Chambered Longboard - Traditional "Pig" by Kim Staples

Gold Coast Firie Kim needs an outlet to help him unwind.

And outlets don't get much more enjoyable than creating a classic wooden surfboard with your own hands.

He's started by sourcing some beautiful clean Australian-grown Paulownia Fortunei

The traditional, flat "log" rocker fits nicely on 100mm wide timber minimising waste and expense.

Faces of the Paulownia timber are dressed for glueing. At this point the timber is only temporarily glued or discreetly screwed together. 

Outline is cut and the board is shaped in the same way you would shape a foam board.

The shaped board is then taken apart so the inside can be "chambered" to reduce weight.

The idea is to remove the maximum amount of material from the innards while leaving enough to maintain shape and strength.

Individual profiles are permanently glued back together.

Kim's done a great job shaping. No flats or bumps. Everything nice and fair.

The beautiful piece of camphor-laurel he has selected for the fin and tail block blend beautifully with the grain of the Paulownia.

And a really professional glass job to finish the work of art that it is.

Beautiful and...

 ...Beautiful.

For everything you need to build wooden surfboards of any method

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Paulownia Offcuts Board 3

Finally got a couple of spare hours to continue shaping this Paulownia fish which I have designed to use up all my short pieces which would normally go in the skip bin.

I mark some bands around the rails to give me a guide.

I dont strictly adhere to them. They just let me know if things are getting out of control. I don't mind too much if my life gets out of control, but like to keep my rails in order.

 New planer knives are a must when carving across the grain like this

 and being mindful of the "angle of attack" when traversing those acute little ends.

Take the second band off and the deckroll starts to develop.

It's at about this point where all technicality and intricate calculation goes out the window for me and I start to..........wing it!

Fortunately, 35 years of coaxing wood to do things it doesn't necessarily want to do has made the belt sander, planer and other tools feel almost like the palm of my hand is shaping the material away.

 I don't go too nuts shaping the nose as I still have to pull this blank apart to chamber it out and I don't want to have very fine ends to deal with. I'll shape the nose last thing.

 I keep taking "bands" off the deck until I'm satisfied with the deckroll.

I just use my eye and a straightedge to keep everything symmetrical.

For everything you need to build wooden surfboards of any method call me at:

www.paulowniatimbersales.com.au

 Like our facebook page to see more stuff HERE.

Paulownia offcuts board 2

I'm really enjoying this build but am being disciplined and am doing it as an after hours project so it's a bit of a drawn-out story.

So I draw the outline

Then I'll slice it into 45mm thingamees.

'Saw didn't quite make the depth which kinda made things easier.

I flipped the blank and cut from the other side with a jigsaw which, when given its head, just followed the cut.

Then draw the profile on each thingamee. 

Don't forget to number the thingamees.

Den scwoo tugevva wiv scwoos.

Mdf spacers will be replaced with some nice cedar stwingers between thingamees.

Bwank.

Cut outline

All ready for shaping.

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Paulownia offcuts board

I couldn't bear to relegate this stack of knotty and hail-marked Paulownia to the skip bin so started to hatch a plan.

Not long enough to run fore-aft so I chopped 'em up to run transverse.

I'm gluing the sections together on a rocker jig. Each section is scribed to fit the next.

Hopefully my board fits within the blank. Just looking at it, I think I'll need to increse the rocker a little to fit.

www.paulowniatimbersales.com.au

www.dovetailsurfboards.com

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High Quality First build.

Michael Powell is a design tech teacher in Brisbane and judging by the professional finish of his first HWS (hollow wood surfboard), his students are in good hands.

A simple jig made using the rocker curve of the central spine.

A bit tricky negotiating that tight radius at the nose but once the skins are on the outline will be shaped "fair" and any small kinks in the frames will be hidden.

Some nice detail in Michael's top and bottom skins. Nice and fine and not overdone.

Ribs are square and spine is straight and central, ensuring a wonk-free outline and foil.

Ready for rails

Finish sanding and fine tuning of bottom contours.

Some nice Australian silky oak and balsa fins. Different densities make shaping difficult but Michael has managed to get them foiled nicely.

4oz glass fabric laminated in Kinetix epoxy plus a fill coat gives this board a super tough finish.

Coupled with internal lamination, this board will be really hard to hurt.

Why would you fill your rack with white thruster popouts when you can have a beautiful, superbly handcrafted "piece" from your own hand.

For advice and everything you need to build your own wooden surfboard..

www.paulowniatimbersales.com.au

www.dovetailsurfboards.com