Ahmmm- I think we’re talking about a different Old Man, in that the one I’m referring to was my late father, the shipwright, boatbuilder and boat carpenter. Oh, and canoe surfer…
In any event, the stone you use is a plain old sharpening stone of sufficient width to cover the width of the blade without angling it too much. With the little sharpening handle, you just sharpen it like a plane iron from a good sized hand plane. Be quite easy to make one out of light aluminum plate, say 3/16" stuff.
I seem to recall that we mostly used a Norton India stone, medium-fine grit, with sharpening oil. And…whaddyaknow, they still make 'em: http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Norton-India-Bench-Stone-8-x-3-P23C5.aspx . I can recommend the supplier, I’ve done business with them before. For sharpening oil, these days I use commercial sewing machine oil, buy it by the gallon.
The Old Man - well, the one I’m talking about - had a couple of sets of blades he’d ground special; one convex and the other concave, to give the olde timey look to beams in post and beam work, which we did when there wasn’t any boat work around.
Ask Greg Noll.I talked to him one time about Maul planers and he said they were using them way back.They were monsters.Chain drive and some were actually pneumatic.Use in shipyards for planing the wood decks.I saw one on ebay a few years ago.Maul also made huge scary skilsaws that took two men to lift.
I just read all of the posts and saw where Bing Copeland was participating.That is unreal.Swaylocks has really grown in the past years.Can anyone get Greg Noll to come around?I bet he could liven things up.I know Jim Phillips used to shape a few of his boards.How bout it Jim???Heck…what about Phil?
To maybe help out some of the history. When I went to work for Velzy in 57 he and Yater were useing Skil 100s. There was a Mall chain drive there but I never saw it being used. My guess is that Dale used that before getting 100s.
I agree. In 1957 as a 16yo kid, I visited the San Clemente shop for the first time. I remember looking down from the street level showroom into the back work area, and seeing Yater leveling a balsa blank, using an electric planer. He had a full head of long hair, slicked back, and a really dark tan. A true surfer! I’m sure that the Windansea guys, Wayne Land, Al Nelson, Pat Curran, and Del Cannon, shapers all, got their exposure to the Skil 100, at that shop. They all did ‘‘walk-on’’ shaping there. I got my exposure to it, the ‘‘how to’’, from Wayne Land in 1958, at his Burland Surfboards shop in La Jolla. For many years I rented the Skil 100,@ five dollars per day, when I had boards to shape. I finally bought one in 1964. Still use it. Many triggers, brushes, and cords later.
Seeing viejo post yesterday about glueing up balsa at Velzy's in 57/58 made me think about this thread, and check to see if he'd posted on this one. He did, and supplied good info.
Anybody else found anything? Just figured I'd give it a bump a year later and see what comes up.....
How old was Wayne back then? He must a been in his teens. He was a good friend. I worked with him & George Miller, Wilton Keuma, Jolly Green Giant, and others at Glass Research in Jacksonville Fla in the mid 60’s.
Wayne was at least five years older than me. So in 1958 (me, age 17) Wayne would have been at least 22 yrs old. Jim Fisher (an early 50's big wave pioneer) was older than Wayne, and Jim was 25 yrs old in 1958. That's as close as I can get to it for you.
Thrailkill,
That sounds about right. In '65 I believe it was, Tom Everett the pres. Of Glass Research brought in all the California guys I was about 22 and Wayne looked to be about late 20’s or so. Wayne had a front tooth missing, probally from all that Karate stuff, and I don’t remember him ever getting it fixed. Him and George Miller lived together at the Villiagewood Apts. On Jammes rd here in Jax and had a very spirited Bull Terrier dog named Joey. Wayne had to put the dog in a kennel because he would tear up the apt. and he wound up giving me the dog just to bail him out of the kennel. I traded the kennel owner at Park street Kennels a shotgun for the monies owed for Joey and that was my first Bull Dog. The dog was as wild as Wayne was when Wayne was beered up. That dog got me into more stuff but I loved him and kept him till he passed. PS. There was a retired navy canvas maker that lived down the road from me named Roy Thrilkill (maybe spelled differently), any relation?
There was a retired navy canvas maker that lived down the road from me named Roy Thrilkill (maybe spelled differently), any relation?
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None that I'm aware of. Historically, the names Thrailkill, threadgill, Threlkeld, and a number of similar spellings all trace to the village of THRELKELD in northern England. It's an old name.
This is my take on planer history that I’ve picked up over the years: I’ve seen photos of a air-powered planer that dates back to 1915 which was used in shipbuilding. Relative to surfboards, the first company to produce commercial surfcraft in real numbers was Pacific Redi-cut Homes in LA in the early 30’s, which exported redwood planks for Hawaii. There were a lot of surfers working there making the pre-fab roof trusses and such, and they persuaded the company to start up a side-line business. Among those there was the late Lorrin “Whitey” Harrison. Pacific Redi-cut had lots of equipment like stationary milling/shaping machines and power planers (probably Mall’s) which were used to shape the planks, and this is probably the earliest use of power planers that I’ve heard of for surf or paddle boards. In the late 1940’s and well into the 50’s, Whitey’s barn in San Juan Capo was the “lab” where lots of design and production concepts were developed. Tom Blake, Hobie, and Velzy spent time there. This is probably when the Skil 190 replaced the Mall, then transistioned into the 100 in the early 1950’s. On a side note, the Mall Power Tool company goes back to the 1920’s, and was located near Skil (then Skil Saw) in Chicago. They likely had an exchange of engineers between them. Skil Saw Corp. was offically renamed Skil in 1952, and I’ve never heard of any Skil planer that said “Skil Saw” on the label, so I doubt that the Skil 190 or 100 planer goes back to the 1930’s. Mall Tool was aquired by Remington Firearms in 1956 and changed to Remington Power Tools. By 1958, Remington Power Tools was gone. Skil was aquired by Bosch in 1992, and the 100 went out of production in the early 80’s but inventory continued to sell until the mid 80’s. The very last Skil 100’s (types 4A, 5) introduced new narrow, disposible, reversible blades which are on all premium modern planers today.
here is an early picture of abel gomes 1910-1967 with a electric planer, [img_assist|nid=1058715|title=abel gomes 1910-1967 early waterman and shaper|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=0|height=0]This picture is late 40's early 50's. Mr Gomes has credit for building tom blakes first early hollowboard. Mr Gomes was also making cigar boards in the 1920's. This picture was taken at his shop at the corner of lexington and yorktown. His business card reads see abel and son for the finest in surfboards to your specifications, outrigger canoe repairs and refinishing, balsa wood planks, scoop nose shape yourself, fibreglass and resin.......
That's certainly the earliest pic I've seen of someone with a power planer (hopefully your date is verifiable). This thread is going exactly where I hoped, we're actually learning something here! Thanks for the contribution.
Well i know that the gomes family left oahu sept 1956, im pretty sure that the boards they are working on are from that time period. I also know that all of those boards were made for Earl Akana for his Hale Auau surfboard rental boards which as opposite the waikiki bitmore hotel.