Board-Breaking Competitions

[shesulsa]

One more question. Where should boards be stored? Mine are in the trunk of the car. I guess I should try to find a dry place. That's not happening in my house. I guess I could try some spacers of some kind.

You have no dry-enough paces in your house? Um ... living room? Dining room? I put mine in the living room or dining room where it's reasonably dry (we have a wood burning stove, so I make sure I put them a safe distance from the stove, both for fire safety and to make sure they're ... er ... not baked). Say, about 15-20 feet away.

 

[Lynne]

You have no dry-enough paces in your house? Um ... living room? Dining room? I put mine in the living room or dining room where it's reasonably dry (we have a wood burning stove, so I make sure I put them a safe distance from the stove, both for fire safety and to make sure they're ... er ... not baked). Say, about 15-20 feet away.

We have places that aren't as wet as others. Mold is a problem here. No a/c in the summer. My bedroom might be the driest. We've had to run our heat a few times lately.

 

[Lynne]

I just had a thought. What's the difference between baking a board and placing it in the sun to dry out, or placing it in an 80 degree room to dry out. You could place your boards near a wood stove or a pellet stove for two weeks and get the same results as baking a board in the oven. It seems that the only thing the oven does it make the boards dry faster.

I'm not trying to start WWIII, but I think I'm bringing up valid points.

 

[shesulsa]

I just had a thought. What's the difference between baking a board and placing it in the sun to dry out, or placing it in an 80 degree room to dry out. You could place your boards near a wood stove or a pellet stove for two weeks and get the same results as baking a board in the oven. It seems that the only thing the oven does it make the boards dry faster.

I'm not trying to start WWIII, but I think I'm bringing up valid points.

Truthfully, I've never seen nor done the scientific proof - all I can say is that I've broken boards baked on top of the wood-burning stove and I've broken boards allowed to cure for 6 months in warm and relatively dry weather but inside. I've only ever put my boards in the sun when there was no dry wood to be found - test was less than 48 hours away and if I'd tried to break *those* boards, I would have broken my bones instead.

The boards from the stove broke *easily*, the boards cured for 6 months broke less easily and the sun-"dried" wet boards bruised my hand pretty badly but a few broke.

Perhaps a study is in order!

 

[Tez3]

Good luck! though why anyone wants to punch pieces of wood is beyond me lol! It's why I like MMA I get to punch people and it's fair.... they get to punch me back!!
:boing2:[/quote

I think board-breaking is very valuable though. It teaches one how to focus a lot of energy in one area.

The board can't hit me back but if I hit one wrong, I'm sure I'll be sorry.

During the last board-breaking clinic, a woman tried a chop break (I think it was a chop) and hit the board with the wrong part of her hand. Her hand bruised all the way through from the top of the hand through the palm. Her hand turned all sorts of pretty colors instantly.

I just hope I don't hit the board with my elbow funny bone when trying an elbow strike.

That's a big ouch! My instructor and I break roof tiles in demos but it's only for fun. He can break 200 of them in a couple of minutes.We put them on bricks in piles of ten. I don't know though if you have the same kind of roof tiles we do. Fun to do but a bugger to pick up afterwards lol!

 

[Kacey]

The more moisture a board has in it, the farther it will flex before breaking - thus, wetter boards will require more force and precision than drier boards. How much of a difference that makes in terms an objective standard like foot/pounds of pressure required to break a board is not a study I've seen in the MA world, but might be available from the construction community.

Likewise, boards with tighter, straighter grain will break more easily than wood with looser (farther apart), more crooked grain. The difficulty imposed by knots depends on where they are, what size they are, and whether they go with or against the grain of a board - all other things being equal (which they rarely are! ) a long narrow knot that goes with the grain of the board will break more easily than a 2" round knot near the center, as the long narrow knot will create a weak spot in the board, while a round knot - especially toward the center - will create an un-grained and harder to break area, especially when compared to tight, straight grain.

 

[FieldDiscipline]

I havent read the whole thread, just the first page and Kacey's post above.

Baking boards is cheating. For the reasons Kacey has sited above.

The more moisture a board has in it, the farther it will flex before breaking - thus, wetter boards will require more force and precision than drier boards.

 

[Dave Leverich]

I think this thread has been beaten to death on both sides.