Somewhere way back, one of my great great great uncles was in the Union army, so we inherited his civil war sword - a beautiful work of art, with a brass pommel and guard in the shape of and apple. My dad was a machinist & loved to tinker with stuff, so one day he took it apart, gave it a super high polish, drilled out the end of the broken pommel and tapped threads into it so he could use a screw to put it all back together. Oh, and he threw away the original canvas scabbard, cause it was trashed. A few years ago I took it to the antiques roadshow: they valued it at $100 bucks, almost worthless due to the tampering!
However, that sword is still very beautiful all polished up, and my kids fight over who gets to inherit it!
For those boards, though, I like the idea of leaving them unrestored - you can see the hand of the shaper at work better - I really like the repros though, the one with the single fin looks like it would go off in some waist high California point break.
Aside from making a few boards I restore and preserve vintage furniture. Preservation is taking something original and stabilizing whatever may be wrong and leaving it at that. Restoration may mean redoing it to almost new condition.
i dig preservation when i get something worth preserving. if it’s not worth preserving i will do whatever i feel is appropriate.
Someone did a nice job restoring this board but it looks new. The value has been cut way down in my opinion. i would rather have the one from Bird’s shack.
Kinda hard to say from Artz' pictures, because sometimes the oblique camera angle can make surfaces appear more shiny than they are in person. It is a nice looking board.
And I'm no purist by a long shot, but the picture of the Rolf Arness board just doesn't look right. I think a thin coat with a sanded finish would have looked clean, but this looks like a bar top. But then again, if its no good as a collectible - you could always surf it! (it is kinda cool the way you can see the ding repairs on the balsa rails)
This Simmons board was owned/ridden by Jim Arness, Rolf’s father. The ‘‘restoration’’ as I recall, was done by Carl Ekstrom. I’m sure it far exceeded the original finish, when the board was new. Carl was at Windansea the day that Simmons drowned, in 1954. Interesting piece of history, eh?
That does kinda legitimize the whole thing, because now the finish becomes a part of the history of what makes the board a collector’s item. If I did it, 'tho, it would have the opposite effect LOL.
If I was the original owner, and rode the board… and it begain to show it’s age… I would work on it. I’d patch it, mayabe put new fins on it… even reglass it if I had to. I’d definately gloss and polish it if I liked the look of the grain and wanted it to pop. Overall… I call that, “giving it some love,” as the owner and rider of the board, hoping to pass down something special to my kids… or grandkids… or cousins of great grandkids. Don’t we do that to all the boards we really cherish… the ones that have meaning?
That’s not an abomination. That’s just keeping a beautiful, meaningful board in excellent condition. That’s an heirloom.
I kinda agree. The fin shape looks awfully “modern” and Simmons’ boards are notoriously coarse. Perhaps it’s beem “restored”?
p.s. just saw the other comments. No disrespect to Carl, in my opinion the ultimate craftsman, but I’d still maintain that the original finish would have been more “rustic”…
