What grit do you think is best to use for skinning? What planer is best for the stringer? Can you just take the stringer down a quarter and have meet the stringer with skinning it? thanks, matt http://www.MalibuLongBoards.com 
What grit do you think is best to use for skinning? What planer is best > for the stringer? Can you just take the stringer down a quarter and have > meet the stringer with skinning it? thanks, matt A power planer. If not a power planer at least, God forbid, a surform. A planer is the call. It gives you more control and requires a lot less elbow grease. Not to mention gives you way more accurate and consistancy.
Matt, Before I recently purchased my power planer I had been using a combination of a sharp hand plane, a small surform, and a new sheet of 36-grit on a wood block. Mostly used the surform. I used the hand plane sparingly, because no matter how sharp it was, it had a tendency to either cut deep gashes or leave scars. So I used it mostly for skinning over the stringer. However, on an upturned nose, I recently managed to make a mini finger-plane help me out with skinning. I used the surform a lot, but it left patches of skin sometimes, then I would get those off with the 36-grit. Be careful not to sand too much in one place. Make long, even, deliberate strokes. I completed two longboards using basically nothing but these tools. It’s not quite as hard as people can make it sound, but still…you’d better have plenty of time on your hands and be ready for a workout.