The board survived the handsaw, it's always a scary moment cutting great chunks off the nose and tail, then comes the pain, plenty of sanding to the pencil line with a wide sanding board and 80 grit paper. When the surfaces are flat and clean of dust the nose blocks are coated with a mixture of Epoxy resin, Cabosil and wood flour, looks just like peanut butter!

     The nose block gets the same treatment then sanded into shape when fully cured, the photos show the nose and tail blocks rough sanded to shape....time to start on the final sanding of the rails, trying to get a smooth tucked under edge and blend it into the rest of the rail......mainly sanding then!!!!!!!

Board is out of traction!!! The lost 1/4 of an inch of nose rocker has been recovered so trimming up of the deck can begin, this can be done carefully with a short blade jig saw or very carefully with a router!!! My block planes have been sharpened to within an inch of their lives so I have been using those, besides the sound of a sharp plane taking shavings is fab. After the deck is trimmed I will cut and sand the nose to take the nose blocks with the same at the tail....cheers all.

The deck is on, the resin and glue will take a couple of days to fully cure but the Christmas tree deck is in place.... Again as you can see there can be no such thing as to many clamps or bricks.... the sandbag near the nose is there to provide the weight required to recover the lost quarter of an inch on the nose rocker..

  when its all cured I will cut in the nose blocks and glue up the tail block...cheers ..more soon.

Got all funky with a Paipo template and the router this weekend on the deck of the Simmons.......more on that cock up later!!!!! The surfboard hull is now all cleaned out and the rails are planned flat to the ribs and abraded with 80 grit paper ready to take the thickened epoxy and then the deck panel, aaaaahhhh the deck panel. As I mentioned earlier the router work with the Paipo template took place and although it all went according to plan my artistic flair, or lack of it, ended in a deck that looks like a fecking Christmas tree, and no, I will not be putting any baubles on it Gazzy!!!! It has been decided that the deck will pay homage to the mighty Red Cedar, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!

   All that said the deck should be on in the next couple of days, this will done in the simple jig on the photo, this will recover the correct nose rocker which tends to relax a little when taken off the jig after the rails were done. Thickened epoxy is spread over the ribs and rails then the deck placed on and lightly clamped and weighted, give it a couple of days then take it out....cool......apart from the deck!!!!!

Aaaaaaaahhh, finding build time has been tough in the last couple of days, the board will be ready to take the deck as soon as I clean it out and break of the snotty bits of glue that are hanging around, if you don't you can bet one will become loose and give you a 7 foot rattle!!!!!!! In the meantime I have glued up the nose and tail blocks, the tail block is the one being assaulted with clips and clamps, not much to see I'm afraid, just trying to keep the blog continuity going.......cheers all.