So its been a week+ of glueing and clamping, trim planing, glueing and more clamping…Heres the idea:
most of you know the deal with paulownia, but for those who dont, read on:
Paulownia is a very very light wood (= to balsa), that has a much higher strength/weight ratio than balsa does. Its alot harder and more consistant also, as well as having a REALLY natural spring to it that is really really incredible…im over-stoked on this stuff.
The blank is stringerless PU, the rails are 3 x 1/8" paulownia and 2 x 1/8" cork. The rails were glued up so that they taper against the natural template of the board, creating a tapered flex from about 2’ from the tail. From the front fin-back is all stringerless and very lively, the paulownia does a good job if stiffening up the rest of the board and creating a very liner flex pattern; while remaining almost exactly the same weight as a normally stringred board.
Construction wise, the cork will be the first thing to go, more of a hassle than anything else, but i do like the dampening effect it gives between the layers of wood, but its not very user-friendly as well as being heavy when resin hits it, but that’ll be up to you guys to judge…
Dims: 5’10" x 20 1/2" 2 3/8"
more variations on this to come…I dont think this is the final encarnation of my ideas at the moment, but its been a really great jumping off point for what ive got in mind
Gidday Ryan, very excited to happen upon your post. Firstly, well done. I have been shaping pretty much that exact board (in my mind) over the last few weeks, and seeing what you have done really makes sense. It will be great to have such a fine example to use as reference when I get started.
When you say the paulownia has a counter taper to the natural template, I can’t quite visualise how they were glued up. Before clamping, the curve bent away from the rail, or downwards away from the rocker?
I was thinking about cutting my paulownia perimeter stringer with the same rocker as the foam so there was no loaded tension, but I’m keen to find out if you think the tension is benefitial, and which directions tension works for that matter. It’s all about the best spring for your buck I guess…
Love the stringerless swallow too, the lines flow nicely. Quad setup is it? Cheers, Matt
P.S. I think this perimiter stringer setup would particularly have benefit for thinner foiled and longer boards…
You have given it a beautiful shape and im looking forward to when you give us the lowdown on how it rides. Especially with respect to the tail, im interested to know how it feels thru there when you ride, have you done other tails that way b4?
Is that a concaved deck instead of a domed one, is that the norm when you make your boards now? or just like that for this one?
One last question, how long have you been shaping for?
Your board looks amazing dude, keep us posted for sure.
youre right on point with the longer, thinner boards…originally my idea was intended for Hulls, which it still is, but i thought id try it out on a smaller board for testing to see how it went…glad i did because im going to change a number of things…
what i meant about the template was that when i cut the rail off, the cut tapered outwards, making the cut shallower as it went further back, in order for the wood to taper out and not create a huge ‘hinge’. So if you look at the curve of the wood against the foam, it bends to follow the boards regular template, then straightens out in the last few feet in order to taper off the rails.
I cut rocker into my sticks and did my best not to put the board under any load while clamping it…i had finish shaped the whole board before i started on the rails (another mistake), so the rocker was where i wanted it
You have given it a beautiful shape and im looking forward to when you give us the lowdown on how it rides. Especially with respect to the tail, im interested to know how it feels thru there when you ride, have you done other tails that way b4?
Is that a concaved deck instead of a domed one, is that the norm when you make your boards now? or just like that for this one?
One last question, how long have you been shaping for?
Your board looks amazing dude, keep us posted for sure.
ive been shaping for around 2 years i think…you can find my first board shaping thread on here if you get bored…a MASSIVE fish
the concave deck is part of this particular design, based off of the speed dialer from Rich Pavel…they are typically slightly concaved or just very very flat. but i do really like concaved decks for the fact that you can get closer to the water while keeping alot of foam in the board…im riding my kneeboard alot at the moment and am trying to learn from my riding experiences there and adapt them to my boards…R&D by knee
idea came from hess/firewire, but i wasnt going to put it on a small board at first, i had more complex ideas for hulls, which will be the next project…but this was a more simple start.
the thing that i wanted to change from those designs was a more dramatic variable flex…hess’ boards are fully wood railed and dont taper for flex at all, and firewires only do it a tad bit…thought this may be a place to start for me!
i think this one is #58 shape wise…ive probably glassed over 100 at this point. all of the other boards in the background are projects also…the wood singlefin was my design/shape and raphael wolfe’s (oz_wolfe) constructo-job…then he gave it back to me to finish shape and glass; then his buddy gave me one too! so between those two boards, and the other 7-8 orders ive got at the moment, im feeling a tad overwhelmed
(i usually work in batches of 2-3 and turn boards around in about two weeks)
a buddy of mine has it shipped out here from a co. somewhere in the south…he gets it in big stocks, tree trunk size, and mills it for whatever sizes he needs.
