I usually get some time off during the holidays so I decided to work on my third board. All hand shaped in my garage and I think I have the board about 90% done. Just had a few questions I thought I would ask and get your advice on before I wrap up the shaping. Thanks guys.
dims are 6 20 3/4 2 5/8,
First pic of the overall outline.
Next is the rocker shot.
two thoughts should I round out the rails on the tail more they feel boxy to me and should I remove a touch more foam at the nose to give it more of a flip?
Bottom is a single to double concave. Deep enough? The first picture is from mid point and the second is a foot from the end.
I wanted a cool swallow tail, any tips on how to make it clean! I stopped because I didn’t want to keep removing foam.
I also noticed that the deck is not quite smooth. A product of rushing the sanding, any tips on how I can even out the bumps. Especially on the right hand side 3/4 of the way from the bottom, you can see a dip.
Hi,
I’m not a pro, currently thinking for the first one 
…
Y to remove some foam on the nose -> from the cross between the board and the left side of your garage door (on first picture) to the nose,there’s like a bump… try to smooth it to a nice curve.
For the swallow tail, I guess it’s close to 90° angle ? I would openned it a bit more to 120-130° but here it’s more a personnal taste.
For the wing rail, I feel a bit like the same as for the nose bump: smooth it down to get a nice continuous rail-line.
BUT: Wait for more advanced shaper’s advaces I might be wrong and if so, i’d like to know why ^^.
Zourite.
Not bad for #3.
now for my (backyard hack) opinion:
Yes, the nose is too thick. There is a definite “hill” in the foil up there. Yes, the tail is too boxy.
Another thing that you didn’t mention is that your rail profile is all wonky. Looking at the first picture, you will notice that the shadowed area warbles as it goes down the length of the board. IMO, ideally, you want the thickness of the rail to correspond with the foil of the board in general and both should be smooth like pulled taffy.
You also have bumps in your outline. This might be the product of a wonky template or not using a template or overshaping the rails or?
Have you STUDIED this thread???:
http://www.swaylocks.com/groups/bill-barnfield-shaping-longboard-rail-bands
The above thread is a real eye opener.
All my comments are in hopes of helping. I hope I don’t offend you.
For uneven spots you take block and take it down to the flats… I’ll use a surform or block. If other side
is now too high - match low side…
Tip # 2 don’t sand in one spot on flats - sand to overall bottom as a whole…
Get a micro round rasp for your swallow tail and place it up at a angle on stringer, place index finger curved on top of the rasp but only touch down finger on the part w out blades! Keep it snug and play pool and cut a 2-3" of a channel up stringer however long you like. That’s taking stringer down. Now surform, plane or sand sides down following the curves…well, of the swallow tail… surform the tips down to match op side. Get back there and look. Might tilt board up and sand to match up…clean up w lighter grits and finish w screen. Just shape it how you want it.
I’m new to concaves, but use something you can slide under the straight edge…on deeper concaves I saw a shaper use a pencil. Might stack pennies!
I gtg good luck! One last suggestion. If you flip tip more go slow! And don’t overkill or board will push water.
There’s a good YouTube vid called " the perfect 40 minute surfboard with Terry Martin."
The vid shows some basic fundamentals that will help out. It’s got some important info, also a critical point of using block plane, cleaning up marks or scratches in the foam. There’s plenty of vids, but not many that describe details. This vid explains a few basics.
Work on the things these guys are suggesting, then glass it and ride it. Once you catch a few fun ones on that board you’ll realize they don’t have to be perfect to be fun.
Crisp - is right about the area on deck on nose it’s too blocky…figure
out how thick you want it at the 12" at tips - both sides…for me, this extremely important! More so in tail half of foil…you want proper thickness for float. On my latest fish mines 1 3/4"thick 12" up tail…nose is 1 1/2" 12" down…my center 2 5/8" thick +. Anyway, a method I tried that’s simple is to use a spoke shave or a trim plane and push it down the nose on stringer however far towards your wp ok… progressively thin your stringer down. Note: it should be thinner at tip end flowing thickest at about wp. You can shorten it to however you like. Now you can take a surform rest the nose snug to your belly and you reach out and scrub out that foam…repeat the steps till you get ur #s… use the calipers.
It looks like you have plenty of rocker in nose. If you want, you can just eye ball it and do a cosmetic flip slightly. Maybe the first 14-18"or so.just flip it up w spoke shave and block. Maybe a little surform n. Have fun!
You can also plane it out if you angle the planer down nose…I just suggested a easy route w surform or block. The same can be done near tail tips on deck. Obviously we gotta take the foam back to drop the tail…
Thanks all. Good tips. I’ll work on it this weekend and put up more pics.
So I spent some time trimming away and I really like how it’s coming along. Thanks again for all the tips and help guys. I might make some adjustments, depending on what people say and the ill do the fine sanding and start glassing.
Hi,
The board looks fine to me !
