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Dale, Awesome photo. Is he riding one of your mats? 18oz...damn that's light.
Thanks, Ben.
Yes, Kenny’s been surfing them for over 6 years.
Dale,
I’ve only ever heard good things about your mats.
Smallwaves,
Nice ride. I remember it from another post, love the artwork. I am going with the danish oil, a little less friendly than pure linseed oil, but dries a lot faster and has a little extra something in it for durability (varnish).
Spent another hour, and have the lions share of the planing on the bottom finished. Yes! I’m trying for a lot of belly in the tail, spread the belly over a larger width through the rest of the board, then lose the belly toward the nose. Getting there. Then I will soften the bottom rail edge a little, round the top rail and try for 1/4" rails all the way around, except for the tail which will be 1/4" up to 1.5".
Wood and tool
Tail
1ft up
6ft up
Nose (uneven, but closeish
That board is looking good! I’ll bet you are getting a good workout. Gyms should just have big blocks of wood and a bunch of hand plans lying around for people who want to really get some exercise. The aromatic wood shavings wood also make the place smell better. 
Thanks! It is getting there, shaving by shaving.
Yes, quite the workout, don’t tell any of the gyms about our plan: aromatherapy (would you like pine, cedar, or redwood today, sir?), cardio-workout, and sweat absorbant wood chips. Plane-arobics.
Ben,
That is an absolutely jammin board my friend. Inspirational!!! Cant wait to see you put some sealer on it and get some pics sliding down the line… I wonder what kind of size and thickness it would it take to make a standup for a big fella? I’d like to make a prone and a stand up. Keep the pics coming…
Bob
Thanks! It’s not far off. Being a big fella myself, and being inclined to try new things, I’m going to try standing on it. Not convinced I’ll be able to make it work due to lack of skill and short length, but we shall see. Hope to finish it this weekend.
–Ben
Ben, I got antsy waiting to see the board so Ive bumped the thread. And Ive got something for ‘show and tell’ too.
7 pieces of kiln dried pine all from the same pack, and the idea is to see how each treatment performs.
1/ commercial wood preservative for pine decking
2/ solid car wax, 2 coats, polished in
3/ epoxy resin (FGI), 1 coat
4/ as is
5/ linseed oil, 2 coats
6/ vegetable oil, 2 coats
7/ control sample, to remain indoors and away from sunlight.
All treatments went on last week so they are dry.
Im going to leave them outside to face the elements, accelerated ageing, and see who keeps their looks and defences up.
Any thoughts.
Hows the board going Ben ?
SF.
Nice experiment! For linseed oil, did you use straight up linseed oil, or danish oil, or something in between?
Thanks for the timely bump, I was working on it yesterday, and it is nearly done. Had a breakthrough moment in terms of making boardbuilding a more acceptable past time from the perspective of my fiancee…got her to help! She did some sanding, and then some woodburning on the bottom of the board. I burnt my logo (which she helped design) on top. Then, I oiled it. And oiled it again. Then I oiled it this morning, and will do a coat or two more before I take it in the water. And I was doing some reading, and another good option for finishing I found was to oil it with danish oil, then finish it off with some hard furniture wax. Pics!
Corinne at work recreating our home break:
My logo:
Bottom oiled:
More pix when I’m done. Only bad thing, is the board is far from light. It is around 25 lbs! This is still lighter than many boards I own, but heavier than I was aiming for. Oh well, worst case scenario is I get my router out of storage and retroactively and carefully remove some weight, then put a nice looking veneer over the hollows.
–Ben
Ben, earlier in the thread people suggested using different finishes so I thought Id test most of them. I used straight Linseed Oil because its one of those things people traditionally think of to use on wood but Ive only ever used it for my cricket bats and I hardly ever take them surfing anymore.
I think a liquid may penetrate further but the solid would do the job with less weight.
Have you measured the volume or weight of oil used?
Great logo and artwork, some people here have got the artistic gene. That logo is a pearl. Are you using a soldering iron ? Your board will look great in the lounge room too.
I’m really keen to see your board hit the water.
SF.
For a quick one-off wooden surfcraft… molten paraffin wax (thin/low viscosity) is an inexpensive, lightweight, waterproof application. Easy to scrape and buff smooth, easy re-application. Excellent for sealing the end grain.
http://www.ehow.com/…elt-wax-candles.html
Wax can also be rubbed onto wood surface. Then liquify small sections with a hot air gun, causing the wax to wick down into grain. Use caution, do not overheat.
Dale and Surffoils,
I weighed the board before oiling, so I’ll see how much weight I’ve added. After around three coating sessions with the oil, I’ve used a lot of volume of oil, but a lot of that ends up evaporating, and in the rags. The oil is very easy to apply, and looks very nice, but next wooden sliding machine, I think I’ll try wax and heat as you’ve both suggested. Not too much heat, though.
Surffoils,
Thanks for the compliments! I’ll pass them on to Corinne, she is the artistic one. She came up with the logo idea, as well as the bottom artwork. Used an actual wood burning tool, as I didn’t want to risk trashing my soldering iron and the wood burner was cheap.
Cricket bat while surfing? Genious!
–Ben
Ben, good to hear you’ll give the wax a go. But whatever Dale thinks would be better than what I suggest.
The samples are getting about 14 hours of quality Aussie skin-stripping sunshine today and over the summer will get a 4 week flogging,rain or shine, and the results should be available for show soon after New Year.
4 weeks test should be equal to about 2 years worth of exposure, shouldnt it ? I’ll keep them outside for a year and see who gets trashed first.
Your lady did a great job on the logo, incorporating the curved lines of water, both your first initials, which then becomes the Co. as in company.
And the acronym becomes an easy word; Beeko.
Microsoft would be pleased with that kind of advertising work.
Are you taking pics of the maiden launch?
The cricket bat surfing episode was humorous and yet regretable, as I vaguely recall…
SF
Yeah, wax for the next project. Weighed the board again after the three or so coats of oil, and it seems to have picked up 1.5 pounds with the oil treatment. I’ll weigh it again after it dries for a bit more.
Good luck on your wood experiment. Keep us posted. Four months will be a lot of exposure. Maybe you can do updates every couple weeks or month?
My last name is Colman, and that is where the BCo came from (an old nickname). It is convenient, though, that her name starts with Co, as i get her involved in goofing around with creating and decorating surfcraft.
I will take pics of the maiden launch. I might even share them, if all goes well. If not, I’ll deny it ever happened!
As for the cricket bat, I am so very curious…
–Ben
Ben, I thought you were going with initials the way Charles and Camilla do. (Camilla gave Chuck “CC” cufflinks while he was married to whatshername)
The pix will be great, even if only for your own records. And the board will always be a reminder of your combined effort. Imagine how beautiful it will look like in 30 years time?
The cricket bat episode? Just the ‘boys’ playing cricket on the beach all summer, between surfs and with a few beers thrown in and then it was a contest to bodysurf the craziest item you could find. Cricket bats work quite well but dont like salt water at all, ergo…linseed oil is proved to be a poor protectant for surf items.
I’ll keep the updates coming,please keep your pics coming too.
Thanks, SF.
Dont forget to take a NEW white hanky in your pocket for your wedding…you wont need it but she will and you’ll look like a prince for having one handy. Its the only thing my dad told me. Pass it on.
SF,
Well, I hope the danish oil (linseed oil with extra resins, drying agents, and a little magic) holds up better than straight linseed oil. From most of what I’ve read, it sounds like it should, but we shall see. I weighed it again this morning, and now it is down to 25 lbs again…so maybe the oil didn’t add that much weight, or maybe I need to get a new scale… Might wipe a little more oil on it today, and am planning on taking it out soon, and I will have my photographer there.
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Dont forget to take a NEW white hanky in your pocket for your wedding…
So you mean I shouldn’t bring one of the ones I used to wipe oil on this board? All kidding aside, thanks for the suggestion. I will remember that.
–Ben
11ft: your board looks great. congratulations. may it give you great joy. & yes please, i’d like to see pictures of you sliding with it. enjoy!
Thanks, Nathan! I need to do three things first…get the swell to dampen off a bit, figure out my fin situation (might just cut down some old scuba fins that I don’t use any more), and trick/beg someone to take photos. Hopefully photos of me sliding down waves, not eating a face full of sand or salt water. Those might be entertaining, too.
–Ben
Ben, hows the board? And heres a 1 week update. The samples have seen quite a lot of sunshine and rain.
Only the wood preservative/auto wax and vegetable oil have water beaded.The vege oil to a smaller degree.
Surprisingly the epoxy resin hasnt? Next update in a month.
Maybe a Xmas surf for your new board ? Looking forward to hearing the report !
SF.
One questions for you…did you by any chance measure the weight of the wood before exposure? Just thought of that. If not, no biggie. Thanks for the pix! Keep up the good work (i.e. leaving wood outside to rot…or not rot). On my end, we got whomped with a big old week O’ swell…and I was too chicken to take the alaia out in the big swell. Well, after a good session this morning, I ran back and grabbed my plank as my photographer stashed her board, changed out of her wetsuit and grabbed her camera. These pictures make it look like it was a successful endeavor…and in terms of having fun, and catching a few rides, it was. I only had about 30 minutes, so I was feeling some pressure. I slid down the line for a few rides with a modicum of speed, but most rides were very short and ended with me violently eating sand. After cherry-picking the best parts of my rides, I came up with these pics shown below. Super fun, but I am pretty terrible.
As some suggested, 8’ is a lot of board to kick into a wave. Easy to slide forward, but had some trouble kicking into the waves. Not sure that my fins (force fins) are the best choice. Might try some others out. For my next many sessions, no photographer, but once I get some good waves (don’t hold your breath), I’ll get some more pics…maybe even video (again, don’t hold your breath).
There is something magic about the look of pure wood lying on the sand in that first pic. Evokes something primal not sure how to express…