Lead........ interesting posts from a lot of knowledgeable industry people here. I certainly don't mean to beat down your passion, nor rain on your parade. Everyone starts somewhere. The pic of the 3 boards look clean but even now, that's only a testament to the common practice of stealing some established shaper's planshapes while repairing another guy's board, or generating one with a computer program. I'm not accusing you of doing this, I'm just saying this is COMMON practice.
Over the period of 5 years you've been making boards, most of us would expect you to have more pictures, but maybe you didin't really 'get the itch' to pursue boardbuilding in greater detail until recently. Heck, maybe you didin't even own a camera.
I come from an era that is totally foreign to many of the Swaylockian posters. It would be interesting for someone to chronicle our industry and the rise and fall of countries economies and how the digital age has ushered in new ways of creating the modern day surfboard.
For the most part, the experienced guys that have replied to you here are very generous in offering insights to newbies, jobseekers, and do it yourselfers. That isn't a value judgement or meant in a derogatory fashion, I'm simply saying that if one is to 'hang out' on Sway's for long enough, you realize there is a wealth of information that has been compiled over half a dozen years or so by people from all walks of life. But some of us see how redundant the inquiries become and liken it to hitting the snooze button.
Sometimes I feel like posting a thread titled "shaping to the Nth degree", which would go into handshaping that deals with things that don't come up in threads....
Like what? Stuff like the number of teeth on saws to use while cutting foam, or the qua;ity of cut a deep or shallow angle produces when cutting out your planshape. Maybe I'd explain the importance of CHRONOLOGY in cutting planer bands in order to produce the rail contour you so badly desire........ and that would delve into obtuse and acute angles while producing desired rail volume, deck contour, and thickness for that ultimate shape. Even the rocker can be changed from what you intend from the order of cuts you make and if you intersect cuts or not. Wrap your mind around that one.
The discussion would discuss the anatomy of the physical abilities and limitations of planers, the dynamics of forward and backward cuts, the toepiece of the planer and useful ways to use it for blending and knocking down high spots. It might disucss common shaping tools, like surforms, that are all too frequently 'crutch tools' versus being used sparingly for blending. Power sanding would be a whole different ball of wax over in the 'production' chapter next to 'using overhead lights to wash out details and promote faster (less precise) shaping'. The thought makes me queasy, but it was a regular practice esp. before machining.
We could go into the importance of blocking out your work, how a study in parabolic curves play into true breaking curves, and how the CNC Board Cad approach doesn't take into account the many challenges that handshapers need to know to have exceptional control in creating a one off custom or successful design.
My era was before close tolerance blanks, when knoledgeable shapers had to 'read foam' befoe they started to net a light strong surfboard. To this day, I still 'restructure' a blank's foil (distribution, rocker, etc.) to get what my mind's eye aspire for, and my engineering sense demands, and without the ability to read foam and be cognizant that shaping is a reduction process, I have to know what I'm starting with before I ever get to what I want.....and all that while making sure the deck glass doesn't cave in from overshaped foam. Nowdays the guys machining your blanks better know what their doing and be using the correct deck rockers and interact with the blank company you are using so 'the machine' doesn't over shape your design...
A lotta young shapers might say "oh yeah, we all do that, but nothing could be further from the truth. But wannabes have exceptional talent for tapping into Sway's to read up then expound terms and regurgitate stuff with convincing aplomb thereby wowing their prospective customers.
Why don't we make the guys that have mastered that technique legends from day one?
