Upstart Company to make Sports Helmets out of Wood

These are neat, as long as they’re safe…

A neat idea. I love people who think outside the box. My concern would (wood?) be that wood has a lot of natural variability – bends in the grain, knots, voids, etc. So short of testing each helmet to destruction, how would you ensure it meets safety specs?

before I even read the article I knew they had to be made here, in Oregon.

I can tell you right now that these aren’t going to be strong enough. Wood is a composite, and as such it gets its tensile strength from its fibers; the fibers in this helmet are not in the optimal orientation throughout the part. IE, all the fibers are short. The way he’s done it, you can either orient the fibers so that the top of the helmet is strong, or just the sides. Not both.

He would have to do it either in molded plywood, or laminate smaller pieces together with the grain oriented in different directions so that in the finished product has an approximation of proper fiber orientation.

As a Montana woodworker I applaud your efforts. Fiberglass applied to both sides of my Kayak paddles have survived many whitewater(Class 2 & 3) trips. I would be interested in a half dome for my motorcycle riding. As it is, I’ll be putting veneer on an older one to check the look. Any helmet the recieves a solid impact should be replaced! The DOT helmets especially. With the same amount of padding as my climbing helmet, I’d wear one!

Thank you all for the responses,

We are hoping to have the helmets available within the next 2-4 months, with prices varying between $350-$400 for the standard line and more for the “custom” line.

Be sure to check out our Facebook page for more information on pricing and important dates.

Every piece of wood is different. The comments about grain and fiber orientation are great observations. Thanks for taking the time to point these out. Generally speaking most species of wood are better at dampening impact energy than hard plastics or composites like carbon fiber in ANY orientation of the grain and wood fibers. So, while it is possible for us to optimize the grain orientation for those who want that, all of our shells will offer better energy dampening performance than would be available if we made them out of plastic or carbon fiber.

As to how we will ensure that all of the helmets meet safety specs. There is currently no process available for testing custom made products, wood or not. Our standard line of helmets will be tested for safety incorporating common industry standards for foam cushioning and harness systems. Generally it is the type and density of foam used and not the type of shell that is most critical for commercial helmets to pass many of the testing standards. Our custom helmets will use these same technologies.

We are really pioneering the use of this material in this application and as such we are very involved currently in further research and testing. We feel wood has not been used this way before in part because it does not lend itself well to current commercial mass production of helmets as plastics and composites do. Once we have more results and data we will share them on our facebook page and coming website so that people can better understand our process and how it works.

And, thanks, genuinely, for sharing the thoughts and challenging us to be better.

That is a great looking helmet! However the business portion of safety is the ability of the EPS liner to slow the acceration/deceleration of the brain in the event of a catastrophic impact. Unless there have been some recent changes in how helmets are made, these helmets as well will depend primarily on the EPS liners to keep rider’s heads as safe as possible. The outer covering is merely cosmetic.