Hempwood

[reride82]

Has anyone had any experience with hempwood? I'm old fashioned and like real wood, but it seems my friends in ag are trying to find a viable outlet for hemp. It hasn't done well in our northern climate, my dad planted about 40 acres to be sourced towards the CBD oil market and it flopped hard. I'm just not impressed that they're pushing hard to pull food growing acres out in favor of fiber/building material acres. It seems backwards. Does anyone have any experience with machining hempwood?

What is Hemp Wood?

Levi

[doc henderson]

I have not milled it.  I have a good friend here and he and his BIL quit their day jobs to grow for cbd and fiber.  after a year, and too much water, not enough water, bought equipment and land and green house buildings, they are all back to day jobs and doing this part time.  must be harder than it looks.

[BradMarks]

Having read the link, do we need it?  Just another "building" material at what looks to be very high priced. Personally, not impressed with the "grain" shown in the pics. The premise to "take on the wood products industry" and give the farmers another crop seems odd. How many acres of food production are already ethanol farms?.  Here in Oregon we do have hemp farms, both sides of the Cascade mountains, so it appears to be adaptable to some climes. Even the Oregon State Univ. research farm(s) has a finger in the (non)pot.

[A-z farmer]

I see a lot of farms growing hemp in the Hudson valley of New York.But I do not know if they are actually making money on it .It is the same with growing animals or crops someone might be making money but is the one who grew it .
I have brewed beer for many years and grow barley so I can malt it .This last year I decided to up my acres and try to sell it to a malt house .what I learned is that barley must meet certain criteria to qualify for mating .I ended up with too high of protein and harvested at to low of moisture for our humid northeast.So I ended up with expensive beef feed and not 400 $ a ton for the barley .

[breederman]

From my conversations with some people who planted small plots here in NY it sounds like promises were made on markets and pricing and they may not be being kept. 

[florida]

A product looking for a reason to exist.

[Southside]

Saw the same thing in the '90s with Flax, then in the 2000's with Alpacas.  At least those producers didn't stink things up for 1/2 mile away from their field.  

[Dan_Shade]

Hmm.. Dennis Leary had a comedy skit from the 90s that said pot led to carpentry. 

I guess he was right. 

[Don P]

It looks like they are just using the same process as parallam, an osb-ish beam that's been around for a few decades. It is a strong fiber so why not. Aside from a very niche market I doubt it will make great inroads against hardwoods as a finish material, it isn't very handsome.

 We've largely lost the ability to sell recycle plastic to China, its going back into landfills lately. I've seen off spec hemp getting plowed under and I'm sure there is quite a waste stream from CBD processing so have been wondering when hemp Trex and those types of products would appear.

As far as lower embodied energy than a tree, hmm, I kinda doubt that one.

Jim, back in that same period we had a short lived Emu boom. I wish I had saved a picture of the great escape that made it into the paper back then. A local deputy in mid flying tackle as the emu was obviously gonna leave him empty handed :D. Then there was the Autumn olive berry boom... and so it goes.

[SawyerTed]

Hemp is being grown here with good success for those who can meet the regulatory requirements.  THC content has to be below a certain level or growers will have their crop destroyed.  Most is for fiber and the CBD oil markets.  It is expensive to plant but returns are very good.  Hemp is the latest crop to replace tobacco as a cash crop.  Most producers are using similar methods as tobacco for planting.  Drying is in bulk tobacco barns.

I haven't seen anything on the hemp wood production here.

[moodnacreek]

The good old U.S.A.  In just a few years we can over supply most any market. The consumers win in the end. I don't think they realize this.

[Southside]

@Don P funny about the emu's - maybe I missed the fad, but I did get to see one in action one day.  Was standing by a Trooper trying to corral one along side of the interstate when the Trooper, who was all of 5'4" tall, grabbed the bird by the neck.  Well, 2 oz of Emu brain sitting on top of 150 lbs of Emu muscle suddenly went from rather docile to something out of Jurassic Park, it's eyes just about popped out of it's head and a size 16 razor sharp foot extended up about 4' off the ground, one sudden "whump" and Mark began to roll down the embankment head over heels while the Emu pulled a Road Runner, somewhere in all of the laughter I heard a "Beep Beep - zoom".  Absolutely shredded his uniform shirt - it was hilarious!!  :D

I don't remember it happening but do remember the fall out from when sugar beets were going to be the next big thing up our way, that was late '70s maybe early '80s.  Bunch of guys planted beets, some ground was broken for the new plant and "poof" it was over - history simply repeating itself.   

[Bruno of NH]

When I was building full time
Everyone was high on Boobam (bamboo That's what I called it) I didn't care working with it. It came from over seas and mostly prefinished and made me sick cutting it.
You don't see much of it around anymore I see hemp as the same.

[Nebraska]

When I was going through food animal rotations in school, I saw more emu's and ostriches than cattle. I have a healthy respect for them, they and Buffalo truly scare me. That previously mentioned officer is lucky not to have been eviserated, by that bird foot they are impressive weapons...
Not surprised with the hemp thing, they made it legal to grow here in the last couple years.  I could see some application for glue lams and some building products but seems like a small market thing unless it's dirt cheap and good.   Hemp seems similar to the large birds mentioned above, a deal called the Jerusalem artichoke, Aronia berries, pot bellied pigs, minature breeds of cattle by and large, that's a short list... lots of pie in the sky to chase..

[Ed_K]

 Had the plumber here last night trying to make the on demand hot water heater work. He talked of hemp being the new pellet product as it has less ash than top hardwood pellets.

[Stephen1]

Hemp is being grown here with good success for those who can meet the regulatory requirements.  THC content has to be below a certain level or growers will have their crop destroyed.  Most is for fiber and the CBD oil markets.  It is expensive to plant but returns are very good.  Hemp is the latest crop to replace tobacco as a cash crop.  Most producers are using similar methods as tobacco for planting.  Drying is in bulk tobacco barns.

I haven't seen anything on the hemp wood production here.

all I have to do is the change the software in my IDRY kiln and I could dry 3,000lbs of Hemp in 24 hrs.
Now I need to find someone who has lots to dry ;D

[K-Guy]

I haven't had anyone asking about this yet but I suppose it can be dried like anything else. In the article they talk about it being revolutionary, they need to remember most revolutions fail.

Those of you who are old enough will remember when VCR's came out and video stores cropped up on every other street corner. That lasted for about 2 years and then they all went broke as blockbuster and convenience stores pushed them out.

Many of these guys will end up losing their shirts.

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Looking at hempwood's website the images of the boards look like spalted wood.
the price of a 6' 3/4 x 6 is $60.

It'll be interesting to watch.

Jon

[Bruno of NH]

I say Boobam it's all a sham :laugh:

[GAB]

Looking at hempwood's website the images of the boards look like spalted wood.
the price of a 6' 3/4 x 6 is $60.

It'll be interesting to watch.

Jon

Jon:  I'll be watching with you.
On the price, I think the got the decimal in the wrong place.
GAB

[quilbilly]

I wouldn't poo poo everything. At some point there will be an alternative fiber source that pops up to replace the current tree species we have. I'm not pushing it, but I believe enviro regs will. I've seen some studies that have come out recently about how much better a longer rotation is for the environment on timber as opposed to the now standard 40 years or less and I wouldn't be surprised to see states start forcing longer rotation standards  to keep timber tax advantages. I also could see them push laws the way the kiwis have it where it where native trees are on very stringent laws to cut and non native can basically be cut at will.
  At some point there will be something that pops up. Whether it's hemp, bamboo, algae, or whatever, there will be some revolution in farming and tree growing. After all who grew soy in the Midwest 100 years ago. Or almonds taking over California, or grapes or...

[UncleMoustache]

Bringing up an older thread here, but a friend recently asked me if I was thinking about using hemp wood for construction now that wood prices are so high. 

Never heard of it before, and I searched the forum before starting a new thread. 

I wonder if they have made any progress on improving and cheapening the products. 

[Don P]

Just another one to throw in the , uhh... pot.
Cornboard;
Corn Board Manufacturing Inc. | The Book
Remember if you are using any of these things structurally to look for some type of approval.

[doc henderson]

we used to have wheat straw board in Ks.

[Stephen1]

I received a cal from a hemp grower last week. He wants to turn the stalks into a powder form of some sort. His thought is tht I would saw it in the bale form and the dust would be used. I told him I am game for anything that pays cash into my pocket!