Is fiberboard made from hemp stronger than wood?

[Massacure]

I'm looking this up on google, and it says that it is stronger than related medium-density wood based fiberboards, but what about just plain wood?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Don't know

but I do know that hemp cloth wears like iron and is soft and comfortable.

[ronatchig]

2. I would think

it could be, at a lower cost of production. since hemp fiber is much less expensive to produce, one could produce a laminate with more fiber density cheaper. Tho, mdf is made of dust many times it is not a particularly strong material.

The willful stupidity of the refusal to grow and use hemp in this country is truly asinine, especially if you consider that the big timber and petro chemical industries could easily reap profits from hemp also.

[whatelseisnew]

3. Buckminster Fuller

used some type of hemp paneling to design/build a car. You might try googling that & learn something about its strength. What are you making?

[Bruce McAuley]

4. As an old hempster from way back...

I feel hemp board HAS to be stronger than wood of the same size since it is the strongest natural fiber known to exist in nature.
I'm certain I could fabricate a really strong hemp fiber and resin board that would be WAY stronger than wood. It would be a lot like fiberglass boards.
Henry Ford experimented with hemp and resin bodies for cars in the 30's, along with hemp oil for fuel. The Hemp Stamp Act of 1937 essentially outlawed the growing of hemp, so he gave up on the idea.
The process awaits the dawning of reality in our national psyche.
The times they are a' changing!

Bruce

[treepig]

11. of course there are those who claim (correctly i believe)

that spider silk is the strongest natural fiber known in nature . . .

Another fascinating animal fiber is derived from the webs of spiders. In fact, the world's strongest natural filament comes from the silk strands of a spider's web, specifically orb weaver spiders of the genus Nephila (family Araneidae). The golden silk spider (Nephila clavipes) of the southeastern United States and New World tropics makes a huge web more than three feet (1 m) in diameter.

The silk of golden orb spiders is almost as strong as Kevlar, the strongest synthetic fiber which is drawn from concentrated sulphuric acid. If spider silk could be manufactured, it would have thousands of uses, including parachutes, bullet-proof vests, lightweight clothing, seatbelts, and light but strong ropes. It could also be used for sutures in operations, artificial tendons and ligaments. It has been estimated that a solid strand of silk from this spider the diameter of a pencil could stop an airliner in flight!

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/traug99.htm

[Lefty48197]

5. It's possible. Plywood is stronger than natural wood

It's because plywood is made up of layers (usually about 5). The grain on the adjacent layers are turned 90 degrees to one another, which winds up making the plywood even stronger than natural boards. They could probably do the same thing with hemp fiber by gluing them together, and then using the same alternating "grain" pattern to give it more strength. The product would probably be similar in strength to OSB (oriented strand board) which is commonly used for subfloors and roof sheathing in new home construction.

[phantom power]

6. I wonder if we could engineer a hemp without THC

I assume this is about the fact that hemp has THC in it (is that right? Well, anyway, it's got something you can get high on).

Then we could grow it *and* satisfy the "war-on-drugs" crowd simultaneously. Because I'm not holding my breath for people to just come to their good senses...

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

8. But don't they already HAVE hemp without THC?

I mean, it's used in kid's jewelry so there must be a process to remove the hemp or grow it differently.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

7. Well.

Regular oak and most woods have a density of .60-.90 10^3 kg/m3, but I'm unsure what the density of hempboard is. I would assume that it is not as strong as regular wood because the hemp stalks are intersparsed with straw, which is very weak.

Just my take on it.

[DEMVET-USMC]

9. Well,there is no just plain wood. The softer woods such as white pine are

not nearly so dense as say maple or oak. You can easily push your fingernail into white pine but cannot do so with maple or oak. The different trees produce different woods with different properties such as hardness and density. These same hardwoods are significantly heavier than the soft woods. The two properties are closely related. ...Oscar

[DEMVET-USMC]

10. I would include mahogany and walnut as medium grade woods as to strength

and hardness. ...Oscar

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Yup...

and there are woods out there, like ironwood, that are almost impossible to cut with common tools. Some are so dense that they don't float.

Are we talking shear strength, compressive strength, or how strong the glue joints can be?

Methinks tht with the basic strength of hemp, it could be a good material for synthetic boards. But, MDF is based on sawdust and wood chips, which are certainly cheaper than hemp. Another synthetic board, increasingly common, is made from recycled plastic. Right now, it's used for decks, docks, and other outdoor uses.

At any rate, it seems just about anything is better than MDF. I've used a lot of that crap, and it's only good point is that it's cheap. It's heavy with the worst strength to weight ratio of anything out there. Don't even think about using it for shelving without some sort of support-- it sags under its own weight.

[F_S]

13. MDF/hemp

Mostly MDF is used for mouldings, light (not light-weight) cabinetry, and flexible applications. It has it's benefits, though. While it's shear strength is fairly poor, it's versatility is almost unmatched. It cuts and moulds well. It uses recovered fiber, improving the % of utilization of harvested fiber. I agree that it's a real pain to work with in a lot of applications, but in the applications it's designed for, it's almost unbeatable.

Comparing it to hemp??? I'd have to see the per acre yield numbers for hemp vs. some of the farm-grown timber options. Some of the fast growing species can produce an incredible amount of fiber/acre/year. I know that hemp is very strong and durable, but you have to be able to make it economically feasible in order for it to be used. Straw fibre board has been a resounding failure due to the cost of production. If hemp fibre board has similar costs associated with it (they would probably be higher since the straw was byproduct from grass/wheat farming and had a low cost, while the hemp would be purpose grown and would not have the grain and seed to off-set its cost), you would have a real problem getting people to buy it.