# Balsa wood



## Star1pup (Aug 3, 2004)

I once competed in free flight, rubber powered model airplane contests so I have used a lot of balsa. I just read in Fur-Fish-Game about making bobbers out of balsa and the need to seal the grain.

The best way I have found to seal is to coat with clear dope. This is the airplane paint and not the stuff you put up your nose.  To do it right I would coat the lure or bobber more than once with light sanding after each coat. You can really make it shine this way and clear dope has no pigment so it adds very little weight. Very important with lightweight model airplanes.

Follow the clear with whatever color dope you like and airplane hooby shops have many colors. You can even add a final clear coat over the color.

A caveat is that some decals, etc., might be melted by the dope so test this out before using it over a decal. Balsa makes really nice floating jig type lures on the end of harnesses.


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## BigFoot158 (Jan 14, 2012)

Nice to know. I have a buddy that flies, I used to years ago.


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