It was just bound to happen: you guys keep posting photos of outstanding boards on this website and what do you think happens? Yeah, customers ask for those same boards.
Here comes this good friend of mine, asking for a new longboard. That’s fine. Classic, old-school shape, 9’6". That’s OK with me. Three stringers with a 2" balsa/red cedar T-band. Uh-uh.
We’ll have an acid splash on the bottom and rails. Well, if you say so. Oh, and, I just forgot: I’d like a fine tail-block. You know, the kind with wood and transluscent resin? Yeah, sure.
By the way, remember those photos of figure-eight stringers? I’d like that on the deck, too. Oh my…
That’s how I got drawn to make my very first “8” inlay…
I bandsawed some red cedar “stringers”:
Thickness-planed them down to 4 mm, then drew a curve template out of 3 mm medium. I then went at it with the router, using a 4 mm bit:
Flipped the template, routed a symetrical slot on the opposite side:
Next will come the real challenge: fitting the stringers into their respective slots with weird angle cuts at the ends. I’ll keep you posted. I can’t believe nothing went wrong as of now…
Today was the moment of truth… I started with the easiest part, the small piece at the tail, just to get the feel of it.
Not too bad…
The other side went OK, too… (but it ain’t easy to take photos with your left hand while planing with the right…)
A bit more difficult, as this time the piece of “stringer” ends right into the T-band wall on both sides. The thing has to be cut as precisely as possible and the ends must be sanded at the right angle. I did what I could but ended with 1/64" voids at both ends… Hell, I’m a carpenter, not a cabinet maker. Still a lot to learn. Also had to hammer the wood a bit to have it go into the slot correctly.
Well, it’s 3.15 PM and I’ve been at it for one hour. Half is done. Posting a bit now is a good excuse for a pause… More later.
Overall, i’m quite satisfied with the way it turned out for a first try. There are a few flaws, of course. The most important (but it should not stand out too much once “treated” with some foam dust) is this one, right at the joint between T-band and “stringer”:
Now, it’s up to you, guys. Try it, it’s a whole lot of fun.
Dave, we could have had the stringers intersect inside the T-band (technically, there’s no problem there) but neither the future owner neither myself wanted to. We wanted to have that beauty of a T-band stay untouched.
No volan on this one but a fancy tailblock. (I have some ideas at the moment, I just need to check whether it’s feasible or not. Hope it is.) And an acid splash on the bottom.
That might be enough on one board… Volan patches? Mmmmmmhhhhh… Let me think about it…
Hi Surfdad, if that can be of any help, the blanks I use are 9’8" Just Foam and they are as good as can be. (I’m not getting paid to say so… unfortunately. Lol.)
Hi Timmy, in fact I was somewhat limited by the actual blank rocker and I end up with about 4" in the nose and 4 1/2" in the tail. So I’m carving some concave under the nose down to a bit past middle point to get a straighter bottom rocker.
Balsa, gotta say it; you da man! That is beauty itself.
You talk of flaws? It took me a good minute to spot what you were talking about on the cose up. With the nose and tail blocks that will be as complete a work of art as a man can create.
Just out of curiosity, and if you don’t want to say don’t worry, but how much is your customer paying for this?
I’ll show your post to Stéphane and try to dissuade him… I, for one, do agree with you, I would have kept it simple… But i’m just the “translator”, so to speak, of others’ wishes… I try not to impose my tastes too much.
Just out of curiosity, and if you don’t want to say don’t worry, but how much is your customer paying for this?
It’s not that I don’t want to say, but Stéphane already ordered three or four boards from me. So he’s getting a “bro deal”. If I were to price this according to materials and time spent, I would say around 1000 Euros. It may sound like a lot of money to many of you out there, but you should keep in mind that all materials are imported and taxed heavily here and I also have a lot of social security contributions to pay for. So, it’s not that much in the end. Actually, I would make more money by importing brand names boards from the states and selling them than by trying to make them myself…
thanks fopr the reply on that. If I’d read the thread I read after posting the question I wouldn’t have asked…Sorry,! It apparently upsets people that some craftsmen actually charge proper money for their work; go figure!
The job looks fantastic and at that yer man’s getting a deal and a half. Wish I had a wedge of spare cash, I’d chuck it your way for one of those in a heartbeat. Any chance of a part exchange on my mum and dad???
