MyPaipoBoards Forums

davehahn wrote: What do you think of the idea of selling blanks? Would you be interested in that? Of course you'd probably want to see them first, but at least in theory?

I'd be interested in that. There's a long tradition of building your own that goes with paipos. Can you confirm that the max width of the blanks or boards is 19.5"? Think I saw that somewhere on your blog. Thanks.

Yes, 19.5" is the max width.

blanks sound interesting to me--how do you seal the cork after shaping?

That's the beauty of it, you don't need to seal the cork. Just cut out the outline, shape the rails to taste using sandpaper, and get in the water.

My philosophy is this - make surf gear out of materials that can get wet, then let them get wet. Cork has been used in marine applications for hundreds of years - notably, cork buoys (see attached photo). And cork has been used as a natural and impermeable seal for bottles going back to the ancient Egyptians.
That said, there's no harm in sealing the cork if you'd like to. You can use polyurethane, marine varnish, tung oil, BLO or even beeswax. I've tried all of them and they all work well.

This isnt a critisim more of my own thought. Rather than glass could you use paulownia? Grain going length ways b/matched so flex is evenish?

Yes, I think you could. My handplanes have bamboo on the bottom, and paulownia would be better. The challenge I find is that the wood veneer and the cork both get wet and expand at different rates. That makes them want to pull away from each other and cause delamination. The nice thing about fiberglass is that it's inert and doesn't expand or contract.