shaping the stringer on the rails

I just got a 9’4 blank with two bowed stringers that run thru the rails. My concern is that if i hit the stringer on the rails with a sure form it’s gonna give me trouble and also when screening. How do I approach this? my planer? Thanks for any input.

shape the foam as normal

The protruding stringer, cut it down with the infamous 3" long, hand block plane. With practice, you can cut it down clean and with minimal foam gouges. Some guys go for hyper sharp blade. Doesn’t work for me, I like the blade kind a dull and light pressured, hi speed pass.

Throw that goddamn surform away, you want to take the planer work as far as possible and keep it clean. Once you start to sand, stop the second you feel the block come into contact with wood, block plane it down and sand again. You do this faithfully, looking at your work, seeing if the wood is sticking up, don’t drag your sand paper or screen over the wood, stop about 2-3" from it, you can dress in the remaining area easily. For the clincher, use 2" masking tape around the stringer where it exits the rail, give yourself about a half inch gap from the wood and with a small block, ride on the tape 'til it is flush, Don’t let it become a bump in the first place. I have an old Surfboards Hawaii Model “A”, it was shaped by Ed Wright, the offsets stick out like the board was a diamond plan shape, not one of the best, from one of the best of his day

Jim’s tip on the curved sanding block helped me a lot.The block has “rocker” in it with a piece of 60grit glued on,Enables you to sand just the tip of the stringer without hitting foam.This is for the very last step.The planer is the key.

I’m all for the sharp finger plane, and a little careful sanding with a hard block behind the sandpaper. Again, the finger plane has to be sharp!

And I’ve done a bunch of these triple stringer boards…

as always, YMMV

Personally, I’ve go to ALWAYS have a razor sharp blade and keep the plane at about a 40 degree angle as you slide down the stringer. Keep the plane going slowly on over the rail and “carve off” the protruding stringer along the outside of the rail. Smoth fluid motion, blade set very shallow.

although it may be an unusual technique, I sometimes plane TOWARDS myself when cleaning up the stringer exit points on triple stringers, etc. I.e., stand in front of the board, hold the (SMALL AND SHARP) trim plane backwards in your hand from how you normally hold it, and pull it towards the nose of the board. You can see a lot better what’s going on this way, and you can turn the plane to follow the line you want as it goes off the rail edge, making curved cuts to get that nice looking “C” shape stringer exit…

Mostly, just practice, be patient, use a light touch, and look at it from many many angles as you proceed. it’s really almost sculpture at this point, being curved in several dimensions…

Right on Keith.For some reason I pull block planes more than I push them.Maybe it’s the influence of the Japanese Wood Shop Guru that harassed Jim Phillips and me in the Base Wood Hobby Shop circa 1964.Interestingly all Japanese tools including saws are work in a backwards mode.

I ditto the “backwards” pull toward you motion for fine tuning such areas. I’m sure you and Keith agree that it’s a wristy, rollover, sculpting motion that comes with just a little practice…as if you’re just carving off the wood in progressive passes. No hacking, just clean and easy which is why the blade needs to be as razor sharp as you can get it. Good luck sthpank.

Well – maybe not as unusual a technique as I thought – perhaps its the lesser-known Japanese Wood Shop Gods, “Seppuku” and “Hari-Kiri” that have caused several of us to have this urge to pull sharp edged tools towards our bellies…

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I ditto the “backwards” pull toward you motion for fine tuning such areas. I’m sure you and Keith agree that it’s a wristy, rollover, sculpting motion that comes with just a little practice…as if you’re just carving off the wood in progressive passes. No hacking, just clean and easy which is why the blade needs to be as razor sharp as you can get it. Good luck sthpank.

…yea, I don’t even know that it requires that much practice, I do it too… it just seems right.

Keith, Much agree grasshoppah!

Hi Dozo.Kedusai senji kurosan do maska.Sayonara Focking Haoles. “Quote from Sgt. Sato…Hawaiian Japanese Woodshop Guru”

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I just got a 9’4 blank with two bowed stringers that run thru the rails. My concern is that if i hit the stringer on the rails with a sure form it’s gonna give me trouble and also when screening. How do I approach this? my planer? Thanks for any input.

Thanks folks, that’s exactly the info I was looking for. I can’t belive how big this site has gotten in the last 4 yrs. This is what the internet is all about.

My respect and appreciation to you all.

“Sharp” or “razor” sharp is a relative term.

My dad was a chef, and he’d insist on such ridculously sharp knives I thought he was obsessive.

The hand planer needs to be able to cut the stringer clean, that’s all. Plain ole sharp is plenty good.

I’ve seen guys go all the way to specialty knife stores to get them polished, lapped, and cloth feathered to a purrrfect sharpness, and it comes out “good”, about the same as my never sharpenned mini hand block plane.

Good is good enough.

May be so, but I hate it when my 12 in surface planer of chisels mash wood instead of slice wood. A properly sharpened chisel can slice a piece of oak or ash like butter with just hand pressure. I’ve never had any problems with sharp tools, it’s the dull ones that jump at you and try to cut your head off.

My definition of sharp for a planer blade or chisel is: Wet stone 800, 1500, leather strop. It should be able to cut the hair off you arm like a razor. An easily obtainable task if you keep up with keeping sharp, and have the proper sharpening jig & stones. Also store your wet stones in water.

-Jay

I sharpen Shrosbee’s plane blades for him to do the Tudor’s. To show him they’re sharp, I shave my arm hair, scary to the touch

Sharpening…a big subject amongst woodworkers.I am lazy so I sold my flat whetstones and went with a piece of glass with 400 wet or dry glued to it.It stays flat forever.I hone em with a hard felt wheel on my bench grinder using polishing rouge.Once you have the edge beveled right you touch it up on the wheel and it takes about 10 seconds for an edge you can shave with.I found out I can hone planer blades (skil) with a dremel tool using a cone shaped stone and following with the little felt bit they sell.Good thing is the blades stay in the planer.I can do this 50 times before having to reset the blades.

Nice tip about the dremel thing. I’ll have to try that.

Here is how I do it:Take the belt guard off so you can grab the sprocket.Rest the dremel on the planer base and rotate the cutterhead until you find a comfortable position and angle.The key is using the planer base as a guide point for the dremel.Hard to explain but its easy as you will see once you try it.