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Material: Really special wood *PIC*
By:Malcolm Schweizer
Date: 12/7/2010, 1:05 pm

Good day all,

I thought I'd share this fin, which although is a surfboard fin, I'd love to see someone put something of this shape on a kayak as a skeg. I liked it so much I may put one on Amy's SOF Greenland Kayak as a removable skeg of some sort. I took a picture with a grid in the background for anyone wishing to replicate it. Feel free to bastardize it for kayaks all you want.

Really the main reason I'm posting it is because of the wood I used which I thought you guys would appreciate. The quilted maple is some "sinker" wood which around 100 years ago when they used to float logs to the sawmill this particular piece sank, and was reclaimed recently, resawn, and was being sold as a guitar back, but I made a fin out of it. Also used in the fin is some bubinga, wenge, and tiger maple. All but the tiger maple were also being sold as luthier woods but I had better ideas for it. I did buy two extra of the quilted maple which will actually become guitars like they were intended to be. The guitar top will have a sinker redwood top that I got a few years ago and have been letting acclimate to my tropical environment. That guitar will be called the "black pearl" and will have black pearl inlays with a pirate skull and crossbones. What better thing for wood that has been in Davy Jones' locker for 100 years?

Anyway, it's cool wood and I thought you guys would like to see it. I should have spritzed it before the picture but you can imagine how amazing it's going to look when finished out. The fin is for a very special build I'm doing for Wood Surfboard Supply and Robert August- a copy of Robert August's "what I ride" board. I wanted to put a D Fin like he used in the movie "Endless Summer." I did a lot of research including freeze-framing the movie to get a basic idea of the shape, then came up with my own interpretation.

http://www.schweizersurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3

There's a pic there that shows the wood spritzed with alcohol. It just glows!

Messages In This Thread

Material: Really special wood *PIC*
Malcolm Schweizer -- 12/7/2010, 1:05 pm
Re: Material: Really special wood
Bill Hamm -- 12/8/2010, 12:32 am
Re: Material: Really special wood
Malcolm Schweizer -- 12/8/2010, 10:01 am
Re: Material: Really special wood
Bill Hamm -- 12/9/2010, 12:54 am
Re: Material: Really special wood
Tim Abbott -- 12/8/2010, 10:34 am