accurate comment on the difference between clark and walker with regards to feel and look. as long as the finished walker blank remains in one piece for a reasonable amount of time the look and feel of the foam doesn’t matter much. let’s just hope walker is willing and able to fulfill the demand for a decent price.
they do? You think the aussies want to sell the US foam blanks? yeah right a finished product is what they want to sell. why sell a 40.00 blank when they can fit the same amount of finished boards in a container and sell them for 400.00 think about it … walker is a great product
Most of the Aussie boards for export are made in Thailand for some time now. A surfboard built in Austalia is not that cheap
There was not really a choice of foam here in the US, now we do
Howzit S.A., Was talking with a friend who is an airbrusher who has worked with Walker blanks and he hated them. He said that every time he would tape off for airbrusing the rails that the hand he used on the rail would look like he had sanded with 80 grit because of the foam texture, even got bloody a few times. After that he would tape his hands before taping off the board. I had heard that Walkers foam dust was more like sand but never thought it could take the skin off also.Aloha,Kokua
Kokua, you know those airbrushers have some real soft hands. HaHa
that is the funniest thing i have heard yet.
I’ve been shaping with Walker Foam since 1995.
Howzit Bagman, Remember an article in the S.J.afew years back about a Mexican kid named Rick Massey from Venice Beach. He’s the guy but he is also a sander and does excellant repair work. He’s been livinon Kauai for a couple of years now and we have become good friends, plus he’s an insane airbrusher.Aloha,Kokua
hey kokua–
kind of like the callusses from playing guitar you do get used to it . but I definately used the old masking tape trick especially after coming back from a long trip. as far as aibrushing some colors are easier than others, it can sometimes take a few more coats to get even coverage, as all I’ve been doing the last few years that has’nt really affected me that much. In regaurds to laminating I would stay away from the “light” foam from walker and just pre- seal the standard foam to get your S.B.'s light —s.a.
Howzit S.A., That was another thing Rick was telling me about. He uses Nova paints and on Clark blanks he could do just one coat of paint and it wuold be fine. But with Walkers he said it sometimes took 2 or 3 coats to cover. I’m thinking that doing tint or pigment absrtacts on the foam would help since it seals the blank. What’s your feedback on this application.Aloha,Kokua
Kokua–
its actually really easy to get a good pre-seal with walker,I’ve even pre-sealed hard tint colors such as your red spectrums and then tinted over that in the lam and produced really deep and even colorwork on the toughest of colors.
The hardest part of course is getting the rail even ,or if you choose, the seam on the rail even. I prefer the seam method , by placing it below the apex whtih the deck up I can 95% of the time hide it with 0 detectability! Of course it is super easy to pre-seal abstracts and good practice on your rails to pre-seal for tints if so desired. And of course nothing looks better than the sparkle of a nice walker tint!
Howzit SA, So you double tint the board, once before lamming and again during the lamination, That’s a new one on me but sounds like it would do the trick. Aloha,Kokua
Kokua-- yup double tint,especially the reds , yellow is the only one that does’nt benefit that much. getting them even on the foam comes with a little practice and technique. I usually have a squeegee that is for color only with slightly rounded edges and no skuffs. shuts off the foam nicely as well and makes for an easy lam. — s.a.
Howzit SA, I started laminating back in the days of tints and pigments so I know most of the tricks involved but the double up idea is one I never used. Actually Yellow might be one color tint that could use this technique since it has the most tendency to fade.Aloha,Kokua
Kokua –
Was’nt really thinking about yellow fading as I mostly use ISO resin, was actually just thinking that yellow is the easiest colr to get even, although I have gotten some really nice amber looks by loading up on color on both coats with yellow tint! – s.a.
Howzit SA, I was using an ortho/iso blend of resin for a while but my shapers told me the boards were coming out to hard. Go figure.Aloha,Kokua
Hey Shawn,
I’ve been spending the last few days doing the sealing for my boards (you know the kind I make) when I caught this thread with you and Kokua. Definitely helpful for the clear shortboards too. I’m not too stoked on the airbrushing of it then trying to seal, what’s your opinion?
G
Hey I used to work at Walker and I know that alot of their blanks go to Hap Jacobs, and Jon Wegner in hermosa also uses them.
Can anybody please help me out and send me a pdf of a Walker 10’2" blank spec sheet?
Quote:
Can anybody please help me out and send me a pdf of a Walker 10’2" blank spec sheet?
aaargh!
http://www.surfermag.com/features/onlineexclusives/walker-foam-close-1-14-08/