Grain Surfboards - The Steamer day 3

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

This past weekend I spent Friday through Monday working with eight other surfers and the guys from Grain Surfboards building one of their Steamer Kits in the back parking lot of Patagonia Cardiff.

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Day 2 was more work and a longer day than day 1, but it was so much fun  I slept like a baby Saturday night as well.  Thankfully, Sunday was a late start so I was able to sleep in.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

My girlfriend and I spent Sunday morning cruising down to Oceanside and more specifically Surf Ride Board Shop.  I ordered a new Billabong Xero 302 wetsuit to replace a wetsuit top that tore, finally, after seven years of service.  It is really cool, though I am a kook, with the camo arm and leg.  I didn't get to wear it that day, other than trying it on.

Day 3, we started mid-day to let all of the titebond glue as well as the 3M 5200 marine adhesive dry, cure, and set as much as possible.

This insured that the top deck was glued to the frame and rails as best it could be in such a short amount of time. It worked. We were given a quick lesson in how to use a draw knife and sent on our way.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

The draw knife is used to cut a lot of wood off of the edges of the top deck as quickly as possible.  It works really well in the hands of a professional.  It is really dangerous in my hands, in that I ALMOST took too much wood in one spot.  I thought it was going to be an issue. Thankfully, it wasn't and that spot went away as soon as we started to use our spokeshaves and block planes to bring the top deck in line with our rails.

The wood shaving process really started to make sense on day 3 and I was able to get the hang of both the spokeshave and block plane (more or less).  The end result was really cool to see. The thing that started life looking more like a WWII airplane wing was beginning to really look like a surfboard.  Surfable? Still to be determined, but in all sense and purpose: a surfboard.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

 In order to get the rails to really come together with the top deck a line of blue painter's tape was set all around the board at the deck-to-rail mating line.  It isn't an exact science, but the idea is to shave the top deck down to the point that you can just see the top edge of the tape.  Once there, you don't have to shave any more wood from that area.

Done right, the tape just pulls right back off of the board.  In my case that wasn't totally true.  I had blue tape still stuck under the wood of my top deck even at the end of day 3. I later addressed this issue on day 4.

Original photo by Clayton Plummer

The final thing for The Steamer on day 3 was to have the tail block installed.  I was given a box of light and dark colored wood block pieces to glue together and then glue to the tail of the board.   I chose three light sandwiched around two dark pieces.  I think it looks pretty good.  Once it was all glued up, it was taped into place and left to sit overnight.

The tail block process was repeated for all of the longboard guys, which I think there were three of us total.  Everybody did their own pattern and it turned out really well on everybody's boards.