Sunday 12 October 2014

What happens when you double the size of a handplane?

Well the short answer is that it would be debatable as to whether you could call it a handplane. In practical terms though it was a question I thought could be best answered by doubling the size of my handplane. 



Taking the template of my latest handplane design and doubling the proportions in length, width and thickness I came up with this design. Constructed using the Roy Stewart method I utilised in my Coffee Table Sim I learnt from the mistake of last time by filling the hollow chambers with XPS foam, thereby keeping it light but also protecting against the leak issue that did for the coffee table.

Completed this board a few months ago but only recently got around to test driving it and have to say I was more than a little impressed. As opposed to the handplane which allows you lift your upper body out of the water on waves, this little rocket has actual drive, helping you into waves as well as pulling you along when you catch one. Even without flippers I've been able to catch waves, find a line and get pulled all the way into the beach. Seriously blown away and already started work on the sequel, reckon I could always find a spot in the van to keep this little sucker handy.








Saturday 11 October 2014

Welcome back with a pair of handplanes

Okay, I'm well aware I've been dreadful at keeping this blog up to date of late but there is a lot of work to catch up on so I'll start with this pair of handplanes, complete with rather dashing waxed bags made from an equally dashing shirt of mine that I inexplicably bought far too big for myself.

This time I've re-designed my hand strap from the rather low-tech strip of webbing through to the cutting edge implementation of a bicycle inner tube and old wetsuit combo. A marked improvement I think.