I watched this video yesterday. If you like watching pro’s using their tools you will probably enjoy Greg shaping. The most instructional part for me was watching him make a blank using rocker templates and hot wire bow and the way he thins out the deck curve(always a problem for me) with his Skil and foils the nose with an orbital sander. Descriptions are helpful, but for me I need to SEE it happening. Check it out. Worth the 30 or so dollars. Mike
Hi Rooster,
Yeah, I saw Greg at the first Cerritos get together and it was pretty impressive seeing him churn out a fully shaped and spakled blank in about 1/4 of the time I would get one done. He didn’t use any rail markings. He just shaped by feel. Oh yeah, shaping the nose with a grinder is definitely a sight to see.
Cheers,
Rio
great info and photos thanks guys !
ben
No mask?
That is a tiny surfboard !
My wife bought me the dvd for Christmas so I haven’t seen it yet. For us though, it was more like $57 with shipping. Glad to here it is worth seeing.
Yah, no rail band measurements. I guess after thousands of boards you don’t need the little crutches that I use. This is a good one for someone that can shape a little, but not a new shaper. Mike
He is definetly counting his strokes. He is probably the worlds greatest free hand shaper. (Gasp, I know, so many others out there). He has shaped airplane propellers, full sized cars for the U of F, and just all kinds of stuff for molds and templates. Models of all kinds. Hand to eye. Eye to hand. Just a joy to watch.
I think the deck is not as hard as the bottom rail band, though. A few years back, after I saw him shape a few, I wrote down a bunch of notes, studied them and then took a deep breath and dove into a blank with no pre-marks. The deck and top bands turned out nice. counted my strokes. But I blew it on the bottom band. Fred is my friend. (And Bob’s your uncle? ha)
If you are cutting your own blanks, you should try a little free hand trial. Ten bucks of foam. Maybe it will turn out good.
I count them for sure. Don’t use the Fred anymore. I use a microblade surform or sanding block to do the bottom bands. I use three bands under there as shown to me by Dave Verner. Mike
I just watched this last night. My favorite line is “usually take 30-45 minutes to shape a board…after you’ve shaped a couple thousand.”
rooster, how do you get the bottom band angle just right?
Hi Greg,
I don’t claim to get any of the bands"just right." But, they are getting more consistent. I put the board on it’s edge. I hold the blade/block right on the edge where the side meets the bottom. The flat of the blade equal distance from the foam on either side. Make sense? I start at about 18 in. from the tail using only the weight of the tool and my hand and increase the pressure as I approach the nose, guiding the tool with both hands and keeping it on that edge. Count strokes. Do the other side. Now there are 2 edges. Same procedure until I end up with 3 bands on each side of the bottom. Same result as the Fred. Hope that makes sense. Greg L made only one bottom band in his video. I use the surform on urethane and the sanding block on eps. Mike