I like to make sure the bottom of my boards are completely roughed out, ie shaped to the stage before the final sanding, before touching the rails. If you decided to alter your bottom shape after doing the rails it could really change how your rails turn out. This is mostly a problem with adding vee of course, concaves don’t effect the bottom rail line really so I suppose you could add them after the rails but I just like my bottom shape set so there will be no more adjustment before I start the rails. Still hey there are many ways to skin a cat, (apparently, not that I’ve ever done any cat skinning).
Not sure of the official order, but i have always roughed out my concaves very early in my designs, and always do my rails last. I use the concaves when designing the rail profile.
I really don’t think it matters, becasue concaves are “in” the bottom, but I rough out my concaves first, then flip it over to do the rails. But I always do any vee in the bottom first before the rails, because vee carries out to the rail. Plus, I want to dig out the concaves before I do the deck so the thickness is not affected.
Concaves/V's are shaped into the board first, resulting in a finalized bottom rocker.
Because this bottom rocker is not necessarily consistent from nose to tail (IE concave to V), the rail bands function to translate the bottom rocker around to the deck, as well as to define rail volume and shape.
This is accomplished by using each subsequent rail band to match the bottom rocker, using the previous band as the indicator of what that rocker is.
I am curious how you can integrate the bottom rocker with the rail rocker as accurately if you do the rails first? I would love to expand my understanding on this point.
I perfer to shape the whole thing, then cut out the template. First i lay out the fins, then I shape the rails, then I thickness profile, then I glass, then I strip the glass and add the rails. Then I do the concaves, then I test it in a swimming pool with wax and if i like it, then I put the hotcoat on.
What ever, Tomatoe, Tomato… there is no one right way to shape a board as long as it is a surfboard when your done.