Some photos of my latest paulownia wood paipo

She's a deceptive one this paipo, the top of the board is a full 2 1/2 inches wider than the bottom. I like the optical illusion effect that the triple stringers (made with Homebase's mysteriously named 'dark hardwood'). Unfortunately I went a little too aggressive when carving out the bottom concave, while stress testing the board I noticed a little crack by the central stringer which I'm pretty sure would snap the board under use. 

I do like the look of this board though and with this in mind I'll be adding it to my fibreglassing list for the spring. A light epoxy lamination should fill the cracks and give it more strength. I'll miss the wood finish but I think the glass finish will be a good look too and should allow for a good many years of battering.

Reminding myself of summer

Well weather has gotten damned cold and the first 50 year storm of the season is on the way so now is a good time to knock together a little video of some of my Dreamboat testing from the summer. The more I've used this board the more I've been impressed with it, now she's got some nice winter Langland point waves to look forward to so every cloud has a silver lining I suppose.

Instagram meet Blogger

Just figured out how to link my Instagram account to my Blogger account so you can now see my latest snaps in that handy little box on the right. Technology just keeps finding new ways to astound me. So to celebrate here's a selection of some of my pictures so far. Follow me on @rugerdier there was a reason behind the choice of name at one time. 

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.

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.