Foam Company: compare & contrast

General Discussion
1

Howzit, All…

Doing a little market research project, and I need your help. I know this has already been discussed to some extent, but I need more detail. I tried looking through some of the old threads and it gave me a migraine, so a little more order would be nice, too. Anyhow, for any foam you’ve shaped (Walker Foam, U.S. Blanks, JustFoam, Surfblanks America, Bennett USA, KingMac, Rhyno Foam, etc.), fill in the blanks (no pun intended):

Manufacturer: name?

Blank Shaped: plug? foam density?

Consistency: uniform throughout? soft in the middle?

Stringer: straight? quality of glue-up? quality of wood?

Ease Of Shaping: compared to other companies?

Finished Board: durability? ride quality?

Pros/Cons: bright white foam? soft spots? air bubbles?

Foam Best-Suited For: shortboards? retros? longboards?

Would You Use It Again: no? yes? for shortboards? for retros? for longboards?

Thanks in advance for your input. It is of great benefit to my research!

Peace & grooviness…

~ Brandon.

2

Manufacturer: Rhyno

Blank Shaped: 6 KNB which is basically 6’2 C Fish blank (and rocker)

Consistency: uniform easy on the planer if you go slow

Stringer: stringer was straight, glue up fine, not messy, it held. the wood quality was medium, they used old wood and it had a few minor holes and some paint running deep (I didn’t want to dig because it would crater the stringer)

Ease Of Shaping: shapes like a clark

Finished Board: more durable than normal, similar to walker durability

Pros/Cons: white foam, blank was a 6’ but came out to 5’11", stringer could have used better quality wood. good density.

Foam Best-Suited For: both

Would You Use It Again: yes to all

Manufacturer: clark

Blank Shaped: 6 2C, I think it was light.

Consistency: soft in the middle

Stringer: top gun, straight and true, nice basswood.

Ease Of Shaping: the standard

Finished Board: durability like normal, deck dents after a few mo’s, ding if looked upon weird etc. no yellowing, consistent.

Pros/Cons: bright white foam and soft spots are included. Minimal air bubbles. I think I saw maybe 1 or two micro ones.

Foam Best-Suited For: All

Would You Use It Again: if I could get another yeah.

3
Quote:

Manufacturer: Burford

Blank Shaped: 11’3"L-10’2"L-9’7"L-9’4"L-8’4"M-8’1"M-7’8"M-8’8"G-6’8"S- All “blue”.

Consistency: Uniform density throughout.

Stringer: Not always dead straight, but I’ve seen worse. One surprising thing is the australian “red cedar”: it tends to be rather “fluffy” and much softer than the american one.

Ease Of Shaping: A pleasure, once you admit that planer blades should be replaced by a “barrel”. Otherwise, it tears like hell (at least with my old Ryobi L22).

Finished Board: No bad feedback as of now. But 98% of my boards are glassed with double 6 oz deck and single 6 oz bottom.

Pros/Cons: Very pleasant to shape (with a barrel). Very unpleasant to shape (with blades).

Foam Best-Suited For: All kinds of shapes. Would maybe appreciate a heavier density for classic longboards and guns, but it looks like it’s not imported in France if there is one.

Would You Use It Again: Sure. I had already used that brand several years ago, and I’ve been using it almost exclusively since Clark’s shutdown.

4

thanks, hiro & balsa! i appreciate your taking the time to share your foam experience with me.

5

anyone else? c’mon, benny…i know you’ve shaped a bunch of different blanks. what did ya think??

because just like “Johnny-5”…i need INPUT!!!

6

Hey Soulstice, I just bought a 7’9" USBlanks and I plan to net out something along the lines of the famous Comet next week. I will keep you posted about how it shapes. I also shape Surfoam blanks (french brand) and Tech Blank Foam (spanish brand) from time to time but I guess that reports about those wouldn’t be of any help to you. Or would they?

7

Manufacturer: US Blanks

Blank Shaped: lots of the fish blanks, 9’3y and 9’8y, a few eggs and funboards too

Consistency: soft in the middle, but not like clark

Stringer: straighter than…something really straight…ive seen HUNDREDS of US blanks, and havent seen one bad glue-up. the wood is top notch, theyve got a full stock of everything…seen some 2" balsas too…ooooooooh! theyre doing tapered stringers as well, very cool.

Ease Of Shaping: very nice…i like!

Finished Board: ride is great, pressure dents like a regular board though…i wish it were harder, but i think most people wish their boards didnt dent.

Pros/Cons: few bubbles, but ive seen them…their foam gets better every batch, but i liked it best during the first two batches a while back.

Foam Best-Suited For: anything, the LB plugs (the Y models at least) are magic.

Would You Use It Again: its all i use

Manufacturer: Burford Aus.

Blank Shaped: 7’3 standard

Consistency: uniform throughout

Stringer: straight, glue looked good

Ease Of Shaping: NIGHTMARE

Finished Board: durable for sure…but concrete is hard to break.

Pros/Cons: yellows fast, tears BAD

Foam Best-Suited For: i dont know…longboards probably

Would You Use It Again: not unless all the other companies went belly up, even then id be pissed…ive never wanted to throw my tools harder than while shaping that blank.

Manufacturer: Elova and Bennet (the argentinian versions, dont know about bennet aus.)

Blank Shaped: shortboards

Consistency: uniform for the most part

Stringer: the stringers dance like gypsies. split glueups everywhere, twisted wood…these are the worst two companies ive seen.

Ease Of Shaping: the foam itself was pretty nice

Finished Board: average

Pros/Cons: soft spots, yellow fast

Foam Best-Suited For: shortboards

Would You Use It Again: nope

8

thanks, surferguy80…great info!

and balsa, i welcome any and all foam experience you have to share.

much thanks to all…

~ b.

9

Soulstice, these are the last year & a half… and don’t even look for any answers about shortboards :wink:

Manufacturer: Surfblanks US

Blank Shaped: 10’3 LB http://surfblanksamerica.com/surfboard_blanks_b_lb103.php

Consistency: uniform, very crisp, light & strong

Stringer: t-band (comes standard), straight & centered

Ease Of Shaping: need to lean harder, grit barrel planer works best, then pleskunas grit block to take off the planer marks before you even think of going on to sandpaper

Finished Board: very good, didn’t soak resin (no dry spots) no denting yet

Pros/Cons: bright white foam -yes; soft spots - no; air bubbles - no; needs another inch of tail rocker for classic noserider

Foam Best-Suited For: longboards +

Would You Use It Again: yes, very readily

Manufacturer: US Foam

Blank Shaped: 10’8Y http://www.usblanks.com/pdf/US.Blanks.Product.Catalog.May.2007.pdf

Consistency: uniform throughout - no; soft in the middle - yes

Stringer: standard basswood. Ugly glue-filled void next to the stringer (dime-sized sphere) meant I lost another couple inches after templating & skinning - arrgh. :frowning:

Ease Of Shaping: Easy, supergreen-like marshmallow

Finished Board: Sucked the lam dry in a few spots where resin drained into the foam, already has knee dents

Pros/Cons: bright white foam - yes; soft spots - yes; air bubbles - not really bubbles, but some pukas. Rocker is pretty good, though. Started by cutting off the front 6" because nose rocker is excessive, templated a nice 10’2", then found the glue bomb by the tail and it became a 10’0.

Foam Best-Suited For: I’d guess shorts, or just high production numbers

Would You Use It Again: no, I don’t mind taking a little longer & ending up with a better board

Manufacturer: Walker

Blank Shaped: 10’3 http://walkerfoam.com/103.html

Consistency: uniform throughout - yes, but heaviest as well

Stringer: plain wood, perfect

Ease Of Shaping: in between the above two, best rocker of all 3, but thicker than it needs to be at 4" - its not big enough to be a stand up or a tandem, so why not make the plug at 3 3/4" or even 3 5/8"? Would save a bunch of passes on the bottom…

Finished Board: durability - good, ride - good, even though the blank started heavier than the others, it didn’t end up any different, probably because I used less glass & resin - same schedule, but no patches, and the foam shaped so smooth it didn’t need as thick a hotcoat.

Pros/Cons: bright white foam - yes with sparkles like sugar; soft spots - no; air bubbles - some pukas

Foam Best-Suited For: longboards +

Would You Use It Again: yes

Bottom line (IMO) - if the Surfblanks had the rocker of the Walker, everyone would want it - shapers & surfers.
10

thanks, benny…good stuff!

i definitely gotta get my hands on some of that Surfblanks foam (as soon as i burn through the rest of the US Blanks i have on hand).

anyone else have anything to add?

11

here’s the basic summary i’ve come up with thus far:

if you have something to add, or something that should be re-arranged, post it!