Strip & Feather Rails
Sliver paddleboards are built using the strip & feather style of construction shared by many of the worlds best wooden surfboard builders. The use of bead & cove strips on the rails allows us to create lightweight boards with the exact same shapes as the industries best foam boards.
Bead & Cove Strips
This tutorial will teach you the secretes of making great bead & cove strips. Proper router bit height and depth are obviously key points but the real secret is how you mill you lumber....
Strip & Feather Rails
Stacking narrow bead-and-cove strips allows us to makes rails with tight curves. In this tutorial I will detail how you can build the rails on your hollow wooden board...
Outline Strip
Attaching the first strip is a very easy step. It only takes about 20-30 minutes. Although you have attached the fishbone to the frame it isn’t strong enough to really support itself at this point....
Foundation Strip
Attaching the Foundation “bead only” Strip is a very easy step. With the outline strip already in place you are ready to set the foundation for your rails. This is the easiest strip to position as it has a support both vertically sitting on the bottom panel as well as against the outline strip....
Cove & Bead Strips
Building the cove & bead rails are the next step in building a hollow wood surfboard or paddleboard. The rail strips should be added 1 at a time until you get past the apex of the rail....
Shaping Rails
Part of the magic of the “strip and feather style” of building hollow wood boards is the internal fishbone frame defines the rail shape. This is HUGE for homebuilders attempting to build their first board....
Feathering the Rails
With the shaping complete it is now time to feather the top of the rails so that you can attach the top skin. The goal in this step is to create a flat symmetrical gluing surface that allows the top to evenly transition to the rails...
Reinforcements
The next step in building your SUP kit is optional. I like to add deck reinforcements to the standing area as they stiffen the deck for very little weight or effort. The stiffening ribs are made from left over material from building the rails...
