Hello fellas, this will be my first board build thread so this should be interesting for me. First the story. I was driving down a neighborhood road and stumbled across a vacant lot that had a agave plant growing on it. As I got closer I thought to myself “hey why not change things up and make my own stringers out of this thing”. So I stopped at the house next to the lot and asked the owner if I could cut the stalk down. Of course I gave him the ole “it’s dead anyways and then you’ll have to get rid of it some how so why not let me do it for you”. Little did I know that this stalk was a lot bigger than I thought. My wife was in our Suburban laughing her butt off and then started taking pictures as I was cutting it down. That thing came down like a big tree does. Ended up being 30 feet long. I had to cut it down in sections to make it fit in the Suburban. Of course the wonderful pic of my ass crack was sent to my mother. LOL . It ended up taking 2 months to dry out which brings me to another story. Apparently you have to dry it in a sheltered area out of the environment. I dried it on my driveway exposed to rain which is a catch 22. The rain made some pretty cool stains in the grain but also started to make it rot. About a week or so ago I decided to cut the pieces open and see if it was fully dry and found out about the rotting. Ended up only being able to salvage a 7 foot piece that was good enough for a couple of stringers. All well , fine by me. The rest I can still use as nose/tail blocks, fins, etc. After cutting the piece in half, I planed the two pieces down with a bench planer and clamped them to a 2x4 to keep straight while they dried some more. Yesterday I took them apart and planed them some more to clean them up and prep for cutting. Today I cut the blank in half which is the 5’10" RP from US Blanks. Was a pain trying to get the blank cuts straight so I ended up using the 2x4 and clamped it to each blank piece to use as a guide when taking the surform to it which helped tremendously. I plan on shaping a retro style board that I call “The Dingo” which is an off shoot of a mini simmons inspired model I have. Not sure on the actual dimensions that I’m going to use yet but will update as I go. I added a pic of what shape I’m going for so you all can get an idea. Sorry for the sideward pictures.
Jim Phillips tells a story about hunting for agave and finding a rattle snake. Seeing you stand next to that tree reminds me of that story. Not a big fan of rattlers.
This right here is the money shot.Funny how much more aware I am of the random agave stalks I see around town now. I would love one day to do this, too, but I know my limits. Right now, such a project is way beyond my limits. Nice work, though. Looking forward to the final product. I hope you’re gonna gloss it.
Hot damn Barry, thats a big mofo. The one I cut wasn’t too much smaller though but not as thick as yours. Thinking of making some agave fins to go along with the agave theme. Still debating on if I want to add blackened cork or not with the agave. Was thinking cork/agave/cork etc. 1" strips each. Going to play around with that till I get what I’m looking for. As for gloss finish, definitely doing it. Was definitely thinking of a color tint but not sure of what color. Just a touch of green, or blue, or maybe ? Shit not sure yet. I’ve seen a agave board done by Gene Cooper that was tinted green and it was a beaut. So time will tell.
Fins, what if you were to plane the wood down to the final thickness you are after lets say 1/8th" or 3/16" and then glue them together and only fine sand to get the glue spots off. Without foiling the wood, keeping the wood flat on both sides with just the templet cut out. Then put the wood into a homemade jig to fill with resin around the fin to make the clear bead along the edge. Then lightly foil the resin bead to edge and then lam a bunch of layers on both sides to actually do the fin foiling. The wood would be just an unfoiled insert. That way you get the paulownia/agave without messing it up. Not sure if that makes sense for you or if it would work. Getting the thickness thin enough might be a hastle too. My bench planer only goes to about 1/4". Depending on what pattern you are after, you might be able to cut the 1/8" or 3/16" or what ever size you want with a table saw instead.
Love it - I’m neck-deep in a full board build right now just waiting to find someone with a table planer I can use to clean up my cuts before I glue the board together - The shit is quite an effort to harvest, it’s no wonder a full-agave board costs so damn much
Right on Shushka, really eager to try a full agave board build. Just can’t find enough agave to do it though. Good luck on the build, make sure to post it.
Update. Just got done shaping the board and it’s dimensions came out to be 5’6" x 21 7/8" x 2 1/16" . Rocker is Nose: 3 1/4", Tail: 1 1/2" . Has a flat deck with a slightly bellied bottom.
Fins, thinking of a twin keel setup. I made some bamboo fins a while back that I came up with as far as the pattern. They have a 10" base. Pictures below are the fins I’m talking about. The pic with the red is the same pattern with red resin in between the wood. Not sure on type of wood that is, made from a cutting board that had Indonesia stamped on it. Maybe some type of dark Indonesian wood? Going to try and make some out of agave and maybe another type of stronger wood. Then again I also thought about just using the FCS FK2 smoke keel fins since they are detachable. I have the FK1’s (red) on a mini simmons inspired board I ride and love them. Never understood why they stopped making the FK1’s maybe because of the 3 tab setup?
Funny how much more aware I am of the random agave stalks I see around town now. I would love one day to do this, too, but I know my limits. Right now, such a project is way beyond my limits. Nice work, though. Looking forward to the final product. I hope you’re gonna gloss it.
much more loosey goosey