which wood is best for a custom order longboard? spruce,balsa, redcedar,or basswood. center will be 1/2", side stringers will be 3/16". it must be flexible in the nose and of course strong.
there really is no “best” wood…it falls solely on personal preference and style. the question is, what do YOU want?
i know i wouldn’t trust balsa on a stepdeck!
Either of the woods you mention is fine, redwood being the most traditional for longboards. Just make sure whatever wood you use is kiln dried and clear straight grain will be easier to manage. I prefer “KD clear all heart” (not construction grades) redwood available from finer lumber yards or at some hardwood dealers.
thanks RichardMc. by the way was that you that posted pics of your simmions outline board with the straight outline? if so id like to ask some questions about the rails, fin placement, etc. regards, greg
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which wood is best for a custom order longboard? spruce,balsa, redcedar,or basswood. center will be 1/2", side stringers will be 3/16". it must be flexible in the nose and of course strong.
in other words, which has the most structual flexability but less prone to snap?
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Quote:in other words, which has the most structual flexability but less prone to snap?
Aircraft grade spruce is prob the best choice if you can find it. double 3/16" …I don’t think you can order redwood anymore from clark. I think it’s replaced by red cedar. But if your question is about flex… I’m not sure of the answer… a lot of the choice considerations have more to do w/ specific grain of each piece of wood. selection makes a world of difference. Sometimes Clarkfoam does a great job, other times a poor job of selection.
Also – if you are choosing your own wood center strips, you want flat grain on the wide face so you have the more vertical grain on the sides that show on the deck and bottom, something non surfing millworkers often don’t understand.
Agree with epac. Most often redwood is milled from the log flat sawn which results in flat grain along the surfaces of the board with the vertical grain running on the sides as Epac mentions. This gives those nice pointed oval shapes in the grain of the stringer as it exits at the curve of the nose or tail. On really special boards I’ll rip my stringers on the bandsaw and keep the stringers in consecutive order so as to bookmatch the stringers with matching grain and color on opposite sides from eachother (a little touch few notice, but those who do notice and understand, smile). Enjoy the ride!
some wood come to life when cut a specific way.some of my tail/nose blocks i’ve done with figured maple paying close attention to the grain-BEAUTIFUL! Rembering the “SPRUCE GOOSE”,that wood is probably ideal for stringers of this type. i would suspect thats what lance carson uses…the noses on his boards are very thin. (and thanks richardMC for the reply on the outline… it must have been mcding that posted it.)
there is something called No. 1 2x6 SPF car decking. A common product made in OR WA and BC, i see it in lumber stores. It is spruce/pine/fir, but in my experience almost always spruce, you can rip it to make stringers, hollow masts, whatever. There are lots of small mills along the OR and WA coast that they will cut anything you need out of the local species. I just visited ReTech Wood products in Forks WA and he had some hemlock that looks very nice right now, light colored, deep irridescent lusters, and reasonably easy to plane when fresh. Some of the wood comes from trees that are 5 and 10 feet across, that fell down a long time ago, and are being “mined” off the forest floor to be milled. I would specify 100% free of heart, unless i wanted deep color like from western red cedar, then i would ask for 100% heart. To get cheapest, get what he has on hand, no need to ask for quarter sawn, just ask for mixed cuts, the price will be a lot better. They have “violin wood” too, big expensive slabs that sound very musical when you knock on them. I saw a huge spruce chunk on the beach in Kaui several years ago… it looked like a little coral reef. I think it floated from washington, or fell off a transport ship, you could make about 10,000 stringers out of that one.
Here is a goog source of quality spruce …