11’ Hot Curl by Jim Phillips
Deatails Jim?
Got any shots of the bottom?
Roger
That appears to be the bottom.
I wonder how it performs without fins?
cheers
Hicksy
Shaper since 2004 :-))
The first image is the bottom to show the outline the last one that Dale posted is the tail from the bottom. I didn’t get a shot of the deck of this one or at least I don’t think so. I’ll check again when I’m at home. Thank you Dale. No fin just some vee. Jim should really step in and explain before I screw it up. This board, surfed at a point break, should attain some incredible speed. The one issue that Jim and I were discussing is the issue of being that guy trying to paddle out, in front of the board as it’s coming down the line. That would be like trying a soccer stop (using your chest) with a javelin. No quick direction changes - paddle behind this thing please.
These are the boards I am doing for an upcoming to be shot surf movie. I have done 2- 11 footers and am also shaping 2- 10’6’s that would represent the next progression of the Hot Curls, cut down to finned shapes.
The Hot Curls were being shaped from 1934 to 1943, after that they were cut down and had fins added to them.
The insane part of shaping these boards is, seeing them transform from a square block of wood to an outline and them the bottom curves take place. Doc would say they are truly a boat hull design, with the nose having a shear water shape, the center of the bottom like a canoe and the tail, stern/transom like.
They have killed me, hefting them about, my back and knees ache constantly, but the satisfaction of giving them life is worth every bit of pain.
I went to Vista paint over the weekend and looked at sprayable spar varnish for the finish
I wanna try it!!!
Roger
Yo Jim.Doc may help on this.A lot of the old boat guys primed the wood with shellac before applying varnish.The shellac blocked oils which could make for a bad bond in the varnish coat.Some of the boat purists around here are buying varnish from Holland becuse it is better and has lead in it.An old boat guy taught me how to brush varnish and its no different than glossing.Use a wet coat and one of those pure bristle oval brushes.Just a thought. RB
Shellac might do it, or mebbe a quick wash with acetone, same as you’d do to teak before putting the varnish to it. Though with all those lovely different woods… what are those, anyhow? Pretty, and when the finish is on 'em, gonna be gorgeous.
Few other varnish tricks, though you guys have spent enough time around the water, I’m prolly not telling you anything you don’t know.
Comb out your brushes with a fine tooth comb, so that ya don’t get the hairs falling out in the varnish. Spray varnish…is to me kinda like Japanese saws: I spent too much time learning how to do it the other way and get marginally adequate with it to go and start all over again. Technique for brushing it on is exactly like glossing, just like the man said. And you’ll never hear a boat guy say he bought too good a varnish brush. Paid too much, yes, prices vary a lot, but use the finest natural bristle you can find.
Chilling varnish helps it flow on thick better and level well, Use bronze wool, not steel wool, between coats, follow with a tack rag. The little bitty bits that break off in use won’t turn brown and rust with bronze wool.
Lots of different varnishes on the market and I have heard good, bad and indifferent about most of them. I try to push something like the Deks Olje, an oil-based finish, on the people I’m doing work for. Made by the Flood company up here in CT. Final coat you use the gloss if ya want it glossy. The nice thing about it is that if it wears a little, or gets scuffed up, ya just hit it with bronze wool and wipe on another coat. Looks nice, mebbe not the same depth as umpteen coats of spar varnish but nice anyhow.
hope that’s of use, from one old Cape guy to another…
doc…
I just aren’t going to have an open rack space to brush coat it, so I will have to spray it to get it on thin enough to get it to dry, then scuff and re-spray for the build up. When I re-did an old Pacific Homes plank, Brian Johnson did just that, a gloss brush varnish finish, but it clawed up on him and he had to 220 sand it flush and re-do
Gotcha fine, Jim… the one thing i like about brushing it on is mebbe somewhat better penetration into the wood, so that it doesn’t tend to peel, eventually. Though again, these are for a movie, no?
Are these aerosol sprays or something in a ‘sprayable varnish’ that you can mebbe over-thin for a first coat?
Like I mentioned, a quick touch with bronze wool or one of those new plastic based abrasive scrub pad deals 3M makes ( duuh, forgot all about them, and mebbe I’ll use 'em on my boat ) , followed by a tack rag to get the particles off, that oughtta work fine between coats.
Keep us posted, ok? Pretty things, they are…
doc…
I stumbled across a product about 25 years ago, Penetrol, I used it with polyurethane, it is a flow additive. I checked with the people at Vista Paint about using it with the spar varnish and they said it ws compatible. The hot Curl that I used as a pattern was provided by Sean Mattison of Surf ride, he applied several coats of Tung oil and it built up into a fairly glossy finish, but doesn’t seem to have the ablity to span across joints. The places that the nose and tail blocks meet the balsa are turning spalted from water encroachment. So what I want in a finish is, a product that will provide a continous skin, unbroken and easy to repair if necessary. That’s not much to ask for!
Penetrol…good for the last coat.I am not sure but I think it contains silicone,kinda like fisheye killer in lacquer.Make sure you scuff good between coats.The thing I hate about spray finishes is that a lot of the time it sits on the surface and dries before it gets a good penetration,so the grain color doesn’t come up as nice.In my antique restoration shop I sometimes use warm linseed oil to bring up the color.After that dries its couple of coats of super thin amber shellac followed by lacquer or varnish.Shellac is an unreal finish but not waterproof.If you are going to spray why not use car urethane like Dupont Chroma Clear?A one gallon kit will run around $145 and you can shoot 12 coats in 24 hours.Polishes out like a mirror and maintains it’s flex.This is the finish you see on mega yacht furniture and corporate jet planes.If you add a little amber tint it will have more depth.Damn I wish I could finish these boards for you Jim.
Surfore, look carefully at both photos. Pay close attention to the grain pattern on the tail and you will see that it IS the bottom of the board in both photos. There is another clue related to the shape of the tail, see if you can pick up on it. I’ve also had the advantage of inspecting the subject board at Jim Phillips shaping room.
The coloration, the grain pattern, and shape of the tail. It`s all there… it IS the bottom of the board in both photos. What a gorgeous project!
Quote:
And you’ll never hear a boat guy say he bought too good a varnish brush. Paid too much, yes, prices vary a lot, but use the finest natural bristle you can find.
Doc, how do you store the good brushes for use with varnish? I’ve put on a polyurethane varnish with foam rollers and foam brushes(brush to get rid of the few bubbles that form). Came out good, but throwing away a good foam roller and a foam brush for each layer of varnish makes it kind of expensive when you’re doing 4 layers each side. regards, Håvard
Hi Haavard,
Well, therein lies the problem - you see, foam ‘brushes’ and rollers are made disposable - I don’t use 'em, 'cos I think they don’t do nearly as good a job as a decent bristle brush. I have used them for, say, bottom paint on a boat, but that’s about it. I have heard of people using plastic wrap or sealed plastic bags to keep the air off the things and getting more than one use out of 'em, but I’d worry about hard spots and partially dried stuff.
The bubbles you’re getting, I think that’s entirely due to the roller. A good bristle brush that’s wide enough to do the job, well used, I don’t get the bubbles on varnish.
Now, a good bristle brush, that’s something you clean and reuse. For glossing brushes or varnish brushes or for good paint brushes, I use three cans of solvent. You first rinse out the worst of the paint or resin or whatever in the first one which has been used before and spin it dry, then on to the next can which has been used less and then on to the last can, which is clean solvent. Then, soap and detergent, spin it dry, then comb out the brush and let it dry.
‘spin it dry’?? Yeah, I’m a big fan of the relatively inexpensive brush spinners, get one in metal, not plastic.
I find that using one of these, I can use really high quality brushes and make them last very well indeed.
Sorry I wasn’t more help with the foam brushes and such…but go to a wide bristle brush, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
doc…
I’ve had some problems in the past with getting streaks in my varish with a normal inexpensive brush. Never been able to really clean up a good brush well enough to use it enough times to justify the cost(although I’ve used some good ones on furniture and kept them wrapped in plastic and stored in the freezer overnight for reuse. That workes for a short while untill wife complains about the cake from the freezer tastes like varnish…) With a foam roller and brush it’s easy to get an even and thin coat without streaks. The bubbles was propably due to me rolling a little too fast cos I was worried about the two component polyurethane going off before I was finnished.
Wish I could get a brush spinner anywhere locally, you guys in the US don’t know how easy you’ve got it. Guess I’ll have to make something that I can attach to my drill…
regards,
Håvard
You can spin em by hand.Just put the handle between your hands like you were praying and rapidly push back and forth…takes bit of practice.As for cleaning varnish brushes I do it like Doc with the three wash sytem using naptha.I do my final rinse with denatured alchohol and spin the brush.The alchohol dries super fast.When I need the brush again I soak it in Alchohol and it is soft again.If I am using the brush again within a day or so I just keep it wet with naptha or put it in a zip lock bag.