Would appreciate some feedback before I grab the saw!
My shaping attempt #4 is going to be a Fish. I searched through the archives for hours looking for tips on how to do a template from scratch and also looked at many examples. I didn’t want to just use someone’s file or trace a board, but I wanted to be close to the norms for a traditional fish. I picked a board I liked in a shop and took down the dims for a guideline. Bill Thrailkill recommended in an old post to not worry about fitting your curve into measurement points, let your curve determine the points. Great advice as I had a heck of a time forcing my curve into the nose, tail, and wide point dots.
So what I did was draw my stringer on graph paper then put a parallel line next to it at the approximate widepoint width I wanted. Then I could keep from drawing it out too fat. I eye-balled the wide point tangent and it landed at 5 inches ahead of mid point. Final result is 6’2, 17.5 N, 22 W, 16.5 T with eleven inches between the swallow tail points. This was close to a template that was posted at 6’0", 16.75, 21.5, 16, 11, wide point at 3 inches ahead of mid.
So, does anyone see any obvious problems before I transfer it out full size on a roll of paper? Worried about the 22 inch width and the 5 inches forward for the wide point. I see one obvious dip in the curve but I can clean that up on the transfer. Oh yeah, I’m 6’, 190 lbs. of average surfing ability.
looks fine - i would maybe straighten the tail out a little so it doesnt pull in so much.
you proberbly could loose a couple of inches in lenght - im about the same size and my 6’2 floats me like a longboard, when i get around to shaping another i will go 5’10" ish.
plot this onto paper full size and the stand on it!
look down, how does it feel?
when you cut it out, fold the paper over down the stringer and you can “tune” the outline and keep the shape symetrical.
TedZ, any template will work, one way or the other. Yours is quite OK. Now, do yourself a favor: transfer it to plywood or masonite or any other solid medium to make your final template. You will find it much easier to work on the curves by planing and/or sanding untill they look perfect than you would on paper with scissors. Besides, it’s much easier to draw the outline on the blank with the pencil following a hard line: you’ll get a far more precise draw and precision is what you need.
Following Bill THRAILKILL’s advice is one of the best thing you could do: figures are needed to give a general idea of the board, but the rule should be the curve.
Maybe I wouldn’t have split the swallow-tail so deep: you’re gonna loose some tail area that helps for taking off but, on the other side, the “gunnier” tail will hold in better in juicy waves, so it’s yours to choose whether you’re aiming at slop or power.
looks pretty good… if your interested in a traditional fish download: Surfboard Design and Construction and in particular look at chapter 4, starting on page 59. It has detailed design drawing of a Lis Fish. Seeing the curves may help you tweak your desing. Also good info on the keel placement.
As for your design I agree it seem to me that you’ve pulled the tail in a bit. All the traditional fish I looked at for inspiration have nearly straight rails coming off the pins, i.e. little to no rail curve in the back 1/3. Again I’m not a fish expert but your template looks stretched for a traditional fish. Looks more like a modern fish to me.
Would appreciate some feedback before I grab the saw!
My shaping attempt #4 is going to be a Fish. I searched through the archives for hours looking for tips on how to do a template from scratch and also looked at many examples. I didn’t want to just use someone’s file or trace a board, but I wanted to be close to the norms for a traditional fish. I picked a board I liked in a shop and took down the dims for a guideline. Bill Thrailkill recommended in an old post to not worry about fitting your curve into measurement points, let your curve determine the points. Great advice as I had a heck of a time forcing my curve into the nose, tail, and wide point dots.
So what I did was draw my stringer on graph paper then put a parallel line next to it at the approximate widepoint width I wanted. Then I could keep from drawing it out too fat. I eye-balled the wide point tangent and it landed at 5 inches ahead of mid point. Final result is 6’2, 17.5 N, 22 W, 16.5 T with eleven inches between the swallow tail points. This was close to a template that was posted at 6’0", 16.75, 21.5, 16, 11, wide point at 3 inches ahead of mid.
So, does anyone see any obvious problems before I transfer it out full size on a roll of paper? Worried about the 22 inch width and the 5 inches forward for the wide point. I see one obvious dip in the curve but I can clean that up on the transfer. Oh yeah, I’m 6’, 190 lbs. of average surfing ability.
Balsa and everyone else, thanks for the tips, I will use them.
I think I am going to go down to 6’0" and redraw this on graph paper again. I transferred it to a full size sheet last night and it does seem a bit large. I don’t like the 22 inch width, would like to pull it in a tad, and the wide point at five inches forward seems extreme. As for the pulled in tail and generally more curvy than the Lis template, I was planning to go without keels and use more modern toed-in and canted fins, plus more shortboard like rails. I don’t have access to quality point surf and will mostly be surfing it at beach and reef breaks so the more modern interpretation seems to be the way to go.
Oh, easternpacific, the side I thought was good enough was the one on the left. When I transferred to full size I realized how off some of my measurement points were. They were easy to spot when I plotted out all the “dots”. Some were definitely too far in or out, but that is mostly because it was hard to guess the exact 1/16 and 1/8 measurements on the graph paper. Easy enough to re-sketch those highs and lows full size.
JDM, sorry to not respond sooner, I was away from the PC on vacation. Your question: “how did you enlarge it accurately?” - I didn’t! haha. I transferred my measurements to full size by marking off the center line of a long sheet of paper every two inches for the 18 inches from tail and nose, then every six inches in between - just like my post above. Once I had my dots on the full size sheet I could see where my graph paper markings were slightly off so I made adjustments. Then I connected the dots and sketched out the line. A lot of erasing and re-drawing until it looked right. At that point I should have transferred to a door skin as others suggested above but I didn’t have one and was impatient. I had purchased two second quality blanks for very cheap to practice on this shape so I just traced my paper template on it (after skinning the bottom and deck). I cut the outline with a hand saw then faired out the edge with a sanding block like in the JC Shaping 101 video. By now I had managed to pick up some door skin at Home Depot. So before turning the rails I traced out my “foam template” on to the door skin and stashed it away. This was a few days ago. Last night I cut and faired the door skin with my block planer and sanding block to use on the next attempt. What a difference!!! The block planer really lets you know where your bumps and flat spots are. I should have done that the first time, but this is all good learning, and I’m doing the whole project for kicks anyway. I would post pictures but my digital camera gave out. Hope this helps.
