I have a question on wood baits and I figured I would be able to garner a much better understanding from those who craft with the materials themselves. Most wood baits that I'm associated with are balsa and cedar. I know the properties of balsa baits, but what about cedar and other woods?

-Braden

I don't really understand your question, but each species of wood has a different density or weight.  this means you need to pay special attention to how much balast weight you use and where it's placed.

Balsa is the most forgiving wood to balast, cedar, and soft pine are not to hard to work with.   Hardwoods a nearly impossible to work with  without some power tools and lots of trial and error when it comes to getting the balast weight correct.   Hope that helps a little.

I think i get the question as I was going to ask something similar.  Why would you choose balsa over cedar or vice versa?

Not to hijack you thread but isn't cedar dust poisonus?

Allen

Everything Big M stated.

Even the softer woods like pine and cedar, have better holding properties than balsa as far as hardware. (Scres and screw eyes) With balsa, I use hand spiraled hook hangers in order to increase surface conact with the epoxy. Over kill? Maybe, but better safe than sorry.

You don't have to worry about the wood underneath being crushed on impact with rocks and such on an errant cast with harder woods. Dented or chipped, yes. With balsa being as soft as it is, it will flex more than the epoxy does and cause cracks. It is like the plastic bumpers that first came out on cars in the late 80's. The plastic would flex underneath, and the paint would crack if the vehicle barely brushed the bumper with another vehicle. I had one lure stuck in a tree and ripped it free and it struck the mid section of the big motor and cracked all the way through to the wood. I am not knocking epoxy sealed over balsa. I do not know of any other lure that would have stood that abuse, store bought or custom made. A plastic crank would have probably shattered.

You do loose action as the wood density increase. As the wood density increases, the total lure weight is spread out over more of the lure. Simply because the wood weighs more. With balsa being so lite, you can place heavier balast weight in the lure making the weight more localized. This is why balsa lures are so "lively". Heavier woods can be made to diver deeper easier also.

Hope my rambling explained what you were asking.

Eric

Yea you got at what I was interested in. Sorry for the confusion Big M. Basically, I knew balsa baits had high buoyancy and great action and that it was the most common choice by most lure manufactures and crafters. I also noticed that some manufacturers used cedar such as the Poes lures. I just wanted to know if there were advantages to using cedar over balsa or any other woods and so forth. As always, I'm amazed at the knowledge you guys have.

Thanks,

Braden