The crisp edge in the tail of my boards is what gives me the most trouble, i mean, they work ok, but look shit and frustrate the hell out of me. I usually do a bead of resin on the rail, then sand it from there.
But, i was thinking of doing it a little bit differently. Could i just hot coat as normal, leaving the rails as is, then when kicked, could i add another hotcoat, BUT, just a 2’’ wide strip, from the tail to say 12’’ up ( or wherever i want the crisp edge ), but putting the tape halfway up the rail, so im not actually making a “damn” of resin, but really just an extra hotcoat where i want the crisp edge. THEN, blend the rail in, and get the crisp edge by sanding the BOTTOM of the board. I dont need a huge thick crisp edge, all i want is for the last 12’’ or wherever to have crisp edge. At the moment, my hard edges seem to “stick out”, if that makes sense.
I guess basically, can i sand the crisp edge from the bottom of the board, rather than making a damn where the rail meets the bottomm and trying to sand in the rail profile.
I’m assuming you having trouble fading your edges in (or out). I’m still sussing it myself but managed it on a couple. Just can’t remember how unfortunately.
I left my raillap hanging while glassing the deck on a few occasions, because I didn’t like the tucked under all the way in the back of the tail. In this manner you can make a real thick resinbead. Leaves you with some rail shaping though, but a surform and some 8o grit sandpaper can sort that out.
Hey Mark - I just glass a nice round rail - about a pencil round, or more, so the glass lays down nice and easy. I use epoxy, and try to have a little “cheater”/filler resin to sand smooth - then after sanding, and fin boxes, leash loop, etc. (any touch up stuff) - I use aluminum foil to make a dam for the edges, both tail and channels, and fill it with a putty mix - resin, glass beads (aka Qcell) for filler, light, easy to sand, and cabosil (don’t remember the chem name) for strength. Once it’s on it’s way to getting hard I’ll sure form, if I’m there at the right time - and, it is usually soft enough to get some off even when it’s “fully” hard - then sand to desired shape - nice sharp edges… Ha! Then, once that’s sanded, the fin box caps are sanded, etc. Every thing’s ready to go, I do a hot/gloss/finish coat, and call it good.
One good thing about this method is, unlike many sharp edged boards; which are prone to easy rail dings, a ding on the “putty” area can be like a bumper type deal - the gloss and putty are “F’ed” up, but the glass, and thus the structural integrity and water tightness, is fine… Makes for an easy repair too!
The two sets of tail rails that I did that I was happy with, I did pretty much what you said. With epoxy.
If the original hotcoat is smooth and you really press on the tape that starts halfway up the tail, so there are no gaps with the top edge of the rail, it works well. Then when you sand you can make the hard-beaded edge fade out exactly where and as quickly as you want.