Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

For my present build I used National Balsa as my wood supplier. I have been asked about the quality. Not bad, I have gotten a lot worse from other places. The wood grade was fine. The ply and light ply had no warp. The sticks were straight. The one thing I will say is the sheeting was about useless as cut. It wasn't warped on the flat but it had some very bad bow to it on the side cut. If I tried to glue two sheets together I couldn't, it really had a bow to it, every piece. I took the bundle to my wood shop and used a table saw to get first one side even then I would flip the bundles over and cut the other side. Now there is no problem with straight edges. The really odd thing was when I was finished my three inch sheeting was three inches?? I have never been to a balsa supply shop so I don't know how it is cut, I'm guessing several different saws? Anyway, after I straightened up the edges I had just what I ordered, three inch sheeting. The half and quarter inch sheets were cut just fine. I would buy wood from them again. I found not wood that was too soft or looked like it was worm eaten. If you don't have a good table saw you would just have to use a straight edge and razor knife to do the trim work. That goes for pretty much all wood supply shops so it wasn't any big surprise.
Gene

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Gene,
 Funny that you brought up National Balsa here. I had the opportunity to meet them in Toledo this weekend. Good group of people, so I'm glad to hear that the wood is good from them!!!!

thanks for the product report.

Ken

gboulton

My Feedback: (15)

Just got a big box from them today myself.  Their usual good quality and excellent packaging to avoid any damage.  I remain pleased, and remain a customer in the future.

davidgeorge212

I ordered a big pile of wood from them a while back. I would say overall they are a good quality for the money but the only bad thing I experienced in my latest order was with a few sticks of bass wood I orderd. I think they were supposed to be 3/8" wide strips of basswood but the sticks I got had about a 3/32 to 1/8" taper from one end to the other like they just didnt get cut straight. All the balsa wood sheets were evenly cut and of nice quality though.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

I didn't mention packaging. It was different. Most places put the wood together in size bundles and then box and ship. National had my sheeting stacked between the thicker wood. it went 1/16 then 1/4 then 1/2, even the hard wood was sandwiched like that. Then it was wrapped in a saran wrap so it was nice and tight. Not only no warp but no breakage. First time I have even gotten wood shipped like that. Prices weren't bad at all. Over the years I have used Lone Star and I would have used them again but they didn't have all the wood I needed in stock at the time so I gave National a try. I'm pleased. Also, I have always done my ordering by phone. This time I used the web site. It was the first easy web site I have found. When ordering a lot of different wood and sizes web sites can be a pain, this one was easy.
Gene