I got a chunk of wood...

I've kinda been obsessing over this blank since before I ever even saw it. Just hearing about its existence got me tingling.

Old growth means wood grown naturally in the forest, you can see in the pic below the difference between old growth and modern tree farm wood. 

Clear (meaning NO KNOTS - not even one tiny one!) vertical grain (this is the good stuff, better looking, more stable, easier to work wit) western red cedar, barn dried for 20 years plus (maybe 60 years, 70, 80??) - it's like something I could only dream about.

I don't think you could get a piece like this today, anywhere, other than a "barn find", as they say.

I want to do something that honors the grand old woodies of yesteryear.

Quote:

Hobie Makaha Gun

It's 9' 8" long, 23 3/4" wide, 4" thick (thicker at ends), and weighs about 120 lbs. The rough cut was crude, and there are some issues to work around. Pics

I have to agree with Bill Thrailkill's observation that the end roughed out as the tail is going to be better as the nose in terms of rocker, and dodging some of the issues with the wood.

So looks like the square end will be my nose, determining my rocker will be my first order of business.

Haha, thnx greg! Should I call it The David? The Big Z? The Cody Maverick?

Looking at this thing, as crude as it is, you gotta respect the mystery guy who carved this out of a tree trunk.  Man-handling a hundred-plus pounds and coming up with a viable surfboard blank probably working by sight with nothing more than a chainsaw.  

This pocket of rotted / punky wood is without a doubt the most limiting aspect of the blank. Its like a giant pothole on the road to my success. It's gonna be a challenge to deal with, for sure. The wood has a spongy, pithy quality that makes is completely unsuitable, so I have to cut it out in shaping, or cut it out and splice a better piece in.

Thnx for the support and encouragement - I've been browsing the internet and studying the old wood boards. Really looking forward to seeing some historical woodies in person!

Kinda rolling the possibilities around in my head: add a nose and tail block to make a 10 footer; add some wide stringers to minimize the rail rot, splice in a patch at the rail rot; chamber it for lightness, etc, etc.

Ok thnx 4 all the suggestions! Studying US Blanks catalog, and working by hand and eye, I created a full size masonite rocker template I really like, 4 1/2" nose 3" tail, on a 9' 3" board. Which is not too different from the rocker shaped into my blank, if I reverse it.

I painted my rocker template white, and tacked it up in front of my wood blank, then just stood back and eyeballed it as straight on as I could, to see how much trimming to start with. I used a paint brush and white paint so I can see what to cut off to clean it up.

You can see from the first two pics that my rocker is a good fit to the rough cut of the wood, which was my intended goal. Which I might add, in spite of the fact I reversed the blank, is a testament to the effect that the guy who rough cut this beast must've been a pretty savvy shaper (who WAS this guy??), or else one or both of us was just very lucky!

This is my rough shape to clean things up, so there is still room for adjusting the rocker as I do the actual shaping, after a trip to the museum. I tacked my rocker template to the wall flip side out and mapped out my approximate foil using a paintbrush and white primer. Just visualizing in 2D but actual size.  I'm planning on the finished board being a little over 3" at the thickest point.

And while this thing is HEAVY cuz it's so big, I really hope that once I shape away the excess, its gonna be light enough that I won't have to chamber it.

Also been drawing more sketches and thinking about the template.

Started cleaning up with a sawzall, went about as far as my 12" blade would take me. That blade is kinda floppy, it wasn't meant to be used like this, it works but is difficult to control at the ends.  And of course, with a reciprocating saw, the end keeps bump bump bumping as I cut with the whole blade buried.

This week I will try the chainsaw with a 16" bar, which is much more rigid, and doesn't bump. But can bind. 

At this point I am just taking off the lumps and bumps, but now I have a base rocker line. The chunks I cut off feel very light, curious what this thing will weigh once I get it rough shaped, because at some point I have to decide chambered or solid.

I will have better offcuts later, I am saving these but the grain is running the short direction.

The problem is that I can only cut a few inches before I have to make a crosscut to remove the excess, because otherwise I can't see what the tip is doing, and the big risk is the tip of my chainsaw bar digging in too deep. I am proceeding very cautiously.

But there will be different cuts later on that will yield some sizeable chunks. Foremost on my mind is having enough to patch in the rotted area, should I need and choose to go that route, as opposed to adding a fat stringer.

I'll take all the moral support I can get! The chain saw work was nerve wracking, because it's an aggressive tool that's a bit on the unwieldy side, and its much more suited to cutting through branches and tree trunks than skimming on its side. You can tear up a lot of wood just trying to manhandle it through the cuts, hoping that some false move isn't going to bite into your shape. Kinda like having a tiger by the tail, you know something's gonna get tore up before its all over.

But I got through it ok, by working real conservatively, giving myself as much margin as I could. Then I cleaned up a bit with planer and belt sander. I need to clean it up to the next level, gotta lose probably another 1/4 inch anyway, to get through the punky bottom wood along that one rail.

BTW, here's a guy who knows how to use a chainsaw!

OK no stogies in the shaping room!

Nothing much to report, just cleaning it up a bit lately...