Panels
This section of the tutorials will teach you how to make the wide panels for the top and bottom. You can strip build the entire paddleboard but If you have the ability to resaw your lumber, building with wide panels is faster and the finished boards look awesome.
Milling Lumber
One of the things that make Silver paddleboards look special is the use of wide book matched panels. These wide planks create the illusion that the board is made from really large boards. Book matching the planks also give the board the appearance the timbers are twice as wide as they really are....
Selecting Lumber
Sliver Paddleboards are made from air-dried lumber. Lumber is purchased well in advance and allowed to naturally lose moisture. Air-drying takes longer but since the moisture slowly comes out of the lumber, it causes no internal stress...
Resawing
You might be thinking that building with narrow strips is your only alternative at home. The techniques I used to build my “Artist Collaboration” board above can easily be used at home. All wood boards look nice but boards that have the appearance of being built from larger pieces have panache....
Drying Lumber
The traditional rule-of-thumb for air-drying lumber is to allow one year of drying time per inch of wood thickness; this adage obviously only takes a few variables into account, but it’s a rough starting point in understanding the time investment required in order to properly air-dry lumber....
How to Fix Knots
Sometimes the perfect lumber isn’t perfect without help. When I started building hollow wood paddleboards I used clear knot free lumber. I hardly ever pick those perfect timbers now. Knots add character and interesting grain patterns happen near imperfections in wood....
Top & Bottom Panels
This tutorial will teach you how to build the top and bottom panels for your board. The goal is to have two wide panels that are the length of the board and equal to the width (plus 1/2″ is nice) There are a couple of things that need to be done before we can start the glue-up process.....
Flattening the Panels
The next step in building a hollow wood paddleboard is flattening the panels. If you were careful gluing your panels it is pretty easy to get them flat. The panels (skins) should be flat but they do not need to be completely perfect at this point..
Panel Layout Marks
Having reference marks on your bottom panel help keep everything perfectly symmetrical. These layout marks are very simple to add when your panel has nice straight edges to guide your square. The marks you are adding will all be.....
Trimming the Panels
After the panels have been glued the rough outline can be trimmed. Trimming the panels facilitates the use of spring clamps for attaching the rail strips as well as making the panel easier to bend into the finished shape...
