Alaia for the No Passport Needed raffle is finished.

Red Cedar & Paulownia tailblock

white cedar Alaia

This board will be raffled off @ the party for the No Passports Needed movie tomorrow night 4/9 @ Yesterdays Bar in Marmora NJ. Raffle tickets are $10 each.

I made this board from 3 strips of white cedar. Finished in a waterborne polyurethane.

Busy woodworking day...

White cedar alaia w/ red cedar and paulownia tailblock

Harry's paulownia arc tail alaia

Handplane #10 paulownia, red cedar & mahogany (sold)

Handplane #11, paulownia downrailed swallow tail (sold)

I spent most of yesterday working on some projects for clients and my Etsy shop.

The Alaia Raffle board (Being raffled off @ Yesterdays restaurant in Marmora, NJ on 4/9/10) has been cut out. I also cut the bottom concave in yesterday as well as planed out the bottom rails. This board is made from white cedar with a red cedar and paulownia tail block. For raffle tickets contact me @ info@JKSurfArt.com .
Harry's Alaia has been skinned and is ready for the concave to be cut into the bottom.
Finally I made 2 new bodysurfing hand planes, one for a client and one for stock. The first is a slipper model made from paulownia with red cedar and mahogany stringers. The second is a downrail swallow tail model for Paul Aman. I'm coating both of these with a sanding sealer and a waterborne polyurethane. Once that is dry I'll add the straps.

Harry's Alaia continued...

I finished out gluing up the tailblock to Harry's board. I added a few more pieces of wood too. Here is a pic of the tailblock glued up and the outline of the tail cut out.

Curved tail block...

Here is a shot of the curved tail block I came up with for Harry's Alaia sitting in the jig. It's made from 3 strips of Honduran mahogany and 2 strips of royal paulownia.

Harry's Alaia

Here is the glue up for my OLC buddy Harry's alaia. Harry is the owner/roaster of Harry and Beans Coffee, yep, the guy that keeps me all coffeed up!

I ran into a bit of trouble milling this paulownia. The last time I got some it was very clear w/ minimal knots. This batch, from a different source, was riddled w/ worm holes and knots. Unfortunately I had to mill it into smaller pieces, so this glue-up is made from 5 pieces of royal paulownia. It's going to be around a 6'4 arc tail. I might do some fancy glue-ups in the tail for effect. We'll see.

Ok, I really should use this blog to blog more ...

I just stink at it though.

Soooo, anyway, here we go.

The Help for Haiti Benefit at Steve & Cookies by the Bay in Margate, New Jersey tomorrow.

Please, if you are in the South Jersey area tomorrow swing by.

I have chosen to donate an Alaia (The one I made for the event is 6' and made from locally harvested white cedar.) and a royal paulownia hand plane. These will be silent auction items I do believe.

Finishing the alaia

To finish the boards I'm using a linseed oil and bees wax solution that I melt down and mix together. Most guys are using just one coat b/c paulownia is salt water resistant. Buuut, I believe in overkill, so I do 2.

The logos and my signature are burnt into the wood.

Finish sanding the alaia

For the final sanding of the Alaias I go through a few grits of paper. I start w/ 100 grit to knock down the hard edges on the rails and add the concave in the back. Then I smooth everything out w/ 150 grit, and finally 220.

concave

Nick talking about how cool the grain is in

the bookmatched alaia

Bookmatched paulownia alaia

for Xmas

Shop alaia

Planing out the alaia rail bands

I've found that hand planing my rail bands is easier than using the power planer on the paulownia. I use my smaller block plane to run the rails, then I go to my grinder/sander to finish them off.

Alaias outlined and rough cut...

The 6' Alaia for an Xmas present and the shop Alaia have been templated and cut out. 1st step was to clean up the blanks, so I planed down the high spots w/ an old block plane that I have. Then I put a piece of masonite down that I have cut to the exact size template I want and draw it on the blanks. Then I cut them out w/ a jig saw.

Alaia and Paipo glue ups...

Got the shop alaia and paipo glued up the other day. Went with a stringer effect in both of them to see how it works. The alaia has 2 cedar stringers running through it, and the paipo has a cedar and paulownia t-band.

New York Times article on Alaias

Looks like even the New York Times is on the Alaia track. Here is a recently run article. NYT ALAIA ARTICLE

Alaias' for X-mas...

Working on a few Christmas presents. One for a customer and a few for shop use. The customer project is a 6' paulownia alaia. For shop experimentation we are building a 6' paulownia alaia and a 3' paulownia paipo. I might even add in a few hand planes for good measure.

The wood was milled yesterday and we joined, biscuited, glued and clamped the customer alaia. Glue ups for the shop boards will be done today.

I'll keep you all updated on the outline cutout and shaping.

3' paipo ready for glue up

6' Alaia - Paulownia w/ red cedar stringers

(for shop experimentation)

Alaia Xmas present glued and clamped

Joined and biscuit

Milling the paulownia

On the search for Paulownia...

As I woke up this afternoon from my fever induced coma, I found myself on the Cape May Lewis Ferry on the Delaware side. About a 1/2 drive was ahead of me and the Wu dog. We finally arrived @ Chesapeake Woodworkers Sales in Millboro, De. The guys were more than helpful and showed me around the shop and lumber yard. I found lots of exotic wood species and the wood I came for Royal Paulownia. I want to thank everyone there and if you are interested in buying Royal Paulownia look Chesapeake Woodworkers Sales up on the web @ www.Cheswoodsales.com .

Thanks to them I'll be able to finish another Alaia project for a client before Xmas.

Fresh Alaias...

"Kaya" 7'4" swallow tail alaia

"KiKi" 5'1 alaia

I just finished off 2 alaias. The first one is "KiKi" a 5'1" made from laminated yellow pine finished w/ a beeswax / linseed oil mixture.

The second is "Kaya" a 7'4 swallow tail alaia made of paulownia wood with a mahogany noseblock finished with a beeswax / linseed oil mixture. The paulownia wood blank came from John Wegener of Wegener Surfboards in Cali. Paulownia wood is beautiful to work with and it's light as a feather. If you would like info on John's paulownia blanks he can be contacted through his website www.wegenersurfboards.com.

Both alaias, plus the 7'8" Philippino mahogany one, will be on display @ the Art Of Surfing Festival on the Music Pier in Ocean City, NJ - Aug 6-8th.

The Alaia project update...

7'8 Philippino Mahogany Alaia

I started working on this Alaia and the Paipo early this year. This Alaia is made from Philippino Mahogany, with a Purple Heart noseblock, and an Ash & Mahogany diamond inlay.

dimentions- 7'8 long, 7/8" thin with no fin

The Alaia project...

I started the "Alaia Project" @ the beginning of January. I went off to the mill inspired by the works of Tom Wegner and some video on YouTube of guys like Christian Wach riding Alaias. I began looking for home grown Jerzy wood. I thought a white cedar would be a good local wood to use keeping the wood locally harvested, glued and shaped.

Well, so much for that at this moment. I ended up with Philippino Mahogany for the first few boards, w/ full intention of bringing it full circle back to a total jersey project.

I glued up 2 blanks so far. 1 for a 7'8 Alaia & 1 for a 4' Paipo (Pipe' o) or bodyboard.

I finished off the Paipo the other day. Here is a bottom shot. Now off to work on the Alaia.