Is there rule of thumb for Alaia measurements?

Is there a rule of thumb to go by for alaias? Im making a 6'4'' board that is 16'' at widest point and 12.2'' at tail. I understand the overall shape, concave, and bevel of rails, but not sure how far to bring in rail bevels from edge, and how far from nose to run it up. I've read 18'' from nose and 15'' from nose are standard. But not sure which one is. Ha ha. Some people are bringing in rails 1.5'' from edge  and  all the way to 3'' from edge. I understand one brings more of a harder rail then other. Is there a rule of thumb to go by that is to the size and shape of board?  Are longer boards edges brought in more? Or is this all just preference?  I just dont want to do anything ass backwards. Am I being too fickle about this? Im thinking 2'' from edge for bevel on this board, about 16'' from nose. I think the concave I will run up 2/3 from tail, bout 5/16'' deep and 6'' wide. Any help is appreciated..tx y'all.

rule of thumb sounds good.

lets write some.

1. it shouldn't be thicker than your thumb

2. the first one you make wrong shouldn't be counted on your fingers

the first one should be counted on your thumb.This leaves te chance

for your index finger alaia to be a success.

3. when grabbing the board paddling or catching waves

keep your thumbs on deck.Out of the water thumbs can go

on either side top or bottom ,left or right rail.

Three spontaneous rules of thumb for your digestive tract.

...ambrose...

thank you ambrose

ill use my thumbs to catch my next ride..

 

… If I were you bg or anyone else actually, n working on the first alaia, Id go with the fullest numbers including rails n concave n keep whittling after test rides where needed. If your going for stand up, widen your tail also if it is your first. Eventually you will hit a peak and probably go a little past it. In that respect you may want to plan on making a few.

 

Ive made a few already , all about same distances from edge. Havent made major adjustments, just minor ones so far. Just wondering if there was a "guideline" to go by with the bevel distances. Just want to make proper lines accordingly to size of board. having a blast so far, so i guess it doesnt matter. If any experienced riders have insight on this, I'm listening. I plan on building many more, and just wanna know whats proper. Rather than go back and reshape alot of boards...

the origin of 'rule of thumb'

had to do with not beating

your wife with a stick larger

than your thumb.Otherwise

you were indictable...

...ambrose...

Ambrose , u got too much time brother!  

very insightful i must say though

 any insight on alaias? dare i ask...

or u gonna leave me with my thumb up?

 

By bevel do you mean a sharp edge along the outline of the concave? If so, you don’t want to do that, it’ll make it slide out like crazy. I work on a gentle roll across the whole bottom of the board, flattening out in the front third, with a concave one third of the width of the board, running two thirds of the way up. Also I pretty much use the parabolic rail ( or side-cut) on all my alaia’s now because it out-performs all the other shapes I’ve tried. My all time favourite board is 6’6 long, 16 inch widepoint, 15 inch tail by 3/4inch thick.

Sorry for my terms "rule of thumb" and "bevel". Im a carpenter so excuse my terms. By bevel i mean the cut from the rail to top/bottom of board. I also use a gentle roll on the concave too. Yeah definetly slippery if sharp... An i flatten it out the front third, and do concave a third width of board, two thirds up. What I cant seem to pinpoint is how far to bring my  "bevel" lines in from rail. I seen Tom draw his lines from center not the rail. So I'm wondering maybe it changes due to overall width and length of board. Some people just go 2'' or so from the rail. Maybe I'm thinkin too much.  15'' tail is interesting, and I found my parabolic is my choice as well. Tx for your insight idler.

If I’m understanding what you mean, since I’m not a carpenter, you’re talking about the actual shape or profile of the rail> if thats the case then I leave mine dead square. as long as the bottom edge is sharp all the way around, it doesn’t make any difference what the top edge looks like. I leave 'em square because it prevents dings to the rail if you have a bit of thickness.

sorry for my ingorance. i’ve ignored this term till i can’t any longer. could you elaborate how to put a gentle roll in the bottom? thanks everyone.

surfside, to me gentle roll simply means a nice smooth transition. The concave cut in middle shouldnt have sharp edge. The water doesnt hold, it just slips out. The transition from your concave cut to rest of board should be smooth...a gentle roll. I put a overall gentle roll through most of board too. Kinda of a slight cup. If you layed a level or something straight on board and rocked it back and forth, u should see a nice transition on both sides.. Hope im not confusing. I suck at explaining "terms".  I've built only a few so far, so I'm just a rookie.. I see ur in S.C. too. Maybe I'll c ya in the water and can explain it better..

 

Maybe you can help me idler. Im still trying to explain my original question. On bottom of board, I have a centerline, then I mark the outside of my concave(two lines from both sides of centerline) Which is a 1/3 width of tail. Then I mark two more lines outside each of those. Some people call them "rail bands". There just a reference point to shape from there, down to my rail edge. I keep these straight like the rest of my lines. My question is: If i measure and mark these "rail band lines" from the centerline or outside of my concave line , then my "bevel" or cut widens the further i go up board. If i measure the rail bands  directly from rail, then its straighter of a cut up the board . Know what im sayin?  Being that my tails are a couple inches then my widest point, I dont have a even distance runnng up board. Maybe If my tails were 3/4'' to a 1'' difference from widest point, it would solve this problem. I dont know.  Maybe I should concentrate on just a gentle roll overall, rather than perfect rail bands... Im killing myself over this. Any experienced shapers/riders advice would be appreciated.

bobbyg i don’t have but two alaias under my belt. i used the rail shape as my guide for the bevel edge. i followed the shape of the board 3" in up to where the nose transitions in. the problem i found was the tail almost had wings from the bevel edge and the deepest part of the concave. i cleaned up the transitions as much as i could. this next non parabolic i’m going in less than 2" along the rail for the edge. thanks everyone.

So in saying that u follow the rail shape as guide for bevel....than a parabolic shape would have a parabolic bevel as well... I would think these guidelines should be straight , not curvy to the rails shape. Perpendicular from centerline. ya know? I think this makes for a good arguement. So it either runs straight from rails(giving not so straight line) or from centerline(giving straight line from concave lines)but not rail. Which one is better??? Anybody know what I'm saying??? Thanks for your response surfside. I now what ya mean by wings in tail. I might try doing two boards with different guidelines , one from edge and one from centerline and see what's the difference ,if i cant get any help  on this.. Tx y'all.

Ah right, I  think I get what you mean now! I Work off lines running parallel to the centre line, especially on parabolic rail boards. the reason for this is that this makes the roll down to the rail steepest in the narrow part of the parabolic rail. THis means that that part of the rail will hold in to the face the most, allowing the nose rise and fall more freely. This also flattens the roll out in the tail, and under the widest point, which gives the effect of the board pivoting around the narrow section. It was actually something I discovered by accident and which has the most positive effect on the parabolic railed boards! Sorry it took me so long to understand the question! 

shaping my first few any day now...have a few around to copy so hoping it wont be too hard.. going to do a few diff ones, will do one with a deep concave and might even do a double concave- oiled one up the other day with some diff stuff and looks awesome..

what do you guys recommend for best oil mix and why ???

I go 2/3rds gum turps and 1/3rd Boiled linseed oil, 3 or 4 coats a couple of hours apart, then 2 or 3 thin coats of straight linseed oil a couple of hours apart over two days. if you’re patient, and let it dry properly, you can  get away with re-oiling it about once a month after that!

Thats exactly what I was talking about!! Thats what I thought but wasnt sure. Makes sense to me. Thanks a million idler. I can finally sleep...