Encyclopedia > Balsa

  Article Content

Balsa

Balsa is a hardwood[?] - meaning that the tree is deciduous, broadleafed and slow growing, even though balsa trees grow to 90 feet high in seven years or so. The timber itself is very soft and light with a coarse open grain. It is much used for model making and was famously used by Thor Heyerdahl in his raft Kon-Tiki - which has its own museum http://www.museumsnett.no/kon-tiki/.

The density of balsa wood ranges from 3 to 30 pounds per cubic foot, with a typical density of about 10 pounds (about one third the density of ordinary wood).



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
North Haven, New York

... units at an average density of 82.3/km² (213.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the village is 98.38% White, 0.40% African American, 0.00% Native American, 0.67% ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 20.8 ms