Found on Facebook. These were in a house that some lady bought. She thought they were surfboards. She wants to unload them.
No idea on actual condition, but what would they be worth if decent? The pic says plenty regarding what they are.
They look salvageable. I’ve started with worse. But never shaped a Walker blank. As you probably know, some loved them.
all the best
Blanks are located in Delaware, if that makes a difference to anyone.
I’m one of those that really liked Walker Foam. Unlike Clark Foam, Walker’s foam increased in density, the deeper you shaped into the foam. If you’re just a close tolorance blank skinner, Clark is your foam. If you’re a creative custom shaper, Walker will yield a superior finished product. IMO.
I think those “close tolerance skinners” would include everybody on the West and East Coast at one time. Including Edwards, Terry Martin, Rusty, Al Merrick, Doug Haut, Renny Yater etc. too many shapers to list. Guess they are or were just " close tolerance skinners".
…and if you are ok with softer cores.
Clark had a lock on the market. Bless his heart.
all the best
Sizes and availability were big issues also, but many preferred the Walker density. It was popular with the So. Bay crew who thought it was structurally better or just liked how it cut. However, Harold Iggy felt that the shapes had more stability before glassing than Clark foam especially on thin tails and knifey rails. Back in those days temporary storage and even some finish hand work was done outside due to the shop and store usually being the same place. It was common expectation for a production shaper to do 15 plus per week, and if you had more than one shaper then transport and storage became big problems. This gave rise to factories like Hobie and faster production using Clark close-tolerance both of which became the industry standards. This was mainly from Clark working very closely with the Orange County factories, but sadly it just didn’t happen with Walker and his home boys up north.
My son worked for Harold when he went back into business in Wilmington, Ca. This list is all the blanks at the time (9/15/93) and was expanded over time. You can see that the 7’6" is not listed yet. The 3 following pages (not posted) list the cost of center sticks, double wood lamination, foam T- bands, wood T bands, reverse wood T bands and off sets. Love the prices. I still have one 10’3" with off set yellow glue up, just waiting for that special something that ya just gotta have.
Thank you GregTate, Bill T, Pete C, and Artdecrepid for your comments.
I am still curious as to what a fair price for them would be, which was my intent in posting this.
There is a certain novelty in making a board out of Walker Foam, and the blanks are probably equal in value to currently available blanks of the same size, from current suppliers. I’d love to have the 7’ 6’’ blank, since the first foam I ever shaped was Walker’s, and I’d like it to be the last one I ever shaped too. That would be a fitting end to my shaping career.
I can put you in touch with the person who has the blanks if you want that 7’6", Bill. It would be my pleasure.
How cool would that be?
Bill, if the 7’9" doesn’t work out it would be an honor and privilege to have you shape my Walker 10’3" blank for me.
I like how this is turning out.
Bill, things get boring around here once in a while. I hope you will spice it up with another build.
all the best,
Most of Donald Takayama’s Boards were made with Walker foam. I believe that He was also a distributor for Walker in the 1990s
They are worth the same money as any US Blank, Arctic or Millennium 2nd. Unless you have some personal affection for coarse gritty foam that had it’s day. Price and value not any more or less than a last run Clark. Affinity for these old foams is based on nostalgia, not quality of the foam or ease of shaping. And that’s OK. Look at all the 60’s retro Fishies cloggin’ the line up.