Feather Boards

[Dean Baumgartner]

What do any of you use as material for feather boards? I need to make some but was wondering what works better, a soft wood like pine or something a little harder and stiffer like hard maple.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Dean

[jim barter]

I have used oak and pine.I use oak for the hardwoods and pine for soft.

[Tyler Howell]

Whatever's in the scrap box. For the longest time I had a piece of 5/4 select yellow pine that was a big expensive mistake while making a crib for my oldest now 25. It had the most distintive scroll work. Everybody that came in the shop recognized it from the crib.;)

[Don Abele]

Dean, as Tyler said, whatever is in the scrap bin. Most are from pine, though I have a couple from maple and oak (for more stiffness). I even have a couple made from scrap 1" UHMW plastic.

[Dave Anderson NH]

My preference is for ring porous woods like oak or ash. The pronounced straight grain is strong and flexible and makes a fine featherboard. I, like most of the others here, tend to use whatever cutoffs are in the scrap bin. As a safety measure I make them on the bandsaw rather than trying to make multiple rips on the tablesaw. This allows you to make the kerfs between fingers any width and stiffness you desire and more importantly prevents any chance of kickback. Multiple ripping of small parts on the tablesaw is something I avoid.

[Tom Hintz]

I also have made featherboards out of just about all kinds of wood but like pine because I can make relatively thick fingers that flex smoothly. It just seems to work better in more applications.
There is a picture of a few of my more common variations on the page link below. The possibilities are endless really.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/fthrbrdpln.html

[Dean Baumgartner]

Thanks for the replies. Didn't know if I wanted to make some out of pine and let it go at that or "sacrifice" some of my good scraps of oak or maple. I think I'll play around with some out of pine and find out what works well for me and then maybe try something a little more permanent.


Dean

[Arvin Brown]

I usually use feathers!