Isurfmountains,
That’s an interesting shape. Your very creative. Thanks for sharing your work. I saw some of the Yater art boards. Beautiful to look at, but kind of sad in my opinion because they were were such nice shapes but too expensive to risk in the surf. I wondered how all that stuff would effect the ride. Knowing they were Surftechs and not Yater hand shapes makes me feel better, though. Glad your riding yours. Mike
I had no Idea you could get Abalone leave!
I’ve just bought some mother of perl inlays (like they use on guitar fret boards) and am going to have a play with those.
I got them from this company: http://www.originalmarquetry.co.uk/category_Mother_Of_Pearl_1.htm
I only live down the road from the guy that sells them but he does ship internationally as well
Try contacting Austin or Troy from Austin Surfboards. They have done some killer pinstripe boards. I don’t know how they did it other than that a local guy named Igor does the striping. I think he actually does the striping with resin though.
Pin striping is all about laying the tape, you need very good tape, which is ecpensive, If you’ve not done it before by a few rolls of cheap tape to practice laying it down. you need thin tape about 1/4 wide.
Sand the hot coat with 240 grit in the diraction of the line - this helps stop the paint/resin bleeding under the tape. when you lay the tape you need to lay 1 continuous line.
You need to lay 2 lines of tape, leaving a space (which will be your pin line) betwwen them. I like to start with the out side line
Hold the tape in one hand and use you finger or thumb on your free hand to press the other end of the tape to the board.
Pull out about 1-2ft of tape and pull it tight and where the tape comes off the roll put pressure on it with your index finger of the hand holding the roll to help keep it tight, lower the roll so the tape is almost touching the board but not sticking.
Then run your finger/thumb on free hand alnog the tape pressing it on to the board while at the same time moving the roll to the side so the tape bends to follow to follow the contour of the boards.
As you doing this you also want to be unrolling the tape and moving along the board, try to keep the distance between your hands the same as you move and do it in one fluid motion, as you move up the board look in the direction you are moving.
Look down the line to check for wobbles, don’t worry if there are a few small ones, they will get lost in the mix and won’t notice too much If your not happy pull up the whole tape line and start again, feel free to waste a couple of roles if your new to pinlining as its a real art in itself.
Repeat on the other side, then do the inside line, leaving a gap that will be your pin line. keep the gap a uniform thickness, to help you can lay an extra line of tape then pull this up whne the other 2 lines are done.
Use a razor blade to trim the tape where the tape crosses at the nose and tail.
Use a wooden lolly pop stick or tongue depresser to really stick the tape done.
You can run some futures clear anong the inside of the tape to seal it from bleeds or take your chances. then go other the tape with a paint pen, liquitex acrylic or pigmented resin.
Then imidiately and very carefully pull up the tape leaving the line. walk away for an hour or 2 till the line is fully dry, if you did get any bleeds under the tape then you can scratch these off with the tip of a sharpe scaple.
If your not happy sand the whole thing off and start again
I’ve just bought some finesse pinstriping tape and will be trying this on my next boards so I’ll write a report if it is any good.
BTW I heard Austins guy can pinline free hand with a sign writing brush - Much respect.