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.

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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.

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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

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Paulownia Projects

I thought I'd post some of our clients' projects built with our Australian-Grown-Paulownia

Some of them have used our Paulownia-Build-Packages and some have built from scratch using their own various methods.

5'10 fish built by Danish Yr 12 students at Kingscliffe TAFE under the supervision of Aaron Carle. Brilliant Australian indigenous artwork by Christine Slabb 

6'6 x 18" singlefin built by Danish Yr 12 students at Kingscliffe TAFE

Sensational longboard by Tony Crimmins

5'10 Fish by James Wilson

Pete Young spends a ridiculous amount of time doing these incredible inlays.

Sensational grain definition under glass.

5'10 fish built by Danish Yr 12 students at Kingscliffe TAFE

A little fish I made for my mate Shawy

6'0" thruster built by Danish Yr 12 students at Kingscliffe TAFE

"Stitch and Glue" canoe by Kim Koltoft

Australian Paulownia and Western Red Cedar Longboard Alan Copelin.

Hillsbrooke Anglican College

Burleigh crusty Glenn Clarke finishes his second build.

Not paulownia this one but worth including.

Dave Malthouse has a few wooden surfboards under his belt.

Luke Dahl gets creative with the traditional hawaiian Alaia

Many intricate and individual pieces in this Piece by Mark Charters.

5'10" twinnie egg-crate built by Danish Yr 12 students at Kingscliffe TAFE

Five different build methods used here by Danish Yr 12 students at Kingscliffe TAFE

Scotty Hill builds a nice board. This one from scratch-no computers.

This beautiful tracker built by Ollie in the hills of Northern New South Wales. For some reason, the world epicentre of wooden surfcraft building.

My slightly feral son Jack enjoying a Champ Ruby in between wooden surfboard building and cigar-box-guitar jammin'

www.paulowniatimbersales.com.au

www.dovetailsurfboards.com