New Recycler Paipo project...

I always start projects and never seem to reconnect with them till months later. I stripped the glass from the nose of HAARRRRYYYY's old Stewart and templated out one of the Tomb Stone templates on it months ago. Then, a few weeks ago I spent a day ripping wood for cutting boards. I ripped a piece of white cedar I found in the rafters for outside stringers on the paipo randomly during that session. I cut the blank and finally started gluing in the stringers tonight. This is what she looks like so far.

^^Before glue^^

^^Glued Up^^

These Recycler projects are fun little projects. I think I'm going to make recycled wood flooring d-fins on this. It should be interesting to see how this one turn out.

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.

more from the ding room...

As I've said before, I also fix surfboards. With surfboard technology constantly changing these days you need to step your game up. I got a friends buckled Firewire a few months back and have been researching how to fix it. The big thing was to get the cracked EPS back together. I had to inject 2/1 pour foam into the crack, cut back the extra, and then add an epoxy/ferring filler combo to take care of any extra bubbles. Then I sanded it back and wrapped it. Tomorrow I'll sand the wrap back and give it a final coat of epoxy. Then I'll do a final sand and paint it so you can't even tell.

New 3' boards in the works...

I've been working on some boards for clients lately. These are all around 3' , hand glued and shaped. The first 2 are for Lance and are going to be wall hangers. #3 is for a large sculpture and is once again inspired by Mike (Gnar Gnar) Black's Pig project. The 4th will be for a large sculpture also which will be placed in a local dentist office. # 2 & 3 will get glass chopstick fins that I am about to mount today. More pics to follow.

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.

Swine for Gnar Gnar

Mike Black (aka Gnar Gnar) has inspired me to build a special dashboard rider. His site SURF A PIG has gotten me all riled up. Gnar Gnar's stoke on old pig style shapes has given me the inspiration to make a special HAM Model for his car or spaceship or what ever he is crusing around in these days. The board is glued up from santos mahogany, philipino mahogany, red cedar & white pine with a black walnut fin.

Check out Mike's blog here... SURF A PIG ... and check out the new prototype pig #2 Gene Cooper is finishing up.

Happy New Year

So, I've been so busy building hand planes for everyone else that I haven't built one for myself yet. I glued up some scraps of paulownia I had leftover w/ stringers of red cedar and mahogany. After the outline was cut out and the hand plane was shaped I added channels. I'm going to take this down to PR the next time I go.

Hand Plane #6

Here is paulownia hand plane #6. It has a light concave in the bottom for enhanced lift. Coated w/ a linseed oil bees wax mix. I left this one a little thicker @ about 3/4" hopefully for added buoyancy. I have this one up for sale on my Etsy site here.

Paulownia Handplanes #4 & 5

#4 Paulownia Handplane

sold

#5 Paulownia Handplane

gifted to Anthony the Barber

Just finished off bodysurfing handplanes #4 & #5. Both are made from Royal Paulownia and are coated w/ a linseed oil and beeswax finish.

#4 is for sale for $65

Merry Christmas Brian

Here is handplane #3 for my friend Brian Wynn of Wynn Surfboards.

Made from paulownia and coated w/ a bees wax linseed oil mixture.

Merry Xmas Brian.

Happy Hollow Days

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Festivus, & Happy New Year to all. A special thank you to all my clients that made this year so special.

Here is a shot of Alex's finished alaia for Xmas...

The first Paulownia hand plane "The Flat Fish"

Here is the first of many hand planes I've been working on. It's made from paulownia scrap that I didn't want to discard from making the alaias. It has a flat top rolled bottom and an adjustable hand strap. I coated it in the same linseed oil and bees wax solution the I've been using on the alaias. This one is going to Richard Tator of the OLC for a Xmas present.

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.

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