Soften up the wood?

A

AtomSphere

Joined
Apr 15, 2006
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238
Hi everybody,

I just bought 2 large pieces of (god knows what) plywood from Home Depot. I tested its hardness at Home Depot and thought it should be soft enough but when i went home and used it as a target board, i soon found out that its way a bit too hard for me.

I can stick it in but its a shallow stick. Is there any chemicals or anything i can do to soften this board up? I am currently putting the boards in the shower and running it with warm water to try soften it up (maybe it works?)
 
throw harder. ;)

Plywood is not going to be very soft

Best for sticking is sections of log from a softer tree, end grain out.
 
I bought some white pine boards nailed them to a back stop as long as the grain is running up and down they work fine for me. Cost was about $7.
Brad
 
md10mm said:
I bought some white pine boards nailed them to a back stop as long as the grain is running up and down they work fine for me.
Click to expand...
Brad,

Do you have any problems with the wood splitting along the grain?
 
I,m surprised you are not hurting your knives . All I can suggest is to use it like a back stop with a layer of end grain wood over it . something like pine or another wood someone else suggests .
 
IT does split after awhile but I am throwing some big bowies and Viper II, it is cheap though. I have some rough cut Red Cedar Planks I get from one one of the mill here their big but need a bit of work to get them flush. I can get a couple hundred throws then I nail the pine up to it. First time I did it I had the grain running left to right I could not get anything to stick. Then I flipped them so grain is top to bottom and it works great. It is cheap all total I have about $10 into a 7'x4' target ..
brad
 
I found a 20+ foot length of that 4x4'' deck support at the beach. I brought a saw, cut it in half and hauled it up a cliff.
At home I used a chainsaw to cut it into 36 6 inch lengths (guessing pretty much at the dimensions), then placed them 6 by 6 and framed it tight, shimming in the cracks to tighten it. Makes a great target, except my twin brother who never really had much intrest in knife stuff turned out to be a natural at a party the same night I built it, I went out to the shed and saw a big crowd cheering him on, 4 out of 5 stuck, and then he stuck a cheapo hatchet first try! I suppose I should be proud of him though :)
 
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