U.S. Blanks is offering a range of pre colored blanks while maintaining all the excellent shaping and strength to weight ratio qualities inherent to their blanks. You can order pre tinted blanks in different densities desired.
Blue, red, yellow, green, gray, black and pink has been the intitial offering and you can request light, medium or dark shades in the appropriate color.
Recently I sent them a sample to mimic what many people know as “Coke Bottle Green”. Which is an attempt at creating a color that looks similar to “Volan” - which is a greenish finish applied to fiberglass. Volan was the predominant glass used throughout the 60’s until the new whiter “Silane” finish became available.
In the past, I have had requests for customers that wanted to have me tint the resin and tape off the overlapped glass so it would look like it was Volan, but not incur the extra expense. To do this is difficult, as finishing of the blank is critical, as well as the foam’s inherent ability to take tinted resin well. I used small amounts of green tint with a drop of purple to achieve this look, but with varied degrees of success.
There really is no exact substitute for using Volan finished fiberglass, but for those builders wanting to offer the look without a heavy price tag involving Volan glass and taped off laps, check out the foto included here. The actual color they sent me will shape outlighter than it appears here. The other pix will show different stagesofthe foam and how it ultimately turns out.
The yellow looks like a good functional color. I used to buy tinted foam blanks from a company in Florida (East Coast Foam?) and I liked it a lot. They only did it for a short time. The foam held out well. The red tended to fade.
I really like US Blanks. I had retired from board building but the addiction kicked in and I am at it again. The last blanks I shaped were Clark and to me it’s night and day. The US blanks are a dream. (Not pushing product but giving credit where credit is due.
I also searched high and low for the elusive “coke bottle” color but could never duplicate the look of volan. Thanks for the heads up Bruce.
I jsut went to my local supply shop yesterday and saw a right side yellow and left side green colored blank. they look pretty sick and I really want to shape some of them. It seems like a good substitute for a full acrylic foam spray...or at least a whole lot easier. Do you know how much more they cost? thanks
Here is a yellow foam one. The colors lool nice and even the foam felt a litttle “crispie” . Good results just kinda messy getting colored dust floating around…
There’s no minimums on stock colors. I submitted this one and had a couple guys that wanted it.
They are open to suggestion and willing to please. I’d like to suggest a bright aqua (teal aka carribbean blue color for them to try.
Some colors will be more difficult to achieve, and as it stands, they are offering the colors I mentioned but I don’t think they want to have 1,000 guys sending in custom color samples to match. Forget production at that point…they’d be outta business.
They have said they are open to producing a certain “proprietary color” for a manufacturer but THAT WOULD REQUIRE VOLUME ORDERING.
Nice looking stuff Bruce. I just ordered a dark blue classic 10’8" uncut for a stringerless longboard. I am planning on doing a blue tint over the top of it for unreal color depth. I figure if I don’t tint the board it’ll look like the foam was just airbrushed. With some of the more subtle colors of the tinted foam I’d like to see some bold tints over the top that are a different color than the foam. I think a red tint over that volan-y green foam would look nice or a blue tint over one of the lighter red foams they have. I dunno but it’s fun to bust out paint set and try some different combos.
Jim used to do some blanks for Channin that were made up from 4 or so different colored foams in a wedge that (I thought) looked pretty damn cool.
I’ve often wondered why colored foam was never explored. It was all the rage as stringer material in the mid sixties.
One possibilty that came to mind would be to purchase two blanks of the same dimensions in two different colors. Then do the necessary cuts for a three stringer board and swap the rails from one blank to the other. Something like a traditional Hawaiian color scheme of red and yellow, perhaps.
We used to have some scented stuff that we added to resin back in the 70’s. I think we had grape along with citrus scents, but sorry, not the purple WaxMate of yesteryear. That was my wax of choice!
I have seen/heard of these blanks and I am very intrigued becaue I love solid-colored boards. BUT I have heard that the colored shaping dust gets everywhere in your shop and if/when you ever do regular white blanks again it is very difficult not to get them “contaminated” with the colored dust from your tools, sandpaper, etc. Anyone have any experience with this, good or bad?
I was down at the US Blanks factory a few years ago and they had several blanks on display that had been assembled as you describe although if I recall they were non-stringered - just for display.
Kimberly Thress kindly donated several blanks for the Swaylocks Big Sur campout raffle/foam comparison that year. The customer service at US Blanks really is top notch in my experience.
The last board I shaped was a 6'3" X 29" bellyboard that required two 3" foam inserts to be spliced down the center. As usual, they came through promptly on my special order via "The Craft" material supply house in San Luis Obispo and the foam was easy to shape with no tearing or pukas.
Cool! I think I'll just paint 'em. Oversray is easier to contain and once it's dry doesn't invade areas in the shop other than the spray room. I can see other uses for colored foam though.
Bruce-- I think Clyde pretty much had that Volan look down. I've got one of the nicest balsa wedge stringered boards you'll ever see shaped by Lauran with a "one drop" tint. Looks good to me.
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I have heard that the colored shaping dust gets everywhere in your shop and if/when you ever do regular white blanks again it is very difficult not to get them "contaminated" with the colored dust from your tools, sandpaper, etc
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