Got the first hot coat on the bottom.

Man I forgot how much sanding was involved.  I probably could have done more too!

I will never ever scoff at the price of a wooden glass on fins at the shop.

So I'm making some Keel fins for this new eight foot fish Simmons and I'm trying to get the fins just right. I want to get a certain halo around the fans that you see often times on a wooden fin. Last night I put four layers of six ounce fiberglass cloth and it came out feeling really thin so tonight I doubled it to eight layers on the other side. I started working around 8:30 and its now 11:30. Now I know that the manufacturers that make these have ways of making them look great and I'm just a weekend warrior at this at best but it does take a lot of time to get it done remotely close to right.

I glassed the first side of the fins. It's super important to take time to shape and sand your fins. For me I need to take the time before I glass the board or else I start to get to close to the end product of a completed board and I don't give the fins the attention they should get. I was given some polyester resin at a surf show called the Board room recently. Grateful for the gift but that stuff is stinky and toxic. I prefer to work with epoxy.

Keel fins and tail are rough sanded.

Rising Sun looking fins....

Rough Sanding Completed

I was super eager to make progress and made a few mistakes.  The board isn't ruined, as a matter of fact these boards are so tough several mistakes can't kill them.  I am going to set up a sanding light to work out some symetry issues.

Adding Blocks To Have A Surface Clamping

I found a sure fire way to get a solid hold on gluing nose pieces to the front of a board.  I glued blocks that can easily be planed and sanded off.  I won't hesitate to do this again.  It worked super well.