Pictured in an ad in the new Surfers Journal Tim Patterson is cutting his outline after skinning the bottom of the blank. I’ve done it just the opposite for the ten or so boards I’ve made and it didn’t occur to me to skin the blank before cutting. Obviously, Patterson knows what he’s doing. Can someone explain the benefits of skinning before cutting?
though it’s a little more work to skin first. Depending on the blank and your planer the surface may be cleaner also. Like you, most of the time I template first and skin second, except on Saturday I switched the order of business. Didn’t make much difference to me.
I did a few by outlining first. Later, I found that if I skinned/cleaned up blank flaws then roughed out my thickness & bottom contours and finished with some foiling the whole process of outlining was much easier. Using EPS blanks and hotwire techniques the foil and rocker are determined by my templates. Bottom contours and rails are the only variables. Lots of ways to do it, just try them all and find what works best for you. Tom S.
I was looking at some pictures of my shaping room in 1969 and a bunch of Clark Blanks,we had to shape the blank into a blank before shaping the board.With the new ones we have now you could just glass em and ride.
Kinda wonder how it would ride if you took a 6’9"R outlined it cut it out skinned it and turned the rails without messing with the rocker at all.
Skin the blank first is the way to go - get the rocker close to final before cutting the outline:- The outline will change if you mark and cut it on the skin then cut rocker! It’s only a slight difference, but its there! http://www.speedneedle.com.au