I am making a HWS fish currently. I have made the same board once already without doing bead and cove strips, this time I will be doing them, but what is the best way to do the tail of the board? Should I make twin tailblocks? or make a chine and bead/cove over it?
Id go to grainsurf forums but I like sways better, and that place seems pretty stagnant lately so I doubt Id even get a question answered. seems like no one posts over there any more
last time I did strips and made tailblock sort of things (they werent very pretty) but for each point of the board where the strips met the tailblock type things, there was a space I had to backfill with putty.
There has to be a better way to do this!! I love how seamless all the Jensen work looks, where it seems the rail strips are continuous right into the tail. Looking to create a semi similar effect though I know it wount be quite the same since i am doing a fish.
I can think of a couple ways I might do it. Personally, I think bead and cove would be a pain in the ass (crack). But if you wanted to go bead and cove, an easy way to cover up the ends (I find it hard to get perfect miters with the compound curves going on) is to do rough miters, then take a flexible straight edge or stiff saw and make a straight sided groove that you could fit a contrasting color of wood. If it is a dark wood (say walnut), it is pretty easy to hide even a fairly large gap with some epoxy mixed with a generous helping of dark sawdust and cabosil. Here’s an example from a flatwater SUP I made:
Notice the gap between the miter pieces and slightly messy left side. A straight edge and razor cleaned it up before I inserted a square edged piece.
Filled with epoxy mixed with sawdust from that color of wood (redwood) and some cabosil for thickening (my experience is that a mix of cabosil and wood dust works better than wood dust alone…sometimes the epoxy will leak out of the sawdust if it isn’t fine enough and drip. Cabosil keeps it together). Sand it smooth and it will look reasonably good…the better your joint, the cleaner the look.
Alternatively, you could to a takeoff on the Jensen method and do the fish tail with cork (I prefer cork alone, rather than the cork+plywood he uses. Less weight and consistent density for shaping. I usually paint it, but some people like the cork look.) Cork is very forgiving, flexible, and easy to work with. Sharp tools are a must though. A solid coat of 3m super 77 on each side works great to attach it (but make sure you mask off things well!) or the red (high VOC) weldwood contact cement (the green one is crap). I like 1/4" roll cork. If you are local (I’m in Ventura), I can hook you up with enough for a fish tail.
As you say, solid wood tail blocks would be pretty straight forward as well.
I havent worked with cork yet, but would love to try it!.. And nice to see a fellow FL swaylockian! I am over in Lake Mary not too far away…work in Altamonte. Ventura isnt too far? might be worth the drive!
I like the idea of cabosil and wood four or dust together. have not tried that combo yet but I may do that for the current build. I love the way Jensen boards look they are a true work of art!
Thats a beautiful SUP… got a side shot of it?? looks beefy!!! (just the way i like them ususally)
Actually…Ventura, Ca, sorry to get your hopes up. We could probably work out something with a flat rate box or something if you really want to try cork. Lots of shots of the SUP construction here:
