Right, I’m looking to try and make a wooden surfboard, I’d prefer it to be a longer design, at least 8ft I’d say. The main thing is I’d like to avoid having to glass the board. I have a few ideas myself on how to go about making a board in a way I wouldn’t t have too but I’m curious as to how viable this sounds to others, that and if people would have any advice or suggestions.
Cheers
Most wood boards don’t absolutely need to be glassed they just usually are because there is no better, easier way to apply a strong protective waterproof finish than a layer of glass and resin.
Tom Wegener doesn’t glass his newer boards. I think they are the plankton series? He just uses an oil sealer over the paulownia wood. He says to recoat the board every now and then. I think you could get away without glass if the wood is solid enough. Make a thicker top and bottom, and use a stronger wood like paulownia. Ancient boards were never glassed. Old redwood boards were never glassed, they were covered with varnish or oil in the early 1900’s. It was when the Balsa wood boards came around that they started glassing boards.
Down side of the harder stronger wood is usually weight. Same for glass, adding more glass for strength makes the board heavier.
It’s disheartening to have your pretty, varnished, unglassed hollow wood board drain gallons of water after its maiden voyage…especially considering the extensive hours into milling wood, fitting pieces, and sanding. I have one out back to redo…
Back when Tom Wegener was just getting his hollow boards sorted out, I was emailing him about wood boards. He said the paulownia wood is suited to salt water intrusion and once dried, no problem. I haven’t had the opportunity to use paulownia so I can’t say anything about it, but it seems to me that it’s a good wood for surfboards.
I’ve made several hollow balsa boards, but they are all glassed and I’ve only used one for surfing. I made them with 2 or 3 stringers and ribs every 3 or 4 inches for strength. I worry about them snapping as much as getting waterlogged. I’m making a hollow balsa now with ribs every 4 inches and lots of wood running nose to tail. It will be heavier than a foam board, but it should hold up if I surf it. It may end up a wall hanger.
I made onbe cedar HWS and I only glassed the inteiior and the external rails. i used some end grain balsa in stomp areas.
I epoxied the whole exterior, but the glass was only on the rails.
The deck leaked water, the balsa soaked up water like a sponge and 2 weeks after drying it out it only lost an oz of weight.
I consider my attempts to go with minimal exterior glass to be an utter failure, and will always use fiberglass, if only 1.43 oz on the hull and deck with a 3.7oz stomp patches.
Paulownia does not soak up water like balsa but it’s almost as light and much stronger.
I use a tung oil based salad bowl finish on my solid wood paulownia paipos.
A properly made composite board wouldn’t need a glass job.
Some of the guys “down under” use lanolin as the only sealant.
Grant Newby mentions it often in his blog.
http://woodensurfboards.blogspot.com/
I have a problem with wood surfboards… mostly because the are super heavy…suck water …and most often the people that ride them can’t surf very well…
Why do you dislike resin and fiberglass?
I was co-presenting at noosa festival of surfing with Tom Wegener, both he and I have been doing veneers over EPS foam and they work well. Mine was glassed with bioresin, his paulownia bottom and cork top boards are only sealed with a water based varnish product, he has also been putting some lengthways beems through the construction. very exciting stuff. Top bloke…
