OK, payback time. Up to this point I’ve been only a “taker” from this great site and not a “giver”. After all the vac bagging, veneer sheathing, and d-cell posts, this is going to seem pretty low tech. But here goes. Hoping with all the interest in fish, someone will find this useful.
One of my all time favorite boards was a little twin fin fish Greg Loehr shaped for me years ago. Out the clear blue, it came with a fish shaped stringer. Very cool. Sadly, I let that little girl get away and have regretted it ever since. I couldn’t get Greg to make another.
Well, after all the talk about perimeter stringers I got to thinking about that little trick Greg did and decided to do a variation of it maximizing the perimeter stringer aspect. Greg was kind enough to give me a few tips and point me in the right direction. I decided to make a 3 board project out of it thinking that after doing 3, I’d have the technique down.
First, cut your template for the arc of the fish. After a lot of experimentation I found that you need an radius about the same length of the board to ensure that the fish is wide enough to serve as a perimeter stringer. Using a longer radius will work, but makes the fish skinnier. I made about 5 of these out of door skins and settled on the 6 ft version. Don’t get the stringer too close to the edge or you’ll mow it when you shape the rails.
Arc tools:
Next, mark your rectangluar blank and cut just the fish outline with a skil saw. Save the board outline for after the stringers are in place and the glue is dry. Rectangular is going to work better because of the clamping part. But I used a combination of clamps and bungee cords, so you might make it work with just bungee cord on a P/U blank. you will not in this pic and others that I cut a little extra place at the ends of the stringer and at the nose to allow some adjustment of the stringer fore and aft. Also, note that I cut the tail piece out with two cuts parallel to the edges of the blank so I could clamp/bungee better. Had it been cut with the curve of the tail, it could have been pinched out with the slippery glue.
You’re going to need six of your best bud’s to wrestle this thing together with all the glue and parts. Actually, You and one helper can do it if you allow enough time. Do let your kids help unless you want to teach them some new words they can never repeat. The trickiest part is the tail piece. Use a clamp on the top and one on the bottom fairly close together and as shown, bungee the tail piece in by attaching to these two clamp (top and bottom). If you get that right, the rest is a piece of ( your word here).
I’ll finish in the next post or two.
