Hello everyone, I recently built a wood surfboard - nothing fancy whatsoever. I wanted to try surfboarding and did not want to spend hundreds on a new board. I constructed the board out of pine. My question is, what is the quickest and cheapest way to seal the wood surfboard, i.e., to prevent the wood from being damaged from the salt water. Thank you for your help, I appreciate it!
Would exterior polyurethane or tung oil work?
tung oil would work only if you are certain that the board is otherwise water tight. You would have to re-apply ocasionally
Not sure about exterior pu.
I think epoxy is your best bet.
Tung oil is far from cheap and requires several coats to be effective.
Epoxy breaks down rapidly without some sort of UV protection over the top of it, and again, it's not cheap.
Thompson''s Water Seal works very well if you want a cheap but effective wood sealant.
Thank you everyone for your responses, I appreciate it.
Could I take fiberglass resin and hardener and paint it on the board and then sand it? Do I need to use cloths? Thanks!
Trick I learned from Dale Solomonson: melted paraffin wax. Cheap and available. Just be careful as it is flammable. Can melt in “double boiler” made of empty can in pot of water. Pour/brush on. Drive in a bit w/ heat gun or hair dryer, esp on end-grains. Scrape off excess.
It will collect dust as it is a bit sticky but works perfectly for a quick and dirty…
cheapest?
cut in half banana stump and them mud or charcoal dust
or
kukui nut oil and the same
couple thousand years old but still does the job
the banana juice is sticky and the charcoal/fine mud fills the grain like a sealant
hawaiians use to bury their olo and alaia's in river beds to "cure" the wood according to pohaku
from your subject title and if I was resinhead
I would suggest rubbing in a good chunk of seal blubber inplace of the kukui/coconut oil
but i'm assuming its a tie-poh
The cloths are the cheapest part! If you can afford the resin why wouldn’t you use fibreglass cloth? the benefit/cost ratio is extremely high for the cloth.
Show us pictures of your creation!
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Could I take fiberglass resin and hardener and paint it on the board and then sand it? Do I need to use cloths? Thanks!
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Why? Do you want it shiny? If that's what you want, use varnish. You could cover it in gold leaf if you wanted, but why?
You asked for the cheapest way to seal a wood surfboard.
You REALLY don't need resin or cloth on any wood boards, except for balsa.
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You REALLY don't need resin or cloth on any wood boards, except for balsa.
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True IF the board is otherwise water tight. Depending on construction method, which by the way hasn't been shared (post some pics vlawko!) can be more or less difficult. A solid alaia type board is easy. I've heard of people sealing them with cooking oil. There's no place for water to enter the board so all you have to do is water proof the wood. Any kind of hollow construction (chambered, fishbone frame, strip rail etc..) can be prone to leaks. Careful craftsmanship and proper glue joints can prevent this but all you need is a pinhole for the board to fill with water. When you take the board from the hot beach and plunge it into cold water the air trapped inside contracts and sucks water in from every available opening. Several layers of resin/varnish can prevent this and a single layer of light fiberglass cloth can do wonders. I suppose a thorough applilcation of parafin would work as well as someone else suggested.
Thank you everyone for your advice, I appreciate it. Enclosed are some pictures. Keep in mind though, I have never built a surfboard and my only materials were a jigsaw, bastard file, and some sand paper!
???
Hmmmm, somehow it escaped me that this was not a solid wood board! Parafin a bit iffy in that case. Could work short term if VERY careful that all cracks, pin holes, etc were totally sealed but in a hollow board I would probably glass it.
Ah, well, it certainly looks like solid wood to me!
Hello everyone, I recently built a wood surfboard - nothing fancy whatsoever.
Fancy whatsoever is often much over-valued anyway. Are you going to foil the fin?
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Ah, well, it certainly looks like solid wood to me!
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Yeah, that certainly does look solid. Ok, forget everything I said. No need for expensive fiberglass and resin there. Slap on a coat of the cheapest sealant you can find (plenty of suggestions above) and go surfing!
And make sure to come back with a ride report.
Thanks for the advice. Does the board look SOMEWHAT acceptable? Will I be laughed at when I take this to the ocean? Hah! Thanks everyone. I’ll post pics when it’s complete.
I’m staining it right now with an oil stain. Can I apply tung oil or urethane on top of the stain?