I personally wouldn’t cork the top just for the traction on that wood beauty. It’s too nice and I would just use wax. If you use cork, use 2mm thickness, with 4 oz fiberglass underneath just 1mm smaller than cork piece.skuff of key the area where deck is going down. Vac bag and use peel ply on top and the resin will soakfrom bottom up and fill the nooks in the cork. I bevel the edge carfully with my sander or you can trhow a bead of resin around finished edge that a poster has shown her on this site. I have never done it though it looks very nice but very hard to do also. They also make cork traction pieces with 3m adhesive already on pad which is another option that I have never tried but looks way easier to control but possibly expensive.
I have been really studying the way you miter cut the wood at the nose block and tail on that board. I am thinking of trying the same thing on a standard foam blank. I would think a piece of Balsa would be best for a first try. Like I said I’m pretty good with a miter/chop saw. It looks to me that once you have the proper miter for the two pieces and get them glued on with a tight joint, that you could probably shape any style nose. Got any recommendations or methods regarding that process? Yeah I would like to buy a few hundred $$ worth of Island Fins. Gonna see if I can get ahold of him.
To be honest with you Lowel I miter the nose and tail blocks because I make a hash out of trying to make the perfect down the middle joints… When doing balsa rails it allows me to get blocks on and sand to outline then place rails outside for extra strength. They are pretty easy mitered, doing the short side then sanding back , then long side placement. Takes two steps. then shape to board again.
SD, I was giving advice thinking your board was finished and ready to surf by the looks of the picture. My exposed cork boards are usually… I cut my rocker, tweak bottom to desired shape, vac bag wood with 4 oz fiberglass between wood and foam. Final shape deck and vac bag cork to deck and rails with 6oz/4 oz fiberglass between cork and foam. Place nose/tail blocks, cut fin boxes and patch, leash plug and patch. Then glass bottom of board by hand with 6 oz fiberglass and tape off cork portion that will be left exposed. trim fiberglass, filler coat, final coat sand and surf.
I understood your way now and the fact that you glass and cork the final layer in one way was new to me and its a real good advice if you want to cover the entire deck.
I thought about covering it in total like I did with my midlength (see above), but I think will go a different way.
I’m thinking about covering most parts of the deck, actually the lay- and stand-on- aera including the rails but leaving nose and tail (up to the leash/vent cup) open. This means I need to just glass the deck and vacuum the cork in a second step. Then I would glosscoat the just open glassed nose and tail and cover the corner with an inch wide with epoxy. Gloss Coat on bottom will fill some voids at the rails an reinforce the cork there.
I will post a pic, if its done and report if something fails…, which I do not hope…
Thank you very much! I’am actually quite content how it came out; there are some not perfect spots in the varnished aereas, but nothing seroius. It looks pretty symetrically and especially the bottom contours came out as designed. Hope it does surf as good as it looks and that there is always enough epoxy under the open cork to avoid blisters…
and most important, that the vent works flawlessly and the vessel is completely watertight (I have had four water intake in the past, two by forgetting to close the brass vents, one due to microholes in the epoxy and one to an unrecognized flight transport damage…)
Unfortunately I have no chance to test it until May, I can surf only on vacation, usually in Portugal. My May flight is still not cancelled, and the beaches hopefully reopen again, in the moment they are closed due to Corona!
