Years ago I grew a hemp plant. It’s stalk was about 1-1/4” in diameter. After it was cut and dried, it was light like balsa wood but nearly impossible to break. Pretty impressive!
I have a branch for a walking stick that's bowed a bit but holds my weight (~190lbs) with about twice the diameter, being light it can have an increased volume, but it holds itself together nearly well as other wood, so it's stronger for it's weight. That alone isn't really great but you can treat it, or heat it in an oven to create a harder surface which is helped by the flexible interior.
Before treatment technology developed enough, they were indeed inferior to soft and hard wood but now you are only interested in the fiber and both hemp and bamboo are perfect for producing the fiber at low cost. Now You can substitute the lignin with equal or sometimes even better material.
@@pinballrobbie A shame there's no way to turn them into planks without shaving away the outer layer. The outer layer of bamboo is very hard and has a shiny look but due to the shape of bamboo, there's no way to keep it while trying to make a flat surface out of it.
@@jgaringan That's why they are both great solutions. They complement each other. Hemp are very sensitive to humidity and are easily infected with various fungi, and Bamboo loves it. Right now many places around the world suffers huge floods whereas other places suffer from drought. The climate changes means more extreme weather and a shift in climate zones. Since both plants grow fast and are extremely versatile, not just for building materials, but for clothing, furniture and all sorts of domestic products, they could save a lot of trees, that are vital, not only for the climate, but more importantly to help reduce mudslides and erosion in general.
An excellent presentation. Thanks. You're quite right. In wartime, supplies of Jute, Flax and Manilla were cut off. Just in case you're interested, Henry VIIIth issued a decree in 1533 compelling land owners to set aside 1/240th (0.42%) of their tillable land for hemp to ensure an adequate supply for Navy rope production. Elizabeth 1st (his daughter) imposed a £5 fine (equivalent to $1800) on a landowner who refused to grow it It is hardy, easy to grow and economically important enough for new lands to be conquered with the express purpose of hemp cultivation Sown close together (about 10 plants per foot square), the plants grow taller and stronger with less leaf. Hemp is more durable than flax, which makes it more useful for ropes, caulk, fishing net and sail canvas Used extensively on all ships before 1850 Nelson’s fleet, required 200 tonnes of hemp ropes and sail cloth annually HMS Victory alone needed over 60 tons of hemp The word ‘Canvas’ comes from Arabic for hemp (Qanab) Hemp is also used to make fashionable clothing and hempcrete, used as a building material
@@mra95662 Some farmers have fed the leaves & flowers to livestock. The seeds are high in protein. I have read that when seeds are pressed for oil, the byproduct of seed cakes can be fed to animals. Since hemp can grow in every state, and be turned into so many products, there should one day again be processing facilities in every state. Until then, farmers in Canada get together and farm hemp for seeds to sell as a high protein food, known as hemp hearts. I get them at Costco. More protein in 2 Tbsp. (10 grams) than in a hot dog (8 g) and costs less, too.
@@mra95662it seems to perform well as animal feed. It's seeds can be eaten and are used as bird feed and to make oil, used in paints, varnishes, soap. It's fibre is used for cordage, fabric like burlap, paper, alternative to fibreglass insulation, bioplastic and specially processed to make fabric similar to linen for clothing. However, the market for hemp is small at the moment and needs developing.
That may all be true, but we have better materials to make ropes out of today and sails aren't used even if they should be on cargo ships. Synthetic polymers are much better for making ropes especially since they don't rot. Thatched roofs and waddle-and-dab construction techniques may be have their advantages but there's a reason why we don't use them anymore. I'm sure hemp has some valuable niche uses that its better at than any alternative but its just not the ideal material for many of the things it used to be used for.
Hempcrete is another great way to build using hemp. The blocks are fireproof even with a torch blasting them. Walls made of hempcrete don't need insulation. So with exterior walls of hempcrete and interior walls made of hemp wood we could stop using pine and building stick houses that need insulation and burn easily.
Iv seen hemp used on stick frame as internal and external finishes, would be good to have the hemp for flooring both polished or made into carpet could even use it for curtains and furniture structure and coverings .
@@comfortablynumb9342 it might have been a hemp product but it was not actual Hempcrete. Its used as filler insulation or for non load-bearing walls. If what you saw actually was Hempcrete and it was being used to support load, then that contractor is going to be in for a rude awakening when that building tries to pass code.
Been using Hempwood since 2019, I 100% recommend everyone get in on it. It can be trickier than we’re used to but the learning curve is the good part, keeps the mind fresh.
Been talking about this for years. Decades ago I held a small square of hempboard plywood in my hands. The damn thing was hard as a rock, but lightweight.
There's billions of tropical plants that provide that already. There's a palm tree thats seed branches (specifically the seed pod holding branch) weighs about as much as plastic yet has the strength of an iron bar. And it doesn't involve absurdly huge plantations to make a bit of wood like this nonsense.
@@bashkillszombies cool - how many board feet can you get out of these tropical trees based on the current forest in the United States? What kind of ecological impact would turning them into a commodity wood have? Do the logistics of milling, processing, and shipping to consumer make any sense whatsoever? You talk about “huge plantations” like it’s a bad thing - do you have any idea how big the “plantations” of old growth forest were that humanity has knocked down? Hemp grows super quickly and in an incredibly wide range of climates. Though, I’m sure that you (as the smartest contrarian in the room) had already thought of all that.
@@bashkillszombies Regenerative agriculture means those "absurdly huge plantations" can function as healthy forests. I know of at least one native owned lumber place (I think it was in Michigan) where they actively remove just the poorest quality trees from the canopy, some trees have mutations that make them barely survive, and other factors can count towards a tree dying prematurely or having weak wood. They've long since run very low on undesirable trees, and produce cheap and high quality lumber. When a tree grows up in a clearing it is often straight enough with less side branching, and they have a large enough area to never need to clear cut despite constant production. Even if this produces irregular shaped pieces they can be straightened, and you could use this in an organized fashion to create nearly perfectly straight trees. Hemp can be grown in clearings between trees in regenerative methods, and when grown like that it grows longer straight stems with less side branches and better fibers for making rope. Clearcutting areas to grow palm plantations and everything else is how we've lost most habitat to farmland, and we are currently aggressively killing the most biodiverse hotspots on the planet for oil palms, things like what we're talking about here are possible in temperate zones where palms don't grow, and can help smaller groups be productive and heal the environment while making humans better off too. With healthy genetics you can make hemp plants that can sequester carbon faster than just about anything that isn't bamboo as well, and they fuel the microbiome with their roots, that's how soil naturally stays healthy and holds onto carbon too. Also you cant just use bamboo everywhere because its invasive and detrimental where it isn't native.
When it comes to hemp the elephant in the room is hemp requires arable land suitable for mechanized agriculture to be grown cost effectively, trees don’t. And most of the world’s arable land is currently used for growing food crops, to grow more hemp means less of something else has to be grown. And to be attractive to farmers hemp needs to be more profitable than what is currently being grown, which may work against hemp being a lower cost alternative to wood.
When it comes to hemp the elephant in the room is hemp requires arable land suitable for mechanized agriculture to be grown cost effectively, trees don’t. And most of the world’s arable land is currently used for growing food crops, to grow more hemp means less of something else has to be grown. And to be attractive to farmers hemp needs to be more profitable than what is currently being grown, which may work against hemp being a lower cost alternative to wood.
As a retired carpenter and builder and amateur boat builder I found this video very very interesting so thank you. Hempwood does seem to offer a lot of opportunities and it's price will come down as traditional lumber gets rarer and more expensive and hempwood production increases. It's strength was not discussed in depth but I expect the materials boys and girls will get busy in the lab destruction testing it and coming up with variants. Other manufacturing techniques such as moulds and vacuum bagging me ghr extend its use. The range of potential glues is tremendous and an ongoing field of research in general. In all an interesting topic and I'd expect hempwood to become more relevant and readily available as it's a sustainable resource with no obvious drawbacks than it's cost. The hardness is an advantage for flooring though a drag if it's your tools getting blunted. It might be possible to make it the face material around bamboo, foam or some other sandwich material. I think that there is a PhD in a practical subject waiting to be done here around hemp wood.
German car companies use hemp fiber composite materials for car body panels. Henry Ford designed a car to be built from hemp panels and fueled by hemp oil. Although today the oil would be preferable for human consumption; it's healthier than every type of "vegetable" oil.
What's your opinion on this vs traditional MDF as a retired carpenter? Isn't this just a new label on an existing concept, albeit with a higher price point?
It's too disruptive to the timber cartels. People simply don't understand how much power the timber cartels have in states like California, WA, Oregon, Idaho and the entire northEast.
I don't think lumber is going to get rarer. Softwoods are grown sustainably. Unless your house is 200 years old, its not like your house was built out of wood from old-growth forests. Pine is easy to grow, cheap, can be re-grown in the same area, and won't disappear unless some disease comes around that wipes it out.
@@ryelor123 There is no such thing as sustainable forestry in our era. It took thousands of years to build up the coastal rainforest soil and biomass and it's only going to take a few hundred to destroy it--were already 100 years in. Trees are not a monoculture and never will be. Everything you think you know about logging is a lie.
Basically it's fine fiber OSB. Doesn't look bad in the rift sawn pattern. I'd use it in dry areas. I'm sure the hardness comes from the glue, not the fibers.
@@christopherlee5584 Yes. It's strong and durable. Hemp makes rope. If it were hard it wouldn't bend. Nylon is also strong and durable. That doesn't make it hard.
There is actually very little glue used. Much like creating bamboo veneers, the fibers want to heat bind together under high pressure like he shows used. Like he also said, its more of a durability issue once becomes moisture saturated in comparison to a solid wood though. In bamboos you usually only see the glue used when creating laminate glue ups for bamboo plywood production, so I would assume the same if want to make hemp plywood.
@@ST-0311Hemp rope is made from the outer fiber. This is made from the woody center of the stalk called the hurd. It’s incredibly hard, and contains silica.
I'm sure that changing the binder they use could make the product completely waterproof. Once they get to the economy of scale level it could be an attractive alternative to solid wood. It might be a viable alternative to wood framing at some point or useful for sheathing. As a product in it's infancy it has a long development road to success and acceptance. Nice video.
The HempWood journey started in 2003 when our founder was one of the inventors of strand woven bamboo. He got sick from the formaldehyde used so he started working with soy glue, but the bamboo market had already dropped to a Home Depot product where people cared more about price rather than health. Then Hemp became legal in 2014 and Greg filed some patents. We now have sold over a million feet of flooring and growing. You are correct, we need to keep scaling to lower the cost. Thanks for following our journey!
When mixed with lime to make "hempcrete/hemplime" it is water proof once dry, which happens quickly. And as it takes up carbon from the atmosphere it gets even harder.
I came to this video expecting a type of bs fact less video but I am very impressed with the information given and I appreciate the effort and the companies that get involved making this a reality.
Thank you Dave for your video! I love the content. I watched it when it came out three months ago and am rewatching it now. Today I had the distinct honor of meeting Greg the CEO of Hempwood and got really inspired. He gave me some samples. I am going to do some tests and will let you know the results if you are interested. Best, Jori
Yes, our founder invented it and built 53 factories in China making strand woven bamboo. Then he invented HempWood and moved back to the US setting up 2 factories in Kentucky! Actually voted the coolest thing made in Kentucky 2024.
@@hempwood2602 good luck with your hemp-based products. It seems like a good eco-alternative product. Where I'm from, Singapore, all hemp based products are banned. Yes, even hemp fibers- clothes made from hemp aren't available. here
Really informative. I hope it becomes a major part of sustainability and logical resource management. The flooring looks great and I like the rift look. Hopefully the price will come down.
The sustainability portion is very sugarcoated by the people making the product. They mention how growing hemp is CO2 negative (true for literally any plant) but fail to account the baking overnight emissions and the use of glue (even vegetal glue also requires heating and machining). I doubt the final product is "greener" than regular wood. Certainly much faster to grow. Competition with food crops almost guarantess higher price, if it becomes too cheap, no point in growing it.
@@rafael_lana All very good points. I think he did stress that the process still needs a lot of development but your points are very valid. It takes a lot of effort to actually come up with a sustainable strategy for most of our pressing environmental threats. I guess they have to sugar coat it to have any chance of funding while they try to improve the process. They are a long way from being a viable and profitable solution. Thanks for your comment.
@@sc3639 Particle board is very breakable. But, the point of my comment comes from the portion of the video where he puts water directly on the wood and leaves it sit there. He stated that he felt that if he left it longer, the hemp wood would have separated. Just like particle board.
The pith from the core is already used to make balsa substitutes and the stem used to produce a fiber that can produce composite board that's used to produce internal trim panels for cars buses and vans by a Canadian company. It uses a lot less water to grow and it removes a lot of toxic metals from the soil like arsenic. But that's a particular US problem. Hempcrete is a great fire proof light breathable building media... and it's pretty rot resistant as a fiber so resists mould and mildew. The binding matrix is the limiting factor and in the boat building industry they are using bio epoxies produced from sugar cane waste. The other option is treat it like modified timber and make it rot proof and stronger. The problem is you've been felling too much forest and Planting monocultures in their place and clear felling huge blocks just because it was cheap and easy.. not sustainable. You've also managed to introduce new pests into both old growth forests and monoculture plantations. This can be mechanically harvested with modified harvesters.. the tops can be fed to cattle or become a feedstock for other products.
The cotton producers do not want hemp. Hemp would destroy the cotton industry. Clothing would last longer. Well, we can’t have that. Our good old gumint is hard at work protecting a generous donor.
It was lobbying from lumber companies, one person in particular whose name I can’t remember, who also owned a large publishing company wanted hemp outlawed so that he could make more money by using wood pulp for paper. I’m tired, that was a poorly constructed comment, but hopefully you get it.
Indeed it was a group of industries that felt hemp would be to disruptive to there profits so, cotton, lumber, petroleum, and the pharmaceutical sectors all ganged up and lobbied that there was no difference between hemp and the more potent cannabis and that you still had all the same stuff in hemp and they pumped out the reafer madness campaign. So then hemp growers would need to aquire special very expensive and limited in number licenses to grow hemp which made it prohibitively difficult to make any profit growing it with the restrictions and licenses. Thank goodness the farmers in the midwest have been fighting fiercely to be able to grow it because it a super crop that has such a wide usage range with little to no waste left over. They have also been instrumental in the medicinal legalization movement out there. Along with the right to repair laws for equipment and things we purchase. They be out there fighting with Apple 😆 and legalizing hemp and everything else.
Cool cool, I like alternative and ecologically sustainable building materials, thanks for covering this. Also, thanks a lot for not having a background music!
I've heard of all kinds of things hemp can be used for. Amazing plant, especially how fast it grows. I'd definitely try out hemp wood. Like any new product the technology would get better with time and someone would figure out a way to make hemp wood in various densities that would mimic trees. And better saw blades to hold up better against the hardness. Or sharpen your blades a little more often. I saw a video awhile back about hemp crete for building. Said it's very fire resistant. One took a torch to it and could barely burn a hole and it still didn't catch fire. That'd also be worth considering.
I like the rift cut better, the face sawn looks more like particle wood. I think it would make for great flooring but they need to keep the price affordable if they want to make good money for it. I would absolutely use hemp wood if I had some. I have recently gotten into woodworking and plan on being on TH-cam myself. I also used to be a stoner until my body turned against me and I can't smoke it anymore. They have crossbred it so much that I have anxiety type episodes from it or I would still definitely be a stoner lol. Seriously though I think it's great to see a viable replacement for wood because eventually we could have a shortage and this would definitely prevent that from occurring. Great job and love the content, keep doing you and stay safe. Happy Building 😁
As Yul B said, just Don't Smoke ! I gave up after ten years a long time ago, best thing I ever did. Products of combustion; your body was never made for them !
Love everything about it. I am 100% in support of using all hemp products for many reasons. Bring it on, I'll build stuff out of it. Why not, been smoking the stuff for 20 years.
Because of your Consideration for hemp you should be equally considerate of Bamboo like hemp it is an absolute Godsend and it can straight up change the game in society I can sit here and explain to you but you just need to take the word of an incredibly blessed man by God that I know what I'm talking about.
Why is Washington seen with a white woman working? He was a great slaver too. Hemp has always been a strategic crop in most countries; in the US and Spain, who introduced it in America, it is still on the military's list. Many people grew it until Harry Jacob of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and journalist Randolph Hearst appeared, who resented its competition with the yellow paper in his newspapers. Its cultivation is a good option and is subsidized in the EU as long as the plant has minimal toxicity. It can be made from the paper of the US Constitution to clothing, shampoos or livestock feed. H-emp is an Italian patent that uses Lycra in its composition to give it elasticity. In any case, its processing is very expensive, too much water and chemicals are used and the result does not match the characteristics of the wood, it is a chipboard and I doubt it is cheap.
DIY Dave loved the video presentation complete with history which made it wholesome all within a 3min timeframe. As for the adoption of the product 1 billion times yes there are always to bring down the cost . It takes several things but I'll say three of them passion, intimacy, and commitment. Thank you DIY Dave this video alone compelled me to subscribe to the channel
Great video, Dave. I had no idea hemp wood was starting to get traction. The positive environmental implications alone are huge, let alone the economics- if this can scale.
Thank you for this video. Am a huge supporter of hemp and hemp building products. Great to see this company efforts into a sustainable building material. Would love to try the product, price difference is no matter. Can't put a price on the environment!! Keep it up guys, may you go global real soon 🙏
Dave I agree with you that if hempwood gets large scale usage, somone will come up with a production method that will make it at a price competitive price. The big problem is some states will never alow the hempwood production because of the cannabis issue. Can you imagine a time when we no longer cut down trees for construction? ABSOLUTELY INTERESTING VIDEO 👍🏾
As a wood how does it take metal fasteners and do screws pull out easy? If the grain only goes one way does it have a weakness to split? This a chicken and egg scenario, as to sell it has to be the same price or cheaper than normal wood or have special properties, and until they get volume will be dearer. Just like other fibre boards chipboard, mdf or osb boards water absorption will be the biggest downfall. I must admit it is very clever and could they do the same thing with wheat stalks/straw?
Straw/wheat stalks probably could work like this, but the material strength is likely to be substantially less. Most other grasses haven’t been selected for strength for generations the way rope making hemp has been.
A pretty straightforward process...would be interesting to see a microwave introduced to cook the wet fibre bundles during compression. I suspect that would increase the density and perhaps even make the end product far more impermeable
Very informative. I like the look of the flooring. Definitely rift sawn, which Looks much more appealing. The face sawn looks like ugly osb. Sealing seems to be unavoidable and makes it seem more like mdf. Lots of unbeatable positives environmentally, especially the growth rate. Thanks for the video.
Very interesting, I know hemp rope is some of the strongest rope out there. But I don’t like the look of pressed wood. It looks a lot like plywood. Great information Dave Thanks.
Up here in Canada we had a group of people that produced a product called strawboard. It was intended to be used like drywall mostly. It was made with round hay bales. It was a great idea, but it wasn’t cheap. They are gone now but I believe that it was a step in the right direction and it would have helped to take the strain off of our forests. I’m also interested to see how hemp wood would do on a lathe. If it could be turned, I think it would have a pretty nice pattern.
it is really cool and I want to see more of this type of wood. I love renewables and Im curious what projects this could be good for (besides flooring which sounds solid already)
I think that it could be good for a lot of things. I have some turning blanks and plan to make some bowls. I think that it would be good for boxes or picture frames too.
I’m a hobbyist woodworker and I’ve been using Hempwood since 2019. I love it. The only fault it has is that even with high tooth count saws, it does sometimes undergo minor loss of fibers by being ripped out during sawing or turning, which leave divots in the finished piece. So you sometimes have to do extra work like repairing it with glue/sawdust before you can market a piece. If it gets more popular I hope to see saw blades made exclusively for it since under the cut it does behave differently from just about all other materials, but, it’s not anything to complain about in comparison to doing something good for the world in our crafts.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I would certainly give it a try. I'd need to know more about it's characteristics before using it for something structural or, even, flooring.
thanks for this. i have been wondering about hempwood for a while now since i heard about it a few years ago. would be interesting to play with it. i would think it behaves like engineered wood and is more dimensionaly stable. the price sure has to come down though.
I wouldn't be so fast as to refer to it as planet friendly, just like most "green" start ups they sugarcoat the process only highlighting the marketable portions. For example, they mention really fast that it requires overnight baking and use of glue, both of which completely remove the CO2 negative label they claim on the growing part. Also it competes with food for growing space, unlike most logging in the US. If if becomes cheap, theres no point growing it over food for half of the year. Fertile land is a limited resource, and almost aways best used growing food. Hemp might be friendly for the planet as a fiber, but processing it into wood, not so much.
So it is OSB made from hemp stalks. I get it. What I don't get is why I would make a floor out of this material that will "delaminate" from water? OSB, MDF, particle board all depend on the adhesive. The wrong adhesive, and it falls apart. I'll wait for water resistant boards.
Yeah totally agree, one of the best points of hardwood is how it handles water. This may be competitive in decoration and some furniture, definitely not flooring.
Ive been told by my lumber salesman that alot of interior door jambs are being made from some type of plant in South America.. He didnt know what plant specifically but the veneer looks like pine.
While not completely made of hemp, the Ford Model T used some hemp in its construction (though not as much as many would claim). Henry Ford was also experimenting with a hemp plastic (that idea was likely killed by Dupont) amongst a few other things made from hemp from his farm. The first diesel engine prototypes were tested running on various seed oil fuels (hemp included). imo its healthier for us to run diesels on most seed oils then to cook food with them.
@@rawsomeone1 All oils become increasingly less nutritious and more carcinogenic when cooked with, once it browns or tans its basically edible motor oil, and its not half bad as break fluid. Animal fats become carcinogenic quicker than plants after the fat is rendered out, butter is better than fat from inside the animal, and seed oils like rapeseed (canola) are better than that, and the best are from tree nuts like olive and avocado oil. Seed oils do work great for lubrication since they're molecules that are meant to last, and we do use them in ways that make them dangerous but they themselves are part of a healthy diet. You need about 10-20% of your diet to be fat, hopefully at least half unsaturated, and you can get all you need otherwise from starches, and fiber as well as less complex sugars in normal food. Fructose is something we only evolved to have sparingly outside of times when we needed to put on weight so the sugar in American soda counts toward liver disease by breaking down into the same stuff as alcohol (and people should know there's more fructose in soda than alcohol in beer). In addition to the motor oil thing the breading in fried foods is essentially jagged pieces of bioplastic that pokes your gut lining while harboring often unfriendly bacteria who eat the barely dissolving fat. Its especially bad for people with diverticulitis, which is shockingly common in America and is linked with fiber deficiency in childhood. Reducing exposure is unfortunately a very good idea, since everybody does better with less stressed guts and less gut cancer. Just use enough to barely wet the pan you're cooking in and put the food in after the pan has heated to above the boiling point, you need much less oil than I often see people use, and at a low simmer in a covered pan most food cooks more thoroughly, stays tender and hydrated, and has more flavor anyway. Tons of plants, and every cheese has emulsifiers that help absorb fat and deal with it, and you can put garlic or a pinch of baking soda into wet mixtures to emulsify some of the fat, but it still leaves some if you have too much.
@thetobyntr9540 Seed oils certainly cause health issues, without a doubt. Animal fats are God-given and healthy. Avocado and olive oil are excellent. Anything over processed to obtain it is unhealthy. Natural oils can be abused and become unhealthy as well.
I totally want to learn more about this product! As to the grain styles, either/or depending on the application or a persons taste. While you mention it's hardness, you don't go into its strength. It looks like a great flooring option, but I would want to know a lot more about its overall strength and durability before using it for furniture. Hemp is also naturally resistant to insect damage and rot. Perhaps they should think about a different binder/glue that is water resistant. This would bring out the full potential of this material.
Guess I got to get a sample and soak it in boiling wax and test it!😮 See if it would hold up with high humidity on the inside and weathering on the outside.
Hemp is such a cool plant. Incredibly useful. This product makes me excited for someone to make a fiberboard like MDF using hemp. It seems like it would be more dense and heavy than run-of-the-mill MDF and thus great for speaker cabinets.
It does have a very cool look. It did seem hard, because your table saw seemed to struggle a bit cutting it. If you had a sharp blade. I like both looks, and would depend on what I was building on what look I would pick. Thanks for the video. Cheers
That grain is wild! I think it looks awesome. I was going to comment even before you asked for it. How does this compare structurally? Tensile strength? Compressive Strength? How well does it hold fasteners?
I'm waiting for impermeable products for the bottom of all my buildings so splash doesn't destroy my exterior buildings. I personally believe this is a worldwide product need, especially for areas of the world where termites are prevalent.
A couple years back I got a packing crate , from overseas , that was made with resin impregnated MDF . I thought it could be a very useful product, stiffer than MDF , stronger , will not take up moisture Checked with my supplier, it's available in coastal communities where they need a waterproof material for boats
Due to the striking appearance and density, Hempwood sounds like an IDEAL wood for electric guitar bodies. Many vintage guitars have bodies made from single slabs of exotic mahogany which are VERY expensive today. ATTN: Guitar builders...
I can understand a puddle of water causing the board to separate, but what about humidity? Could that also cause a board to separate? I think additional chemistry needs to be brought in and tested.
@@richsengcould definitely cause some lamination too. Im not very optimistic with this thing vs water, I think the better uses are furniture and decoration not expected to take water. One of the biggest pros of hardwood is how it handles water.
Just like any product, the cost will continue to be exorbitant the longer it remains controlled by one manufacturer. The reality is the crop is inexpensive to grow and the process isn't all that complex but if its patented then there will be no competitors and they can charge whatever they want for the product. Sure, they may drop the cost of their product over time once they have better equipment and can produce more however it will always be considerably more expensive the longer they are the only manufacturer. The sooner there are multiple vendors and sources for hemp wood the more cost-effective it will be.
Nothing seemed patentable from the video we saw.... glue, a press, and baking... but if that was patentable they could easily license the know-how to other manufacturers.
@@richsengpretty sure the ammount of force, glue and temperature of the drier/furnace are kept secret and took years of testing to perfect. May not be a registered patent, but without inside info you'd need to develop it all over again
In the SciFi novel "Four Day Planet" by H Beam Piper, part of the world building is the colonists produce 'wood' in a factory from fibers of a native reed like plant, because the native tree like plants couldn't be used.
Great video about a new product! you're probably right in that improvements in production and economies of scale will drive down the price. I wonder if this could be used for DIY furniture projects? I really like the "face" cut, as the irregular grain pattern would look great in lathe projects.
Thank you for making this video. It was very informative. It would be great if some of the farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania grew hemp and used it as lumber.
Years ago I grew a hemp plant. It’s stalk was about 1-1/4” in diameter. After it was cut and dried, it was light like balsa wood but nearly impossible to break. Pretty impressive!
I used on as a walking stick...till it "vanished"...magically
Hemp varietys grown for fibers contain so little narcotic that you might as well smoke a piece of old rope ..
from an egineering viewpoint that sounds very interesting
@@charliejones7574and from mathematical view it multiplied by zero
I have a branch for a walking stick that's bowed a bit but holds my weight (~190lbs) with about twice the diameter, being light it can have an increased volume, but it holds itself together nearly well as other wood, so it's stronger for it's weight. That alone isn't really great but you can treat it, or heat it in an oven to create a harder surface which is helped by the flexible interior.
Both hemp and Bamboo are amazing and sometimes even superior alternatives to various tree's that takes 50-300 year to mature .
Before treatment technology developed enough, they were indeed inferior to soft and hard wood but now you are only interested in the fiber and both hemp and bamboo are perfect for producing the fiber at low cost. Now You can substitute the lignin with equal or sometimes even better material.
Bamboo floors look amazing but are very easy to damage with shoes and dogs claws etc. I prefer to use it in Cabinetry.
@@pinballrobbie A shame there's no way to turn them into planks without shaving away the outer layer. The outer layer of bamboo is very hard and has a shiny look but due to the shape of bamboo, there's no way to keep it while trying to make a flat surface out of it.
Bamboo is very water intensive to produce, unfortunately. Hopefully hemp is more efficient
@@jgaringan That's why they are both great solutions. They complement each other. Hemp are very sensitive to humidity and are easily infected with various fungi, and Bamboo loves it.
Right now many places around the world suffers huge floods whereas other places suffer from drought. The climate changes means more extreme weather and a shift in climate zones.
Since both plants grow fast and are extremely versatile, not just for building materials, but for clothing, furniture and all sorts of domestic products, they could save a lot of trees, that are vital, not only for the climate, but more importantly to help reduce mudslides and erosion in general.
An excellent presentation. Thanks. You're quite right. In wartime, supplies of Jute, Flax and Manilla were cut off.
Just in case you're interested, Henry VIIIth issued a decree in 1533 compelling land owners to set aside 1/240th (0.42%) of their tillable land for hemp to ensure an adequate supply for Navy rope production.
Elizabeth 1st (his daughter) imposed a £5 fine (equivalent to $1800) on a landowner who refused to grow it
It is hardy, easy to grow and economically important enough for new lands to be conquered with the express purpose of hemp cultivation
Sown close together (about 10 plants per foot square), the plants grow taller and stronger with less leaf. Hemp is more durable than flax, which makes it more useful for ropes, caulk, fishing net and sail canvas
Used extensively on all ships before 1850
Nelson’s fleet, required 200 tonnes of hemp ropes and sail cloth annually
HMS Victory alone needed over 60 tons of hemp
The word ‘Canvas’ comes from Arabic for hemp (Qanab)
Hemp is also used to make fashionable clothing and hempcrete, used as a building material
Sure. But, what is it used for now? I genuinely want to know as I have 50 acres of not so good rocky soil and in a hot climate
@@mra95662 Some farmers have fed the leaves & flowers to livestock. The seeds are high in protein. I have read that when seeds are pressed for oil, the byproduct of seed cakes can be fed to animals. Since hemp can grow in every state, and be turned into so many products, there should one day again be processing facilities in every state. Until then, farmers in Canada get together and farm hemp for seeds to sell as a high protein food, known as hemp hearts. I get them at Costco. More protein in 2 Tbsp. (10 grams) than in a hot dog (8 g) and costs less, too.
@@mra95662it seems to perform well as animal feed. It's seeds can be eaten and are used as bird feed and to make oil, used in paints, varnishes, soap.
It's fibre is used for cordage, fabric like burlap, paper, alternative to fibreglass insulation, bioplastic and specially processed to make fabric similar to linen for clothing.
However, the market for hemp is small at the moment and needs developing.
That may all be true, but we have better materials to make ropes out of today and sails aren't used even if they should be on cargo ships. Synthetic polymers are much better for making ropes especially since they don't rot. Thatched roofs and waddle-and-dab construction techniques may be have their advantages but there's a reason why we don't use them anymore. I'm sure hemp has some valuable niche uses that its better at than any alternative but its just not the ideal material for many of the things it used to be used for.
plus some hemp for caulking.
Hempcrete is another great way to build using hemp. The blocks are fireproof even with a torch blasting them. Walls made of hempcrete don't need insulation. So with exterior walls of hempcrete and interior walls made of hemp wood we could stop using pine and building stick houses that need insulation and burn easily.
Iv seen hemp used on stick frame as internal and external finishes, would be good to have the hemp for flooring both polished or made into carpet could even use it for curtains and furniture structure and coverings .
You still need traditional walls for the load bearing walls. Hempcrete cant be used as the load bearing portions
@@John_Redcorn_ I've seen it used for the exterior walls of a house
@@John_Redcorn_ if they make hemp studs then I assume they are load bearing then hempcrete inner and outer cast around the softwood frame
@@comfortablynumb9342 it might have been a hemp product but it was not actual Hempcrete. Its used as filler insulation or for non load-bearing walls. If what you saw actually was Hempcrete and it was being used to support load, then that contractor is going to be in for a rude awakening when that building tries to pass code.
Been using Hempwood since 2019, I 100% recommend everyone get in on it. It can be trickier than we’re used to but the learning curve is the good part, keeps the mind fresh.
Where can you find it?
@@Olliinn Especially in countries other than the US.
Been talking about this for years. Decades ago I held a small square of hempboard plywood in my hands. The damn thing was hard as a rock, but lightweight.
There's billions of tropical plants that provide that already. There's a palm tree thats seed branches (specifically the seed pod holding branch) weighs about as much as plastic yet has the strength of an iron bar. And it doesn't involve absurdly huge plantations to make a bit of wood like this nonsense.
@@bashkillszombies cool - how many board feet can you get out of these tropical trees based on the current forest in the United States? What kind of ecological impact would turning them into a commodity wood have? Do the logistics of milling, processing, and shipping to consumer make any sense whatsoever? You talk about “huge plantations” like it’s a bad thing - do you have any idea how big the “plantations” of old growth forest were that humanity has knocked down? Hemp grows super quickly and in an incredibly wide range of climates. Though, I’m sure that you (as the smartest contrarian in the room) had already thought of all that.
Boom!@@annix493
@@bashkillszombies
Regenerative agriculture means those "absurdly huge plantations" can function as healthy forests. I know of at least one native owned lumber place (I think it was in Michigan) where they actively remove just the poorest quality trees from the canopy, some trees have mutations that make them barely survive, and other factors can count towards a tree dying prematurely or having weak wood. They've long since run very low on undesirable trees, and produce cheap and high quality lumber. When a tree grows up in a clearing it is often straight enough with less side branching, and they have a large enough area to never need to clear cut despite constant production. Even if this produces irregular shaped pieces they can be straightened, and you could use this in an organized fashion to create nearly perfectly straight trees.
Hemp can be grown in clearings between trees in regenerative methods, and when grown like that it grows longer straight stems with less side branches and better fibers for making rope.
Clearcutting areas to grow palm plantations and everything else is how we've lost most habitat to farmland, and we are currently aggressively killing the most biodiverse hotspots on the planet for oil palms, things like what we're talking about here are possible in temperate zones where palms don't grow, and can help smaller groups be productive and heal the environment while making humans better off too.
With healthy genetics you can make hemp plants that can sequester carbon faster than just about anything that isn't bamboo as well, and they fuel the microbiome with their roots, that's how soil naturally stays healthy and holds onto carbon too. Also you cant just use bamboo everywhere because its invasive and detrimental where it isn't native.
Did you mention hemp grows in any type of soil and improves poor soil into good soil?
Love the hemp flooring!
I agree. It looks pretty good.
I build about 40 houses per year and when it becomes more competitive we will definetively use it.
spray it with limewater after to make it fossilize and grow extremely hard and mold resistant. it gets stronger from there with age.
No you won’t. Stop virtue signaling.
@@richardtibbetts574 How is waiting for a better price "virtue signaling". I just call it 'good business".
When it comes to hemp the elephant in the room is hemp requires arable land suitable for mechanized agriculture to be grown cost effectively, trees don’t. And most of the world’s arable land is currently used for growing food crops, to grow more hemp means less of something else has to be grown. And to be attractive to farmers hemp needs to be more profitable than what is currently being grown, which may work against hemp being a lower cost alternative to wood.
When it comes to hemp the elephant in the room is hemp requires arable land suitable for mechanized agriculture to be grown cost effectively, trees don’t. And most of the world’s arable land is currently used for growing food crops, to grow more hemp means less of something else has to be grown. And to be attractive to farmers hemp needs to be more profitable than what is currently being grown, which may work against hemp being a lower cost alternative to wood.
As a retired carpenter and builder and amateur boat builder I found this video very very interesting so thank you.
Hempwood does seem to offer a lot of opportunities and it's price will come down as traditional lumber gets rarer and more expensive and hempwood production increases. It's strength was not discussed in depth but I expect the materials boys and girls will get busy in the lab destruction testing it and coming up with variants. Other manufacturing techniques such as moulds and vacuum bagging me ghr extend its use.
The range of potential glues is tremendous and an ongoing field of research in general.
In all an interesting topic and I'd expect hempwood to become more relevant and readily available as it's a sustainable resource with no obvious drawbacks than it's cost. The hardness is an advantage for flooring though a drag if it's your tools getting blunted. It might be possible to make it the face material around bamboo, foam or some other sandwich material. I think that there is a PhD in a practical subject waiting to be done here around hemp wood.
German car companies use hemp fiber composite materials for car body panels. Henry Ford designed a car to be built from hemp panels and fueled by hemp oil. Although today the oil would be preferable for human consumption; it's healthier than every type of "vegetable" oil.
What's your opinion on this vs traditional MDF as a retired carpenter? Isn't this just a new label on an existing concept, albeit with a higher price point?
It's too disruptive to the timber cartels.
People simply don't understand how much power the timber cartels have in states like California, WA, Oregon, Idaho and the entire northEast.
I don't think lumber is going to get rarer. Softwoods are grown sustainably. Unless your house is 200 years old, its not like your house was built out of wood from old-growth forests. Pine is easy to grow, cheap, can be re-grown in the same area, and won't disappear unless some disease comes around that wipes it out.
@@ryelor123
There is no such thing as sustainable forestry in our era. It took thousands of years to build up the coastal rainforest soil and biomass and it's only going to take a few hundred to destroy it--were already 100 years in.
Trees are not a monoculture and never will be. Everything you think you know about logging is a lie.
Basically it's fine fiber OSB. Doesn't look bad in the rift sawn pattern. I'd use it in dry areas.
I'm sure the hardness comes from the glue, not the fibers.
Don't be too sure..... hemp fiber is incredibly strong and durable.
@@christopherlee5584 Yes. It's strong and durable. Hemp makes rope. If it were hard it wouldn't bend.
Nylon is also strong and durable. That doesn't make it hard.
There is actually very little glue used. Much like creating bamboo veneers, the fibers want to heat bind together under high pressure like he shows used. Like he also said, its more of a durability issue once becomes moisture saturated in comparison to a solid wood though. In bamboos you usually only see the glue used when creating laminate glue ups for bamboo plywood production, so I would assume the same if want to make hemp plywood.
@@ST-0311Hemp rope is made from the outer fiber. This is made from the woody center of the stalk called the hurd. It’s incredibly hard, and contains silica.
I see this more as a softer, larger scale micarta
You killed it when you pronounced tetohydrolcanabinol. Good job dude
You almost spelt it correctly, i.e. Tetrahydrocannabinol
He's been practicing since his first time when he was 15....
Sounded more like tetra than teto to me. (And no I haven’t ever eaten hemp spelt. Now you’ve got me curious.)
The toasted seed is delicious!
Edit: Now I want some. Guess I'll go fire up a bowl and eat the seeds.😅
I'm sure that changing the binder they use could make the product completely waterproof. Once they get to the economy of scale level it could be an attractive alternative to solid wood. It might be a viable alternative to wood framing at some point or useful for sheathing. As a product in it's infancy it has a long development road to success and acceptance. Nice video.
The HempWood journey started in 2003 when our founder was one of the inventors of strand woven bamboo. He got sick from the formaldehyde used so he started working with soy glue, but the bamboo market had already dropped to a Home Depot product where people cared more about price rather than health. Then Hemp became legal in 2014 and Greg filed some patents. We now have sold over a million feet of flooring and growing. You are correct, we need to keep scaling to lower the cost. Thanks for following our journey!
@@hempwood2602without being waterproof it isn’t suitable for flooring?
It does look interesting
When mixed with lime to make "hempcrete/hemplime" it is water proof once dry, which happens quickly. And as it takes up carbon from the atmosphere it gets even harder.
I came to this video expecting a type of bs fact less video but I am very impressed with the information given and I appreciate the effort and the companies that get involved making this a reality.
Hemp wood is fantastic and I would use both if I could get them. That flooring looked fabulous!
It seems like a good idea but it might be better as a plywood substitute. Also the riff sawn looks way better than the face
The face has beautiful marbling when finished
I wonder how it would do in a flood. Floods happen sometimes.
Thank you Dave for your video! I love the content. I watched it when it came out three months ago and am rewatching it now. Today I had the distinct honor of meeting Greg the CEO of Hempwood and got really inspired. He gave me some samples. I am going to do some tests and will let you know the results if you are interested. Best, Jori
I like the look of the rift sawn.
There are similar materials engineered from bamboo, as well as trees.
Parallel strand lumber is the general term for it.
Yes, our founder invented it and built 53 factories in China making strand woven bamboo. Then he invented HempWood and moved back to the US setting up 2 factories in Kentucky! Actually voted the coolest thing made in Kentucky 2024.
@@hempwood2602 good luck with your hemp-based products. It seems like a good eco-alternative product.
Where I'm from, Singapore, all hemp based products are banned. Yes, even hemp fibers- clothes made from hemp aren't available. here
Hemp has more uses outside of construction material than Bamboo does.
Not as ecologically friendly tho ....
@@hempwood2602 Nice building 53 factories in China, too bad he didn't build them in the good ole USA. Why'd he come back.
Really informative. I hope it becomes a major part of sustainability and logical resource management. The flooring looks great and I like the rift look. Hopefully the price will come down.
The sustainability portion is very sugarcoated by the people making the product. They mention how growing hemp is CO2 negative (true for literally any plant) but fail to account the baking overnight emissions and the use of glue (even vegetal glue also requires heating and machining). I doubt the final product is "greener" than regular wood. Certainly much faster to grow.
Competition with food crops almost guarantess higher price, if it becomes too cheap, no point in growing it.
@@rafael_lana All very good points. I think he did stress that the process still needs a lot of development but your points are very valid. It takes a lot of effort to actually come up with a sustainable strategy for most of our pressing environmental threats. I guess they have to sugar coat it to have any chance of funding while they try to improve the process. They are a long way from being a viable and profitable solution. Thanks for your comment.
The flooring looks very nice..
Hemp wood is the new particle board.
What?!? Particle board is very breakable?
@@sc3639 Particle board is very breakable. But, the point of my comment comes from the portion of the video where he puts water directly on the wood and leaves it sit there. He stated that he felt that if he left it longer, the hemp wood would have separated. Just like particle board.
You mean, the new, $320/sheet particle board.
@@robertwilliams4487Ouch! That's a bit dear, isn't it?
The pith from the core is already used to make balsa substitutes and the stem used to produce a fiber that can produce composite board that's used to produce internal trim panels for cars buses and vans by a Canadian company.
It uses a lot less water to grow and it removes a lot of toxic metals from the soil like arsenic. But that's a particular US problem.
Hempcrete is a great fire proof light breathable building media... and it's pretty rot resistant as a fiber so resists mould and mildew.
The binding matrix is the limiting factor and in the boat building industry they are using bio epoxies produced from sugar cane waste.
The other option is treat it like modified timber and make it rot proof and stronger.
The problem is you've been felling too much forest and Planting monocultures in their place and clear felling huge blocks just because it was cheap and easy.. not sustainable. You've also managed to introduce new pests into both old growth forests and monoculture plantations.
This can be mechanically harvested with modified harvesters.. the tops can be fed to cattle or become a feedstock for other products.
I like both patterns. And I would love to have hemp wood floor. Especially since it’s organic and a renewable resource. And American made.
The cotton producers do not want hemp. Hemp would destroy the cotton industry. Clothing would last longer. Well, we can’t have that. Our good old gumint is hard at work protecting a generous donor.
It was lobbying from lumber companies, one person in particular whose name I can’t remember, who also owned a large publishing company wanted hemp outlawed so that he could make more money by using wood pulp for paper.
I’m tired, that was a poorly constructed comment, but hopefully you get it.
Indeed it was a group of industries that felt hemp would be to disruptive to there profits so, cotton, lumber, petroleum, and the pharmaceutical sectors all ganged up and lobbied that there was no difference between hemp and the more potent cannabis and that you still had all the same stuff in hemp and they pumped out the reafer madness campaign. So then hemp growers would need to aquire special very expensive and limited in number licenses to grow hemp which made it prohibitively difficult to make any profit growing it with the restrictions and licenses. Thank goodness the farmers in the midwest have been fighting fiercely to be able to grow it because it a super crop that has such a wide usage range with little to no waste left over. They have also been instrumental in the medicinal legalization movement out there. Along with the right to repair laws for equipment and things we purchase. They be out there fighting with Apple 😆 and legalizing hemp and everything else.
Cool cool, I like alternative and ecologically sustainable building materials, thanks for covering this.
Also, thanks a lot for not having a background music!
This is a beautiful, “wood,” product. I definitely like the Riff.
Riff, spiff, kinda ... Poetic
Two things ✌️.... First price, second longevity. If those are right then it will be successful.
Marketing 😂
I've heard of all kinds of things hemp can be used for. Amazing plant, especially how fast it grows. I'd definitely try out hemp wood. Like any new product the technology would get better with time and someone would figure out a way to make hemp wood in various densities that would mimic trees. And better saw blades to hold up better against the hardness. Or sharpen your blades a little more often. I saw a video awhile back about hemp crete for building. Said it's very fire resistant. One took a torch to it and could barely burn a hole and it still didn't catch fire. That'd also be worth considering.
Fascinating! I will surely be keeping it on my radar for alternate materials I could be using wood in building with. Thanks for the heads up!
I have installed many hardwood floors. I like the looks of it, and I can't wait to work with it! Lightfoot construction.
Right on!
" Your hemp flooring is done. Make sure you never spill water on it".
Glad to see people are finding new ways to use hemp! I think it could help allot in the world. Hemp removes allot more carbon than other plants to.
I like the rift cut better, the face sawn looks more like particle wood. I think it would make for great flooring but they need to keep the price affordable if they want to make good money for it. I would absolutely use hemp wood if I had some. I have recently gotten into woodworking and plan on being on TH-cam myself. I also used to be a stoner until my body turned against me and I can't smoke it anymore. They have crossbred it so much that I have anxiety type episodes from it or I would still definitely be a stoner lol. Seriously though I think it's great to see a viable replacement for wood because eventually we could have a shortage and this would definitely prevent that from occurring. Great job and love the content, keep doing you and stay safe. Happy Building 😁
As Yul B said, just Don't Smoke ! I gave up after ten years a long time ago, best thing I ever did.
Products of combustion; your body was never made for them !
Love everything about it. I am 100% in support of using all hemp products for many reasons. Bring it on, I'll build stuff out of it. Why not, been smoking the stuff for 20 years.
I definitely would try it out. Looks like it has great potential for stains and other finishes.
Trees are renewable and they all don't take 50 years to grow. They aren't using oak to build houses.
Because of your Consideration for hemp you should be equally considerate of Bamboo like hemp it is an absolute Godsend and it can straight up change the game in society I can sit here and explain to you but you just need to take the word of an incredibly blessed man by God that I know what I'm talking about.
If they made chocolate illegal to make the carob farmers happy, then criminals would be the only people eating chocolate...
And I would be one of them, diabetes not withstanding. 😁✌🖖
There is an agenda in full swing to make beef illegal. The goal is to make people eat bugs
Why is Washington seen with a white woman working? He was a great slaver too.
Hemp has always been a strategic crop in most countries; in the US and Spain, who introduced it in America, it is still on the military's list.
Many people grew it until Harry Jacob of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and journalist Randolph Hearst appeared, who resented its competition with the yellow paper in his newspapers.
Its cultivation is a good option and is subsidized in the EU as long as the plant has minimal toxicity. It can be made from the paper of the US Constitution to clothing, shampoos or livestock feed.
H-emp is an Italian patent that uses Lycra in its composition to give it elasticity.
In any case, its processing is very expensive, too much water and chemicals are used and the result does not match the characteristics of the wood, it is a chipboard and I doubt it is cheap.
❤sooo true 😂😂😂😂😂
lol
DIY Dave loved the video presentation complete with history which made it wholesome all within a 3min timeframe.
As for the adoption of the product 1 billion times yes there are always to bring down the cost . It takes several things but I'll say three of them passion, intimacy, and commitment.
Thank you DIY Dave this video alone compelled me to subscribe to the channel
Wow, thank you so much!
@@DIYwithDave I should be thanking you actually which I already did
Great video, Dave. I had no idea hemp wood was starting to get traction. The positive environmental implications alone are huge, let alone the economics- if this can scale.
It will. And bamboo. Just makes sense !
Thank you for this very detailed video that includes historical details and footage.
Great video. Keep doing these type of videos on interesting topics and products.
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.
Also dude deserves a like sub ,keep up the building with integrity content my guy😊
I love both looks, depending on application
Thank you for this video. Am a huge supporter of hemp and hemp building products. Great to see this company efforts into a sustainable building material. Would love to try the product, price difference is no matter. Can't put a price on the environment!! Keep it up guys, may you go global real soon 🙏
I love this, thanks for digging into this. I definitely would have used it for flooring if it was available
The flooring looked great
Great presentation, I like your demeanor
Dave I agree with you that if hempwood gets large scale usage, somone will come up with a production method that will make it at a price competitive price. The big problem is some states will never alow the hempwood production because of the cannabis issue. Can you imagine a time when we no longer cut down trees for construction? ABSOLUTELY INTERESTING VIDEO 👍🏾
As a wood how does it take metal fasteners and do screws pull out easy? If the grain only goes one way does it have a weakness to split? This a chicken and egg scenario, as to sell it has to be the same price or cheaper than normal wood or have special properties, and until they get volume will be dearer. Just like other fibre boards chipboard, mdf or osb boards water absorption will be the biggest downfall. I must admit it is very clever and could they do the same thing with wheat stalks/straw?
Straw/wheat stalks probably could work like this, but the material strength is likely to be substantially less. Most other grasses haven’t been selected for strength for generations the way rope making hemp has been.
@@Muljinn The south American Indians built rope bridges out of grass.
A pretty straightforward process...would be interesting to see a microwave introduced to cook the wet fibre bundles during compression. I suspect that would increase the density and perhaps even make the end product far more impermeable
Very informative. I like the look of the flooring. Definitely rift sawn, which Looks much more appealing. The face sawn looks like ugly osb. Sealing seems to be unavoidable and makes it seem more like mdf. Lots of unbeatable positives environmentally, especially the growth rate. Thanks for the video.
Looks beautiful
looks good I like rift sawn look
Me too!
If I was moneyed up enough I'd definitely build a house... Using engineered hemp wood and hempcrete blocks, it'd make a helluva eco friendly home!
Interesting segment. I liked it.
I like the hemp wood flooring.
Interesting! Rift looks better. Thanks for the info!
Very informative video. Love what this company has done with HEMP. I'm sure it will go from strength to strength and become cheaper.
Very interesting, I know hemp rope is some of the strongest rope out there. But I don’t like the look of pressed wood. It looks a lot like plywood.
Great information Dave
Thanks.
A veneer on top and who knows 😉
What is wrong with plywood.? Well finished it looks great !
Up here in Canada we had a group of people that produced a product called strawboard. It was intended to be used like drywall mostly. It was made with round hay bales. It was a great idea, but it wasn’t cheap. They are gone now but I believe that it was a step in the right direction and it would have helped to take the strain off of our forests.
I’m also interested to see how hemp wood would do on a lathe. If it could be turned, I think it would have a pretty nice pattern.
it is really cool and I want to see more of this type of wood.
I love renewables and Im curious what projects this could be good for (besides flooring which sounds solid already)
I think that it could be good for a lot of things. I have some turning blanks and plan to make some bowls. I think that it would be good for boxes or picture frames too.
I’m a hobbyist woodworker and I’ve been using Hempwood since 2019. I love it. The only fault it has is that even with high tooth count saws, it does sometimes undergo minor loss of fibers by being ripped out during sawing or turning, which leave divots in the finished piece. So you sometimes have to do extra work like repairing it with glue/sawdust before you can market a piece. If it gets more popular I hope to see saw blades made exclusively for it since under the cut it does behave differently from just about all other materials, but, it’s not anything to complain about in comparison to doing something good for the world in our crafts.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I would certainly give it a try. I'd need to know more about it's characteristics before using it for something structural or, even, flooring.
Why, you don't use particle board flooring now ?
thanks for this. i have been wondering about hempwood for a while now since i heard about it a few years ago. would be interesting to play with it. i would think it behaves like engineered wood and is more dimensionaly stable. the price sure has to come down though.
This was a very well-done and educational video.
interesting segment, thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great to know that yet another planet-friendly resource is being re-developed. Price will undoubtedly come down. Thanks for your clear presentation.
I wouldn't be so fast as to refer to it as planet friendly, just like most "green" start ups they sugarcoat the process only highlighting the marketable portions. For example, they mention really fast that it requires overnight baking and use of glue, both of which completely remove the CO2 negative label they claim on the growing part.
Also it competes with food for growing space, unlike most logging in the US. If if becomes cheap, theres no point growing it over food for half of the year. Fertile land is a limited resource, and almost aways best used growing food. Hemp might be friendly for the planet as a fiber, but processing it into wood, not so much.
So it is OSB made from hemp stalks. I get it. What I don't get is why I would make a floor out of this material that will "delaminate" from water? OSB, MDF, particle board all depend on the adhesive. The wrong adhesive, and it falls apart. I'll wait for water resistant boards.
I agree it can be used in clothing etc, but I wouldn't depend my life to structure building with hemp.
Yeah totally agree, one of the best points of hardwood is how it handles water. This may be competitive in decoration and some furniture, definitely not flooring.
Ive been told by my lumber salesman that alot of interior door jambs are being made from some type of plant in South America..
He didnt know what plant specifically but the veneer looks like pine.
Sawmill waste? >mdf or osb ?
And we laughed at Cheech and Chong for driving a truck made of weed. We are 5 years from building cars and trucks made of hemp, lol.
BMW already are using hemp on the inside of their doors..... like a bio plastic....
While not completely made of hemp, the Ford Model T used some hemp in its construction (though not as much as many would claim). Henry Ford was also experimenting with a hemp plastic (that idea was likely killed by Dupont) amongst a few other things made from hemp from his farm. The first diesel engine prototypes were tested running on various seed oil fuels (hemp included). imo its healthier for us to run diesels on most seed oils then to cook food with them.
@@AquilaChill Yes, seed oil is great for machine lubrication, but it's extremely dangerous to use in cooking.
@@rawsomeone1
All oils become increasingly less nutritious and more carcinogenic when cooked with, once it browns or tans its basically edible motor oil, and its not half bad as break fluid. Animal fats become carcinogenic quicker than plants after the fat is rendered out, butter is better than fat from inside the animal, and seed oils like rapeseed (canola) are better than that, and the best are from tree nuts like olive and avocado oil. Seed oils do work great for lubrication since they're molecules that are meant to last, and we do use them in ways that make them dangerous but they themselves are part of a healthy diet.
You need about 10-20% of your diet to be fat, hopefully at least half unsaturated, and you can get all you need otherwise from starches, and fiber as well as less complex sugars in normal food. Fructose is something we only evolved to have sparingly outside of times when we needed to put on weight so the sugar in American soda counts toward liver disease by breaking down into the same stuff as alcohol (and people should know there's more fructose in soda than alcohol in beer).
In addition to the motor oil thing the breading in fried foods is essentially jagged pieces of bioplastic that pokes your gut lining while harboring often unfriendly bacteria who eat the barely dissolving fat. Its especially bad for people with diverticulitis, which is shockingly common in America and is linked with fiber deficiency in childhood. Reducing exposure is unfortunately a very good idea, since everybody does better with less stressed guts and less gut cancer.
Just use enough to barely wet the pan you're cooking in and put the food in after the pan has heated to above the boiling point, you need much less oil than I often see people use, and at a low simmer in a covered pan most food cooks more thoroughly, stays tender and hydrated, and has more flavor anyway. Tons of plants, and every cheese has emulsifiers that help absorb fat and deal with it, and you can put garlic or a pinch of baking soda into wet mixtures to emulsify some of the fat, but it still leaves some if you have too much.
@thetobyntr9540 Seed oils certainly cause health issues, without a doubt. Animal fats are God-given and healthy. Avocado and olive oil are excellent. Anything over processed to obtain it is unhealthy. Natural oils can be abused and become unhealthy as well.
I totally want to learn more about this product! As to the grain styles, either/or depending on the application or a persons taste. While you mention it's hardness, you don't go into its strength. It looks like a great flooring option, but I would want to know a lot more about its overall strength and durability before using it for furniture. Hemp is also naturally resistant to insect damage and rot. Perhaps they should think about a different binder/glue that is water resistant. This would bring out the full potential of this material.
Isn’t this just a variation of what is done with bamboo and we haven’t seen this revolution.
@barneymiller4088 You're right. This is just hype.
Our founder was one of the guys who set up bamboo flooring. When hemp was legalized in 2014 he moved back to the USA and opened HempWood!
Guess I got to get a sample and soak it in boiling wax and test it!😮 See if it would hold up with high humidity on the inside and weathering on the outside.
8:50 I think the face or live side of the Hempwood reminds me more of a marble pattern.
I think we should absolutely change to using hemp for whatever we can use it for... and it has ton of uses...
Hemp was Extremly important for Us in the Past! But we forgot it!
Now we lern Again How Important Hemp Can Be....
Hemp is such a cool plant. Incredibly useful. This product makes me excited for someone to make a fiberboard like MDF using hemp. It seems like it would be more dense and heavy than run-of-the-mill MDF and thus great for speaker cabinets.
How does it burn? What fumes come out of it? I would like to know the same about particle board, OSB or plywood.
I’m jazzed! Look forward to seeing this more. I am a woodworker who indulges in the flower.
i like it and like all options
What a great video - super thorough and fact-based, but also honest with his opinions!
Bamboo and hemp grow quicker than any tree and can be grown in more diverse conditions
It does have a very cool look. It did seem hard, because your table saw seemed to struggle a bit cutting it. If you had a sharp blade. I like both looks, and would depend on what I was building on what look I would pick. Thanks for the video. Cheers
Hempwood are thinking wood planks but the process could make tile shapes as well.
Absolutely.
That grain is wild! I think it looks awesome. I was going to comment even before you asked for it.
How does this compare structurally? Tensile strength? Compressive Strength? How well does it hold fasteners?
Watching this video all I could think of is Randy’s Tegridy Farms
Making wood out of wood is the best way 👌
I'm waiting for impermeable products for the bottom of all my buildings so splash doesn't destroy my exterior buildings. I personally believe this is a worldwide product need, especially for areas of the world where termites are prevalent.
A couple years back I got a packing crate , from overseas , that was made with resin impregnated MDF . I thought it could be a very useful product, stiffer than MDF , stronger , will not take up moisture
Checked with my supplier, it's available in coastal communities where they need a waterproof material for boats
@@outinthesticks1035 Hempboard would be better than MDF
@@linmal2242 flax straw board as well
The finished hempwood rift flooring looks the same as normal wood. How cool :)
So OSB from hemp.
Yep
Due to the striking appearance and density, Hempwood sounds like an IDEAL wood for electric guitar bodies. Many vintage guitars have bodies made from single slabs of exotic mahogany which are VERY expensive today. ATTN: Guitar builders...
I think it should be sanded with 420...but thats just me 😂
🤣 You softy.
I definitely see a problem with water absorption. 🤔, but if the price would beat regular wood it would definitely work in a lot of applications 👍
I can understand a puddle of water causing the board to separate, but what about humidity? Could that also cause a board to separate? I think additional chemistry needs to be brought in and tested.
@@richsengcould definitely cause some lamination too. Im not very optimistic with this thing vs water, I think the better uses are furniture and decoration not expected to take water. One of the biggest pros of hardwood is how it handles water.
Very informative. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
House burning: Whaaaaaat maaan? I feel. Feel so warm and soft maaaan. Ahh!
People will be losing jobs up and down the street.
Beautiful marbling.
Just like any product, the cost will continue to be exorbitant the longer it remains controlled by one manufacturer. The reality is the crop is inexpensive to grow and the process isn't all that complex but if its patented then there will be no competitors and they can charge whatever they want for the product. Sure, they may drop the cost of their product over time once they have better equipment and can produce more however it will always be considerably more expensive the longer they are the only manufacturer. The sooner there are multiple vendors and sources for hemp wood the more cost-effective it will be.
Nothing seemed patentable from the video we saw.... glue, a press, and baking... but if that was patentable they could easily license the know-how to other manufacturers.
@@richsengpretty sure the ammount of force, glue and temperature of the drier/furnace are kept secret and took years of testing to perfect. May not be a registered patent, but without inside info you'd need to develop it all over again
Hemp seeds are nutritious...and delicious too!
In the SciFi novel "Four Day Planet" by H Beam Piper, part of the world building is the colonists produce 'wood' in a factory from fibers of a native reed like plant, because the native tree like plants couldn't be used.
Great video about a new product! you're probably right in that improvements in production and economies of scale will drive down the price. I wonder if this could be used for DIY furniture projects? I really like the "face" cut, as the irregular grain pattern would look great in lathe projects.
Very interesting thank you, 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Glad you liked it!
Thank you for making this video. It was very informative. It would be great if some of the farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania grew hemp and used it as lumber.
I'm all for renewables.
Me too!
The big claim for 20 years has been, hemp will be a huge cash crop and make everyone rich.. is taxed on dope and so on its never happened
Wood is already renewable
Lol... Very good point. There is a difference, however, in terms of how long it takes to renew.
@@shangrilaladeda You mean beside when they cut down Trees & pave over them?