Well, got my blank, finally made some stands, made a nice template (6’0 fish) and there my blank is -sitting on the stand looking at me, daring me to shape it - should I? Truth be told, I am very excited about shaping my first (of many i hope) board. I sanded it down a bit yesterday but am a bit hesitant to skin it as Im afraid of taking too much off. But I guess i have to give it a go. Some photos of my new stand and template below.
Hey Chippie, cheers for that. I take it that’s and Adrian Shepherd board? Funny that you should mention it - He shaped my first ever custom board when i was about 17 and my second not long after. I remember Murray Smith and that shop near herdsmand lake up doubleview way - lots of boards, bugger all merchendise. Been to a MS store lately - one here in Freo just sells hats, wallets and t-shirts for $70 .
Unless your blank is a very clmose-tolerance one, I don’t think you will take out too much by just skinning it. If you’re using a power planer, just set it on 1/16" depth and see what it looks like after the first pass. If you’re using a block plane, there is just no way you can take out too much. Relax and just concentrate on drawing long, even passes. Everything will turn out OK.
Oh, and most important: when you cut out the outline, spend all the time needed to bring the rails to a perfect 90° everywhere and trueing the curve. If you start with something (near)-perfect, the following work should be (near)-perfect, too.
And don’t forget to post photos as your work progresses.
Blank is still in the skinning stage and starting to look a little cleaner. Bottom still looks ragged and i’ll use the surform to take the major high points out.
Going to get a nice square foam pad for sanding just like on the JC101 vid. Also attempt to make a Fred tool for the rails (still a little confused about how to go about making rails - John goes through it so quick ( for me anyway).
AJ72, I don’t use a “fred” for shaping the bottom part of the rail. Try using your surform (or even better your power planer, but maybe not the first time…) this way:
Start from the nose with the surform flat on the board’s bottom and do not apply any pressure to it, then start to move towards the tail while progressively changing its angle so that you reach approximately a 45° angle around the widest point of the board. Then do just the opposite while going towards the tail, i.e. bringing the surform progressively back to flat in the last foot or so.
I suggest you put some masking tape on your surform blade to avoid any dent in the foam and practice the move without actually taking out any foam untill you feel at ease doing it. It becomes a very natural move pretty quick and you will see that you “feel” just when you need to change the angle and how much. Try it.
Hi Balsa - sounds like something I can manage. Is that method same as doing the rail bands? or does that just get the initial angle right for the rails?
It’s my method for the bottom part of the rail. The top part is easier IMHO but it works more or less the same. You should try and find the excellent thread about shaping rails by Bill BARNFIELD, everything you need to know is in there.
