A Stringer Takes Shape

I bought a 12' long cedar board and turned it into a surfboard stringer through the process shown below.

Here you can see the cedar board alongside the template I've drawn on tracing paper.

I created the template by transferring dimensions to a big piece of craft paper using a thin strip of wood cut from the cedar board and clamped into an arc. I drew both the top and bottom profiles drawn on the craft paper per dimensions which are derived from Jack Young's 9'-6" longboard design which is based on Rich Harbour's San O longboard.

The next step is to transfer the template from the tracing paper to the board. I used a tool that's kind of like a cowboy's spur to run the line down with micro punctures, guided by the clamped in place wood strip. In the right photo I have aligned the wood strip with the dots and drawn a line on the board linking them up.

Here you can see the outline of the stringer drawn on the cedar plank. Here the X'ed out area represents a cut back of the tail by 1-1/2" to accommodate the tail block I'll install toward the end of the project.

My dog Evie (she's an English Springer Spaniel) is eager to cut the first line of the stringer with a jigsaw.

After the first cut on the deck (top) side of the stringer. On the right the board is clamped down to 2x spacers to allow me to cut the hull (bottom) line of the stringer.

The finished stringer!

Above is a method I figured out to clamp the stringer to my workbench in preparation for attaching the ribs. Stay tuned!