finish sanding my blank

General Discussion
1

hey all, i’ve gotten this far just using the archives, but find nothing about this. probably because the answer is simple…

as an inexperienced surform user (first board), i have lots of rough patches, some small tears, etc. where the surform blade caught and chattered. especially in the concave under the nose (longboard).

now the board is basically done. i don’t want to sand these areas out for two reasons: i don’t want to lose anymore thickness, and i don’t want to lose some of the more subtle contours.

the board will have no color. p/u blank and epoxy resin. will these scratches show through badly? in the future how does one sand the blank well with out losing contours? i’m not too concerned over the looks of it, but is there any way to make it better without losing a 1/16th to an 1/8th?

thanks, nicholas

2

The best way to achieve this would be not to scratch the blank with the surform in the first place…

Use the surform by pulling it towards you, not pushing it outwards, you’ll get better control. Better still, as soon as possible, use a sanding block with 36 or 40 grit paper: this won’t catch like the surform and you will remove as much foam (if not more). Be sure to make passes all along the blank. When fine sanding, use some polyethylene foam as a back-up against the sanding screen so you will leave no finger marks.