I purchased my first blank today! After 25 years of surfing and hanging around shaping rooms I decided it was time to shape my first board. I purchased an old blank that had been in the corner of a shop down here in Puerto Rico for some time now. It was at a pretty cheap price too.
I googled Burford blanks to see what kind of blank it is but I can't seem to find it. The only link I could find was www.surfblanksaustralia.com , they have a chart with an explanation of what the letters stand for and they also explain what densities do the colors stand for.
The blank has BURFORD 70 DON printed in blue on the right side and has an R scratched on the left with SL DON hand written in large black letters and 1/8M STD hand written in small black letters. I guess the R stands for "reject" (the stringer is separated at one point) and 1/8M STD probably stands for the stringer width but I can't figure out the other letters: "DON" which is apparently the blank model, I can't figure out what these letters stand for or what "SL" stands for.
The blank measures roughly about 6' 11 3/4" X around 14 1/2" N X 22" W X 14" T and is about 3 1/2" thick with flat deck and tons of volume on the rails. It looks like a 70's style single fin gun which is precisely what I had in mind. Can anyone help me identify this blank? By the way, it has a purple and a blue line sprayed on the left side. Does this mean it is purple or blue density?
The blank's problem is in the stringer, it's like a clear wood with two thinner darker woods glued together on each side. About a 1' section maybe 1' back from the nose on the bottom of the blank only, the glued woods stringer separated and ripped appart. I think it's a little too late to glue and clamp it. The guy who sold it to me suggested I carefully pour some resin into the separation. I was thinking about taping the foam and carefully doing this before I begin shaping. Is this the way I should fix this? After I shape this board I am probably going to pigment the resin when I glass the whole board so that this defect doesn't show that much.
Also, anyone who has shaped Burford blanks have any idea about what the letters on this blank mean???
First of all huie, I did not try to link it to surfblanks... the surfblanks website was the only link I could find for Burford blanks and I therefore believed they were Burford blanks. I emailed them with my question and they told me to contact Burford blanks but failed to provide me with any contact information. Plus I was not inquiring about the quality of the blank but about the model name.
Second, this is the first blank I buy for my first shape and I am very happy with this "piece of shit" which I got for a very cheap price (good for practice on my first shape).
Third, I knew it was a "reject" I was buying...
...and fourth if you are not posting on this thread to help, why even waste your time!
Now I believe that posting with no constructive comment just to call me ordinary is actually ordinary and rude. I believe that this site welcomes pros as well as beginners and yea, I am a beginner so if you are not going to help then don't post. Simple as that!
First of all every blank manufacturer has rejects. Alot of guys have shaped Burfords Down Under thru the years without to many complaints. It is common for a blank that sits a long time on the rack in a hot climate to seperate along the stringer. Have seen a few separate at the nose and it is an easy fix. Swab or poor some poly or epoxy resin into the cracks. Use a few strips of either bicycle inner tube or plastic wrap to pul the seperated parts together. Simple. It's your first shape and first blank. Always good to start out with something that won't hurt the pocket book too much if you screw it up. Ignore humie. Midlife crisis and old age are a bitch(or bitchy as it might be).
Thanks for understanding McDing, will try the resin and bike tube. I picked that blank because it has a lot of foam so if I screw up I have room for fixing it. Have been postponing shaping my own boards for a looong time. I will not shape boards to make money or sell them, here in Puerto Rico we break a lot of boards in the winter time so I believe it is a good idea moneywise to start shaping my tube chargers.
Aside from the blank's condition, I like it's dimensions and was hoping to get more of this and other similar models in the future. Does anyone have a website for Burford blanks or know about a distributor in this side of the planet?
to up a piece of shit like that and then try to link it to surfblanks is a bit ordinary on your part
cheers huie
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What you wrote is not "dissagreeing" it felt more like trying to defend surfblanks's reputation. I have never been to Australia and have no intention of attacking a company I don't even know. In any case if I were attacking someone it would be the shop where I bought the blank here in my home island, and like I said earlier, I knew what I was buying, a "reject".
Hell, I love it when people dissagree, when one tries to see other things from a different perspective and actually listens to other peoples' points of views and experiences, learning happens. Plato taught that "truth" was reached through dialoge and not debate. I have seen it happen and appreciate when people dissagree...
Huie, thank you very much for your tip, I know you have many, many years of experience and I am all ears, I would have never thought the wood stick technique myself. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
The reason I posted surfblanks web address was because they have a color/density description and a letter/blank model definition. I now realize that they are a distributor and are not actually the blank manufacturer. I checked the archives and found an e-mail for Don Burford so I went ahead and e-mailed him about my question and asked him if he knew a distributor around my area.
It's funny that this "retro" blank is named 7'0" DON and that Burford's name is also Don. I personally love single fins and I am looking forward to see if Burford has other similar "retro" blanks available to shape bigger 70's style single fin guns for myself. Maybe a 7'6" and an 8'0".
For those who shape this kind of 70's single fin guns, which blanks do you like to use (any manufacturer)?
Again Huie, thank you very much for your tip, have a very nice day!
Tony, shape the blank, glass it and ride it. That’s what this place is about. If you want post pictures of your progress, but if you don’t want to don’t. So the wood has some splits- glue it back together, or fill it with cabosil, or spackle, or paint it. And shape the board first, before you attempt to fill the thing with resin, and take my advice, or suffer the consequences. And to quote the famous Bob “Russell” Brown; “Its just a surfboard, its not like its going to the moon or anything.”
some good tips for you here Tony. Here’s another one: use the SEARCH box on Swaylocks, in the upper right corner near the word “GO”. Type in the blank name Burford and you’ll find a bunch of threads, including one (link below) in which the last post is that there is a guy here on Sway’s (used to post as Dean Bonkovich but now uses the name Deanbo I believe) who said he has a PDF of their blank catalog. Those catalogs often (but not always) explain color codes for densitys, meanings of markings, etc.
Thanks Keith, done the search already, checked the pdf catalog but can’t find the specific blank model: 7’0" DON, it seems to be an old “retro” blank of some kind. I also found Burford’s email on the archives and went ahead and emailed him, waiting for a reply now. I always use the “search” function plus I also do some googleing before posting any question (I read the swaylocks rules). Furthermore I first read swaylocks for over 5 years before signing up as a user last year. Figured out STD stands for standard rocker. The colors for densities are very clear, the problem is my blank has two sprayed lines: blue and purple. Since Huie stated that those “retro” blanks only come in one density I will asume it’s purple(classic). Still I would love to know if that blank model type DON comes in different sizes and where would it be more practical for me to get them. I would also like to know what other manufacturers’ blanks do shapers typically use for 70’s style single fin guns.
Ooops, big screw up from my part. Checked the website for Surfblanks again and I carefully re read it and realized they are a different manufacturer than Burford. Resin fumes must be making me stupid. I must have selected the wrong link from the results when I originally did my google search for Burford on my phone. I now understand why Huie was a little angry, sorry, my bad, I apologize for my stupidity. I promise to post pics of my progress…
Tony, if worse comes to worst, you can always cut the blank (rip cut) along the stringer and fortify it with glue or add another stringer along side of it and then do as M'ding suggested and glue it back up and clamp with inner tubes. The plastic wrap for shipping on rolls works well in this application also. I have no experience with that make of foam but it looks like it will get you what you want.....no matter what any creep says.
