Wood holds wood type?

Metolious uses alder wood, is that just because it won’t break like pine but is not as expensive as hardwoods, or does alder wood have other advantages like grip over say black walnut, oak, poplar, maple? Asking because alder doesn’t grow near me.

Ash and beech work well. More about the grain and texture. Made a few out of maple and they were slippery/didn't absorb sweat. Soft woods will fall apart and might have strength problems. Made a few aout of old srap oak wood flooring and they were nice.

It basically comes down to strength. Hard woods like maple or oak are a lot stronger, which means you can get away with sleeker holds that have a similar look to plastic ones. They're also less likely to spit and less likely to give you splinters. I'm guessing alder is just a price and/or aesthetic thing for Metolius. I've made holds out of maple, hickory, walnut, and oak. They all work well and I can't notice much difference in grip between them. Another option is to glue plywood scraps (quality plywood) together. It's not as strong as a single piece of hardwood so you need to leave a little more material on, but it holds up well, takes much less effort to shape, and has way better friction.

Softer hardwoods like alder and poplar are much more predictable during the machining process because.....well, they are softer. Harder materials are more brittle and with wood that means a higher potential for splintering especially while machining. With that said, I highly doubt you will be machining holds so its a bit of a moot point. .....but I have found you can get away with smaller holds with softer wood, particularly with feet. I can't tell you how many oak holds I have cracked by either fastening to the wall or torquing my foot on.

Michael Brady wrote: Softer hardwoods like alder and poplar are much more predictable during the machining process because.....well, they are softer. Harder materials are more brittle and with wood that means a higher potential for splintering especially while machining. With that said, I highly doubt you will be machining holds so its a bit of a moot point. .....but I have found you can get away with smaller holds with softer wood, particularly with feet. I can't tell you how many oak holds I have cracked by either fastening to the wall or torquing my foot on.

I would be milling then machining them. The overall point of my question was more of a functional question once they are built rather than the process of creating them. I have a surplus of black walnut at the moment but one it’s very hard to work with and two if I put in all that work will it even be good? Have you had good outcomes with poplar? 

If it's for a home wall use and the shape is relatively normal, use whatever wood you want besides crummy plywood.  I've used knotty pine for mostly everything and have had no issues.  But would I sell them or donate them to be used in a commercial setting?.. no way!  

One thing to consider with oak is that is splits easy so any sharp angles have to be coordinated with the wood grain direction. There's a great FB group called DIY climbing holds and it's a great resource for detailed questions. 

Lyle M wrote:

I would be milling then machining them. The overall point of my question was more of a functional question once they are built rather than the process of creating them. I have a surplus of black walnut at the moment but one it’s very hard to work with and two if I put in all that work will it even be good? Have you had good outcomes with poplar? 

I believe most Tension holds are either walnut or poplar, and they've certainly done the research into what woods work best. I made a bunch of holds recently by basically just copying some of the Tension profiles, and they turned out great. Poplar seems to work better for larger holds like pinches due to it being lighter and slightly more open-grained (and cheaper), and it's easy to glue it up.  I used walnut for anything 3/4" or less.

Lyle M wrote:

I would be milling then machining them. The overall point of my question was more of a functional question once they are built rather than the process of creating them. I have a surplus of black walnut at the moment but one it’s very hard to work with and two if I put in all that work will it even be good? Have you had good outcomes with poplar? 

Yeah I have had good results with poplar. It machines really nicely with tools for metal work (which is what I do). If you have tools designed for metal, and are going to machine the harder woods, I would find some proper tooling. You can work around it by being aware of the grain and the way you are cutting but some straight fluted, or downcut endmills with 2 flutes will make your life A LOT easier. null