After seeing an article in Surfer’s Journal a couple years back entitled “Nolls Wood”, in which his wood surfboards were featured, I began a quest to try to duplicate his beautiful skegs. Trying to get an extra wide crystal clear bead around the perimeter posed a challenge. Using glass rope will give a narrow bead, but I wanted it wide and foiled without the heavy buildup of layers of glass.
I had just finished shaping a multi stringer balsa board that I wanted to fit out with a really trick skeg. After months of trial and error I landed on a procedure where I cast resin in a mold with the wood skeg, then foil the whole thing. The finished product is then glassed on to the board in customary fashion.
He did tell us. He casts the wood in clear resin and then foils it. No fiber in the bead around the fin is what I’m hearing and assuming. Also that when he laminates it to the board I’d assume he brings the cloth to cover the entire fin since that bead would be rather fragile otherwise.
ok, he did tell us. And Bert told us he can make fins out of wood, too. Wouldn’t you rather see a series of thirty pictures than read one or two sentences, though? I’m not interested in duplicating months of trial and error, and the last time I cast anything in resin was in about 1969…
Thanks. Credit for my turning the corner and getting these to finally come out right goes to R. Brucker (Cleanlines who gave credit to professor J. Phillips). My specialty is woodworking, not glassing. I’ve made a few balsa boards and I’m currently making quite a few high-end wood fins for shapers and collectors. The glass bead thing is something I was after for my own boards.
The secret is in running a slot cutter bit around the perimiter of the skeg to act as a reservoir lock for the resin cast along the fragile tiny finished foiled edge. I made a mold of MDF, painted it with multiple coats of mold release agent, poured in a bed of 1/8" of casting resin and let set. Then set my skeg (unfoiled) onto the bed of cured resin with weight to keep it from floating. Poured in a second stir of resin just enough to reach the outside top edge of the skeg (not over the top) and let set up. A third pour of resin up and over the top to cover 1/8" (same as below the skeg).
Carefully and methodically foil the whole thing with angle grinder and sandpaper. It gets glassed on to the board in the usual “glass on fashion” with a couple layers of 6oz or whatever you prefer for strength. Lots of sanding and polishing to bring out the clear bead. Anyway, that’s my method.
Just beautiful. One of the things I love best about Swaylocks is not only the craftsmanship, but the fact that you can get other master craftsmen such as Messrs Brucker & Phillips to help perfect methods, etc.
can I ask one more nosy question – how thick is the wood portion of the fin before you embed it in the casting resin?
Thickness is up to the user. I’ve begun to migrate more towrd thicker fins. This style fin is of course for longboards, old-school, and collector boards. Some of the purists who surf them seem to prefer the thicker fin for the smooth track and hold in the water. Tom Wegener in Azzieland talks about the merits of thick deep fins for his style of surfing in his site ( www.tomwegenersurfboards.com ).
The slot I cut is only 1/16" wide so I’ve made my wood skegs as thin as 1/4" which finished out to about 1/2" when glassed and shaped. I prefer a finished size about 5/8" thick, even as much as 3/4" which starts with a wood fin of about 1/2" or so. I have used poly resin for glassing them on.
The most difficult thing in my evolution to make these come out the way I wanted was to get them as near as plate glass in clarity as possible and the bubbling and flaws to an absolute minimum, which required some experimenting with temp, humidity, catalyst, etc.
Thanks much. Coming from you, I feel honored. Always appreciate reading your posts and seeing your work. If I wasn’t so many thousands of miles away I’d pop over and you could glass one on one of your wood beauties and take it for a ride. You’ve no doubt experimented with every conceivable shape and size fin… what are your thoughts on thicker fins?
After seeing an article in Surfer’s Journal a couple years back entitled “Nolls Wood”, in which his wood surfboards were featured, I began a quest to try to duplicate his beautiful skegs. Trying to get an extra wide crystal clear bead around the perimeter posed a challenge. Using glass rope will give a narrow bead, but I wanted it wide and foiled without the heavy buildup of layers of glass.
First thing I thought of was that Noll article. I think he’d be way stoked!
heres a pic of the thickness of my best performing fins …calipers on them …
if you cant see the reading ,its just over 14 …
this may sound like a paradox,but thick fins go faster…i cant emphasize the point enough,thick fins are way better ,and out perform thin fins anyday…
water can hit a thick fin at extreme angles and it still wraps cleanly stays attached and shoots off the trailing edge…
thin fins cause way more drag because as soon as theres the slightest angle of attack the water cant wrap the leading edge cleanly ,it starts to break away in eddies ,causing it to stall …thats when your fin fails and you slide out…but even before it fails its causing drag before it lets go (induced drag)…
you can load a thick fin as hard as you want and it holds …
that translates to super tight turns with hold …
gonna stick a surf pic in …its turned up before ,but it shows how tight you can turn when your fin bites ,without the slightest bit of slide…
note also you can still slide these fins ,but at least you have the choice …
nothing worse than fins letting go when you dont want them to…
You and Paul Jensen run a real close race when it comes to beautiful wooden single fins. Frankly I think you’re slightly in the lead right now, but you never know what Paul will come up with he’s pretty ingenious.
When it comes to thickness on long board singles or trifin setups for slower smaller waves there is now doubt that thicker fins are more sensitive. I have pretty thick fin on my Hap Jacobs 9’10" that works great. It made it with an epoxy/fiber spine between two layers of high density foam. I don’t get many calls for long board singles though, and you won’t get and competition from me with wood fins. Frankly you’re just too good.
I cut out the fins from 3/4" stock and t-wing cuttered it in the center. Then with masking tape sealing the groove,poured it with casting resin, ran it through the planer and foiled it to get a bead
Thanks guys for the kind comments on the fins. I’ve learned a lot here on this site, always something new out there. Hopefully someone might get a tiny idea from my skegs and go on to do something special to post later. Remember to enjoy the ride!
