I put the final touches on my hollow wooden surfboard today, oiling it with a mixture of linseed oil and gum turpentine. The seal looks pretty strong, but there are still a few holes in the exterior. For my third wooden surfboard and second hollow one, I am definitely proud of the product. With the experiences gained in this iteration, I’m excited to see another come to life. With the time left over at the end of semester, I cut out a great shape for a board more my size and have enough wood to begin. Check back in around October and I’ll have another one coming to life!
Cheers!
The board is now totally shaped! After what has been an arduous process, I am finally ready to apply the coats of Boiled Linseed Oil and Gum Turpentine. The oil brings out a really vibrant color in the red cedar as well as waterproofing it.
Without the use of a luthier’s wood bending tool, I was not able to bend the rails around the nose. In the future I will use a technique a la Tom Wegener of layering the rails instead of the bead and cove, as I think it will produce a much simpler and stronger board. For this, I had to attach separate pieces and plain them down. It still looks good. Generally, I enjoy the process of shaping off excess wood, much like modern foam shaping, over precisely aligning strips of an already defined thickness. It allows for more control, though potentially more weight, however I can’t get past the pleasure of shaping the rails by hand.
Because I didn’t have a wood bending iron, I had to build up the rails on the nose using a layering method, something I’m really glad to have tried. The layering method seems way stronger and in most cases seems like won’t add too much weight.
Once I had built up the rails, I reattached the nose piece I had cut off and waited for it to dry. I will plane down the rails on the nose later.
Clamping the deck was remarkably easy. I fit the deck piece in place and threw on about every piece of stone I could find in my friend’s garden and viola! There it is!
Sometimes I use a lot of clamps…
Finally able to use a band saw, I was able to cut each piece down to 3/4 of an inch, enough to allow 1/4 inch to be taken off on each side for routing. The bead and cove looks like it could produce some really tight joints, though it seems a little weak.
We routed all twenty-some pieces and got them ready to be clamped. Thanks to my friends Edgar and Jordan for their help during this process.
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