Shaping tools and techniques

[Andy]

I've shaped about 10 boards in the last 8 years, some good, some bad and some shockers !

Initially, the end result was unpredictable - my 1st board ( copied from a buddies board that I'd surfed) went really well. This shaping business is a piece o' cake sez I. But the next was a disaster.... so I decided to stick to what went well for me and only tweak 1 element at a time so I could at least see what the change had done for how the board went.

I was lucky enough to be able to watch a buddies board being shaped by Dean Geraghty (T&C) and watch his technique....amazing how quickly and obligingly the finished product appears out of the foam, with no wasted movements or time.

Anyway having improved my technique slowly, my main battle is with the deck, from in front of the knees to near the nose, where the deck needs hollowing out. The planer doesnt get in there if you follow the stringer so I've taken to cutting down the stringer by hand with a short surform tool. This works quite well, but can damage the foam next to the stringer a bit. The fun then starts as I "mow foam" across the deck from rail to rail with the planer...all going well, alternating sides to keep the thing even, until you start to hit the stringer ! If youre not careful you can really cause some damage ! Any advice / comment from out there will be appreciated.

[Jon Manss]

Andy
You need to put an angle on your planer as you enter the concave of the front deck. The tighter the radius of the deck area the more angle is used. The planer is a tool that is intended to straighten materials. I like a 45 degree or greater position on my pass from tail to nose or nose to tail. Rails are tough to cut with a planer but with practice and a hand on the depth cutting lever you can achieve control to at least rough out the general rail shape.

[surfhorn]

First surfboard I shaped was when I was 16 y/o. Done soley with a hand saw, 6" Surform, sandpaper and block.

[kidrock]

Hey Surfhorn,

I'm curious how that 1st board came out.

[C.P.Odom]

As a teenager I shaper and glassed all my own boards, mostly out of financial necessity. The shaper that mentored me taught me to use a Stanley block plane with the blade finely honed to a razor edge. He said that until I learned to use the block plane I had no business using a power planer. On a well cured blank you can easily take a cut from tail to tip.

My son still rides a board that I built when I was 14.

Curtis P Odom

[surfhorn]

The first board I shaped (in 1969) was dubbed "The Bloody Sardine". 4'10" x 19", diamond tail; red glass-on fin. It was made to be a belly board - it was ultra thin,similar to an El Paipo but more narrow- and a kneeboard with Sewer Peak/26th Ave area in mind.

Nose rails were rolled up similar to a boat hull and transitioned into hard rails in the last 1/3 of the board.

Now the glass job (my first) is what took the cake. My friend and I did the old psychedilic deck painting with magenta Bic felt pens (ink bleed...what's that???). Glassed the bottom black. Well. too much catalyst, a hot summer's day in Corralitos and ''''""" POOF""""""" the thing went off faster than a shortboarder at a KB Gathering. Glass/resin and running ink stuck to everything.

Oh, did I mention that after shaping the blank I wanted to blow off the dust. So I loaded it into the trunk of my 1969 Cougar and drove to the gas station - or so I thought. As I drove up a long hill, the rear end of my car broke loose on wet pavement at the turn at the top of the hill. 540 degrees later I was hung up in the bushes of a doctor's office. The blank was OK but I was one embarased 16 y/o.

[red]

Used folded cloth on my first attempt at glassing. Also got the resin a bit hot. Ended up with this interesting crinkle-cut effect on the bottom deck because the folds refused to lie flat. I think we filled in the valleys with resin and then tried to sand it back!

[Andy]

thanks for the tips guys.. seems like theres many ways to attack that deck shaping challenge. Finished the new board last night - managed to stop sanding and fiddling before all i had left was a pile of foam dust.

Enjoyed the anecdotes - ive got "fond" memories of frantically squeeging the board and literally scraping the barrel to rustle up the last few dregs of jellylike resin to try and get some decent resin coverage onto the new masterpiece... At least the board turned out light !

Moral of the story ? For me its stick to shaping and pay some dude to finish off the job so your pride and joy doesnt end up looking like something the cat dragged in...

anyway they say the art is in the shaping and glassing is just a mechanical process.

[surfhorn]

Glassing takes a magic touch also. And then the sanding....how many shaper's perfectly designed rail has been ground into dust my a hyper snader?!

And then there is the fin setter and the guy doing the rub out. Hot coating -not so much.

[Andy]

mmm...fin settings. How many guys ever take a close look at this. Ive always lined up fins with a long straightedge and measured the distance from the stringer to the straightedge at the nose of the board before glassing them on - usually about 70-100mm. I scoped out a buddies board once - the 1 fin was pointing almost straight at the nose while the other was aiming about 100mm off the stringer. No wonder he'd always said the board went better in lefts !

Canting the fins out slightly (is this the same as rake?) also gives the board a slightly looser or softer feel on the wave - Ive cut out a few triangular templates to measure this angle when glassing fins on.

cheers