Archimedes Plutonium wrote in message ...
What prompted this question? Well recently I bought some lumber of white
ash, plus hickory plus white oak and various others. I do not believe
the data on strength of wood is accurate and am wanting to test these
woods myself. I believe oak is stronger than hickory. I believe the
strength of hickory is a sales hype. The reason I say this is because in
history trebuchets were built out of oak and not hickory even though
England had hickory species and ash species. And because the growth
pattern of oaks allows horizontal branches which means the wood has to
be tougher and stronger to grow horizontal. I also want to test spruce
for strength because a spruce bears the full force of wind so its wood
must be strong.


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Arch,
Think first. Oaks grow larger than ash and hickory and therefore
were better suited to the construction of trebuchets, and houses
and ships for that matter.
Testament to the strength of hickory and ash can be found in the
traditional preference for these woods in axe handles and carriage
frames. (High strength - low weight applications.)
BTW. Spruce is preferred for aircraft structure due to its high
strength to weight ratio, by dimensional size it is not too strong
and quite soft compared to denser woods.
Always look for the wisdom inherent in empirical data, it just needs
to be interpreted.

pragmatist.

"While you struggle to cram Theory into your head,
Practice sneaks up and bites you on the ass."