Making Wooden Skis by Hand
canopic jug writes:
Research scientist and avid skier Erik Johannes Husom has built his own pair of wooden skis from scratch and documented the process in images. That includes felling the tree and splitting it. He has a short video demonstrating the effectiveness of his new skis in actual use.
The main stages of the process included felling the tree, debarking it, cutting it down to suitable length, and splitting it into two halves. This was followed by shaping the wood, first using an axe, and then hand planes. The final polish was done using a knife and finally sandpaper.
The most challenging part came afterwards: Steam bending the wood to give the skis a raised tip (a "shovel"). I had trouble getting the wood soft enough to get a proper bend on it, and ended up using a combination of boiling and steaming to achieve this. The result was less than optimal, but I learnt some lessons on how to achieve a proper bend for the next pair of skis.
I'll add that split wood is quite flexible and by far stronger than sawed wood. So by splitting one can get greater strength with much less weight. Splitting was integral in how viking ships were made strong enough to be seaworthy on the open ocean and yet light enough for extended river ventures and even occasional portages.
Previously:
(2018) Attention Backcountry Skiers: Scientists Want Your Help - SoylentNews
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.