Any Sitka Spruce Wood Blade Carvers/Resurfacers Out There?

[doubledipsoon]

I used to ship my old worn sitka spruce wooden blades to Lake Michigan Sun & Wind to get new ones or get worn ones resurfaced and repainted, but that was 30 years ago!  Does anyone on this forum know where else one might get service done for old Jacobs, Wincharger, or Sencenbaugh blades? PS Kitestrings, where did you go for your new blades for your Sencenbaugh you sold me? Thanks, Joe PS2: Jim's disappeared again!

[kitestrings]

Joe,

My blades all came from Jim.  If you can catch up to him, he may still be your best source.  HE was pretty busy building a house last I knew though.  I'll send you a PM with the last known address that I have.

I've also heard of folks here using a company called Royal Wind.  I have no direct experience, but I think this is the site:
http://www.royalwindandsolar.com/

~ks

[ChrisOlson]

If you have a Jacobs, the recommended service for the old Sitka Spruce blades is to replace them with fiberglass because the wood blades never held up.  Marcellus Jacobs used to travel to BC and hand pick the spruce planks for the Jakes and they were made in Minneapolis.  When they put the first three 17-10's in Alaska in the late 70's not a single of them survived the Alaskan winter.  All three of them shed their wood blades.  Marcellus did an about-face and switched to fiberglass blades and they been running them ever since.  None of the 31-20's ever came with wood blades.  The company is still there under different ownership:
http://www.windturbine.net/

People tend to cite the fact that the Model 25 that went to the South Pole in the 30's was still running with wood blades several years after the base was abandoned there.  But the South Pole is extremely arid, wood doesn't rot there, and the wind rarely blows much.  So that oft-cited instance is somewhat of a misnomer.

I have used Royal Wind & Solar blades - GOE222's.  They are ok and Dave makes replacements there for old Winchargers.  But the ones I got were not Sitka Spruce - they were laminated ash.  And he built a machine that carves them, but as far as I know the only profile his machine does is GOE222.