Well... I put on the final gloss coat on the deck of the Grain Surfboards Waterlog .  IF I'm actually done with this board, then it took five weeks and two days to complete starting from the day it was delivered. It took a lot longer than I expected due to it being more technical and fiddley than most of the boats and kayaks I've built. I build an entire Chesapeake Light Craft (CLC) Annapolis Wherry in about the same time.  It looks okay. Might have to do some touch-ups, or I might sand it all and then polish it, but based on the way I'm feeling right now I'll probably just leave it as is. It'll get scratched up quite a bit once I start using it, and a few dust bits here and there won't be seen at that point. So I might as well enjoy the gloss while it lasts!   The epoxy really brought out the grain of both the northern white cedar and the western red cedar. It looks really nice if you ignore all the dust bits.  Here's how it looked after final sanding, wip...

The Grain Surfboards Waterlog surfboard has now had the fin box installed, the entire board has been sanded, and the bottom has received its gloss coat. Lots of progress since my last post.  I bought a Fins Unlimited Performance fin. No idea if that was a good idea or not, but it looks cool.     In my last post I had installed the vent plug and the leash cup. Since then I routed out the trench for the fin box and installed it. It went easier than I expected but I was nervous routing the trench.  Before installing the blocking for the fin box a few weeks ago, I drilled two marker holes for where the fin box would go so that I could easily see where to install it when I finally got to this point. I felt better about doing this than using measurements from the tail that might change somewhat during shaping. See the pictures below and you can make out the two holes fore and aft of the box layout.   I taped off the area and then carefully measured out fro...

The hot coat cured overnight and looks... ok... although it will clearly need a pretty good sanding. Hopefully the gloss coat I'll add next week will go on better.  This morning I took a bowl of hot water and a clean rag and wiped down the epoxy to help get rid of any amine blush that might have risen. It looked like there was a little and I'll probably do it again later before sanding.  I intend to only sand the rail edges for now to prepare to glass the bottom and will let the deck cure fully for the next few days. Then I'll sand the entire board, top and bottom, later this week. Fully cured epoxy sands SO much easier than 'mostly' cured.  Today though, I drilled holes in the board! One for the vent and one for the leash cup thing.  This picture below is cockeyed and makes the holes look off-center to each other but they're actually pretty well aligned.  I had already drilled a vent hole before even gluing down the deck and then have kept the hole open wheneve...

The fiberglassing has begun!  It's always a thrill to see the rich colors emerge when the epoxy hits the glass.    I started by running blue tape along the seam of the bottom panel. I propped up the edges with bits of shavings.            Having the edges of the tape hang down instead of adhering to the board allows excess epoxy to run off and not accumulate on the other side. Once turned over, as in the picture below, you can see how the tape allows for drips to fall off.        Here is the fiberglass laid out and trimmed. I added slits to the nose and tail where the cloth would have a hard time conforming to the curves.      And here's how it looks after the "Lam coat" (Lamination coat). I started at the nose and spread epoxy over the first third of the board with my spreader. I then worked it out to the edges on both sides, and then over and under the rails.    Then I went back and squeegeed off...

My Grain Surfboards "Waterlog" 10' surfboard is almost ready for fiberglassing.  I've been working on a number of final details before glassing though.  Shaping was harder than I thought it would be. I mostly used my block plane and it took a long time. I never perfectly matched the rail templates that Grain Surfboards supplies but I think I'm close enough for my first surfboard.    Overall I think the shape looks good, and I don't think I got anywhere near taking too much off. To better match the templates I should have kept going.  The nose and tail also look good but don't perfectly match the templates either. Oh well. It'll float.  I cut the tail off and added a laminated block of Peruvian walnut (to match the pinstripes) and white cedar from one of the cutoffs. I didn't want to put in too many colors like some people do and end up with a rainbow of colors. This is pretty classy and not tooooo busy I hope.   Here's the final look after shap...

I'm making a surfboard!  No, I don't actually surf. At least not yet. But we go to Hawaii a lot and a guy has to have a board, right? I didn't kayak either until I built my first Pygmy Coho over 25 years ago. Now I love kayaking. Hopefully the same thing will happen with the surfboard.  The board is a kit from Grain Surfboards . I chose the Waterlog in the 10' version.  I'm super tall and heavy and probably should have selected one of their larger boards, but this is the largest board they have that both Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines will let my check (They have a 10' 5" limit).  I didn't get any pics of the kit box, but it's just a long (10' plus) cardboard mashup box with sticks in it. The epoxy kit comes separately.  I also bought the "rocker table" that is CNC cut to precisely curve the board as you build it. I highly recommend buying a rocker table if you build one.        The kit comes with white cedar planks that you g...