If there isn’t enough of the raw materials for textiles, then you won’t find it in textile products. Patagonia might have some expensive niche products for the well-off, but it won’t be a regular consumer good until we have supplies. It’s not about you sewing. It’s about clothing manufacturers being able to source it at reasonable prices.
Speaking as a former handweaver the stuff is great. When you have a proper 20/2 mercerized hemp it weaves like linen, finishes like silk, and wears like iron.
It would depend on the binding agent.
You’re essentially just using the cellulose or lignin fibers and a glue or resin as binding agent. Seems like a (hopefully) better performing manufactured wood product.
I wonder if a similar product that uses hemp resin as a binder (basically fiber-reinforced hemp plastic) would perform any better or worse? It would, however, likely be more expensive to make.
This looks to be a variation on the Oriented Strand Board made from wood scraps. OSB has been around since the 1960s and can be formed into structural beams as well as plywood style sheeting.
On the other hand it’s less likely to look like charcoal foam within a year if you launch it as a satellite body, turned beautifully or not (being 20x as dense as particleboard but right on with MDF or compressed mass timber?)
Book your space termite inspectors real soon! Just kidding, leave that scam to MJCarMax. Aliens in the headboards…
Hi, this is very cool news, but… ReturnToNow is a pseudoscience-spewing garbage pit, to put it charitably.
Better source (from last spring, too…) https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/tennessee-company-partners-hempwood-first-make-hemp-flooring
Someone else has already explained the nature of particle board. What they are making here with hemp is Oriented Strand Board and its strength relies on the long bast fibers that hemp is made of. Some years ago, I am not sure if it was the CSIRO or a Japanese group was looking at creating timber from TeaTree ( Leptospermum) branches - which is a shrubby plant that grows maybe 6 or 8 feet in length maximum. It was not a requisite that they were dead straight branches, the length of the fibers is what mattered. They would place the branches into a long rectangular metal form and then the material was simultaneously steamed and pressed. (I think it used microwaves in the process(?))The only “glue” was the natural lignin in the wood. The result was a super strong beam with an amazing grain. And the advantage of the method was that teatree grows much faster than trees and it minimised the inherent waste in the manufacture of regular lumber.
Now, you could no doubt do exactly the same thing with bamboo - and they do to some extent. All that lovely bamboo flooring is made from horizontal lamination’s of bamboo strip. Bamboo is the ducks guts methinks, and it probably grows way faster than hemp.
Not arguing with you about availability. Sorry if it came off that way. I couldn’t tell from your post if you were bemoaning the lack of supply for yourself or for clothing manufacturers. Durability doesn’t fit the current fast fashion market so I’d be surprised if it started showing up in the more affordable clothing market. I hate shopping with a passion so I will gladly shell out an extra $10 for a hemp t-shirt over a cotton one. Anything to put off having to shop for a replacement.
I wonder how it all counts up? How about the Co2 balance?
Not one word about the final Carbon Dioxide capturing capacity between an Oak floor and/or a Hemp wall… One also needs to grow Soy to make all that glue. That’s a hell of a lot of land-surface needed to create this product.
And for the long time now: will this product stick together for more than 400 years, like an oak-tree house would?
That would depend on the method of fire retardation IMO. I’d only want it if I could be sure that the agent limiting flammability didn’t also make this stuff less biodegradable.
I’m bemoaning the lack of supply to anyone who is using it for textiles from hobbyists like me to the clothes manufacturers.
Bamboo is classified as a grass and is the fastest growing plant in the world. Some variants you can actually watch grow in real time.
Hemp is comparable in terms of it’s ecological footprint and sustainability but depending on who you ask, hemp is typically more versatile in terms of types of uses it can support.
But it’s kind of like arguing about which electric car is better. They both are far better options over the current ecologically damaging and unsustainable practices.
While it takes an oak tree at least 6 decades to mature, it takes hemp 6 months.
But how many hemp plants does one have to grow in that 6 month period to produce the equivalent amount of wood that a 60-year-old oak tree would produce?
The “doesn’t require harmful chemicals and pollutants” is, of course, nonsense. Depending on soil conditions it can require fertilizer. It has its own pests and diseases, and sometimes if you want to save a crop you will need pesticides and fungicides.
Also, hemp does not fix nitrogen, and growing it does not improve the soil unless you plow it back under. The bit about “toxin-filled” is pretty meaningless. And just like bamboo hemp grows best in good soil.
After a few washings the “antibacterial properties” will be gone. It just takes a few more.
The viscose process has its drawbacks, but the idea that hemp fiber is ready to be turned into cloth right out of the gate is not true. And some of the processes to turn hemp into different kinds of textiles use nasty compounds.
Wrong question. How much hemp could you grow in the same sixty years?
Equal amounts of woo on both sides isn’t a balance. I read it, but my heart wasn’t in it after “hemp is one of the best plants at ridding the environment of harmful toxins”.
Someone once said “Thermodynamics owes more t the steam engine than the steam engine owes to thermodynamics”. Science does not need an end product, but if someone has a steam engine that needs to get from A to B at an average speed S, and they want to use less coal, then you have a good well-formed problem and a cash reward for solving it. Yay.
Bamboo, hemp, and oak trees are turning carbon dioxide into useful stuff. It would be good for global warming to turn as much carbon dioxide as we can, but this is not the only figure. Points for if we can use reclaimed or polluted land. Points against if we need lots of water, or produce harmful byproducts. If we can attach a cost to all of these, then the most economic solution for each market ought to emerge.
I dunno. It didn’t really work for carbon futures. I had hopes fo this when it started, but it turns out the most ‘valuable’ resource for companies were speculators, lawyers, and spin doctors. The most efficient Carbon Offset company is the one that skimps on actually planting the trees. Even the sorts of things an unregulated market ought to be good at, it isn’t good at. So much stupid.
But we don’t need Bamboo .vs. Hemp Ultimate Street Fighter.
