely grows to rival the size of redwoods and sequoias. It's possible Texas hemp may be milled into lumber. Any one down there know for sure, or is it still unlawful to grow and process hemp in the Lone Star State? |
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Gary Spaeth
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 26 Apr 2019 3:17 pm
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looks very intersting. [url]https://hempwood.com/
 [/url] |
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Todd Clinesmith
From:
Lone Rock Free State Oregon
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Gary Spaeth
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2019 4:22 am
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| ya sounds like a composite. |
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George Piburn
From:
The Land of Enchantment New Mexico
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Posted 27 Apr 2019 4:59 am price consideration
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From their web site samples are going for 20 dollars per board foot.
@ this rate there are a lot of Real wood choices for building steel guitars.
Very unlikely you are going to find exotic figure in this composite material.
I am sure Todd nailed it , as OSB type material, you would need to seal and harden this stuff so much, you may save a renewable tree , but you will destroy the environment much more with all of the VOC involved in the massive amount of chemicals needed to keep it from disintegrating as a stress oriented steel guitar.
3 pieces @ 0.5x6x18â€
Boards: 0.5x6x72†$60
Custom orders: AVAILABLE SOON
HempWood will be available in block, board, flooring, and finished products such as cutting boards & skateboards at prices lower than oak
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Jimmie Hudson
From:
North Carolina, USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2019 6:07 pm Some folks make rope
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Some folks make rope with Hemp.
Some may even smoke a little Hemp. LOL |
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Jon Voth
From:
Virginia, USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2019 7:33 pm
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Possibly, although pitch would always be a little "high".
Come on folks-keep em' coming! |
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Bobby D. Jones
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2019 8:23 pm Hempwood
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Lay a cigarette on your steel made out of Hempwood, Catch your steel on fire and the whole crowd would get high. Have a lot of old hippies at the show yelling "Ha Man,Set Your Steel On Fire, We Want To Get High."
In the Second World War when Japan took the Philippines Islands, Hemp was grown for rope fiber as a cash crop here in the USA. In the 1970's there was federal eradication programs to get rid of it growing wild after seeds got out of the growing fields.
Glue or other additive would have to be added to make it solid. To form into boards or other shapes.
Don't believe it would be a good tone wood. |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 27 Apr 2019 8:26 pm
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| Todd's right, It looks like a type of OSB (oriented strand board), also known as flake board or aspenite. As such, it should be similar in weight and strength. I'm not sure why you would choose to use it for an instrument, though. Normally, OSB chips easily, does not have a smooth finish, and doesn't take a finish well because of the binder (glue) used to hold the strands together. I've made speaker cabinets with OSB, and though they're serviceable, they're anything but pretty. |
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Gary Spaeth
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 28 Apr 2019 3:41 am
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| the fibers could be laid length wise to make it like a quarter sawn wood. the grain would all be in one direction. or it could be orientated any way that would produce the best acoustics. looks like they're trying to use natural resins, imitating the binder that holds wood fibers in natural wood. if that works out it could be finished the same or it could be wrapped or covered with mica if finishing is a problem. would be similar to the composite msa guitars. how did that work out? |
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Ross Shafer
From:
Petaluma, California
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Posted 28 Apr 2019 6:26 am
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Gary S. has got it....a former intern of mine (from my bicycle industry days), brainiac engineer and son of a fellow forumite has done some very high end/high tech research with hemp construction using natural binders. Done correctly he and his team found that hemp fiber construction could be even stronger and lighter than carbon.
I doubt that this "hemp wood" from the original post is made at anywhere near the quality level of the stuff used in the research mentioned above, but I'm confident hemp could be used successfully in musical instrument construction. In fact a little google fu shows that there are armpit guitars already being produced and sold that are built from hemp. |
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Gary Spaeth
From:
Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 29 Apr 2019 3:16 am
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the natural binder for wood fibers is lignin. when making heating wood pellets sawdust is pressed with heat, activating the lignin and bonding the sawdust together to make the pellets. hemp has such a high content of lignin that it is used as a source for it. so the same process used for pellets or something like that might also bind the hemp fibers together forming lumber.
thanks for the positive response Ross. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 29 Apr 2019 10:44 am
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Hemp is already finding its way into the construction industry. If a house (and a 1941 Ford) can be built with it, why not a guitar. Guitar amp speaker cones are being made from hemp too (Cannabis Rex).
Regarding b0b’s question, I am also curious about the board foot-to-board foot sustainability factor of hemp versus wood. Maple needs to be harvested and milled; hemp needs to be harvested and processed. The renewability award goes to hemp, hands down. Maple takes 20-30 years to mature, hemp takes what, 90 days? OSB Hemp is claimed to be stronger and lighter than wood. Maple is pretty strong, so that is a big claim. But it is very heavy too. Resonant quality? I’m sure the science is being done. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 29 Apr 2019 10:56 am
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Given the very small amount of hardwood used by the steel guitar industry and the lifespan of steel guitars in general, renewability doesn't concern me. Sure, maple takes 20-30 years to mature, but a small grove could probably provide all of the maple needed for all pedal steel builders in the world for 30 or 40 years.
Back to hemp - we know that all woods sound different. Manufactured hemp would have to have a sound that steel players prefer, if it were to compete with maple. What are the odds of that happening? Slim to none, I suspect.
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 29 Apr 2019 11:19 am
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One advantage of a hemp guitar over a maple one, if you can't play it, you could always smoke it!
I can just see it now; you're laying down some hot licks and the drug enforcement people come in and put a pair of handcuffs on you and haul you away.
And take the guitar as evidence!
Erv |
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Fred Treece
From:
California, USA
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Posted 29 Apr 2019 11:37 am
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| b0b wrote: |
| Given the very small amount of hardwood used by the steel guitar industry and the lifespan of steel guitars in general, renewability doesn't concern me. Sure, maple takes 20-30 years to mature, but a small grove could probably provide all of the maple needed for all pedal steel builders in the world for 30 or 40 years. |
...Which would be fine if building steel guitars is all hardwood was used for. When I worked in a cabinet shop, we discarded enough maple in a year to build the world’s steel guitars for a century. Just to checkmate myself, I realize that proves the point of maple’s availability. I just don’t see a reason not to use the more sustainable product, if it compares favorably.
Why would the chances of a quality tone from hemp be slim to none? |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 29 Apr 2019 1:23 pm
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| Fred Treece wrote: |
| Why would the chances of a quality tone from hemp be slim to none? |
It could be a fine tone, but it would be different. I wrote "Manufactured hemp would have to have a sound that steel players prefer, if it were to compete with maple." (emphasis added) Steel players are very conservative about tone. I think hemp would have to actually sound like maple or better than maple to be a viable product. That seems very unlikely to me. Prove me wrong! 
And Erv, enough with the pot jokes. Hemp doesn't contain enough THC to get you high.
FWIW, I used hemp cone speakers for many years. They have a rich low midrange that I really like. But I'm more folk-rock than country, so my tonal requirements are somewhat different from most steel players.
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 29 Apr 2019 1:30 pm
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Bob,
There used to be a hemp plant just down the road from me. After the plant closed, the hemp grew wild and the drug enforcement people would go around and make the farmers cut it, burn it or face a stiff fine.
I have an idea it wasn't used just for making rope or why did drug enforcement get involved?
Erv |
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Brooks Montgomery
From:
Idaho, USA
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Posted 29 Apr 2019 4:41 pm
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| Erv Niehaus wrote: |
Bob,
There used to be a hemp plant just down the road from me. After the plant closed, the hemp grew wild and the drug enforcement people would go around and make the farmers cut it, burn it or face a stiff fine.
I have an idea it wasn't used just for making rope or why did drug enforcement get involved?
Erv |
“Industrial†grade hemp is still illegal in many places. It’s ridiculous, You’d get more high smoking banana peels.
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A banjo, like a pet monkey, seems like a good idea at first. |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 29 Apr 2019 6:20 pm
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| It looks exactly the same and it smells exactly the same. You can smoke hemp from now until Independence Day and you won't get high. But you might get a headache. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 30 Apr 2019 7:16 am
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I get high smoking banana peels.
At my age though, I quit buying green bananas. 
Erv |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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