GNARNIA LONGBOARDS, Stewart Hodgins | Ministry of Wood, Skateboard Builder Directory

GNARNIA LONGBOARDS, Stewart Hodgins

My name is Stewart Hodgins. I started building longboards because I couldn’t afford to buy a store bought one. I am 17 and live in Barrie, Ontario Canada and am the creator of Gnarnia longboards. I’ve been building for 4 years now. Up until early spring, this year I was building skate boards in my garden shed but I now am doing a co-op at Coiler composites with Bruce Varsava.

I think my board are different from most home builders because I build 4 to 6 ply boards that are reinforced with fibre glass and carbon fiber. I have also built an experimental board that uses metal skins and a wood cores. The result is three and one quarter lbs. of sexiness! It takes me about 3hr to make an epoxy composite board from scratch. All my boards get tested at speeds over 60km..

I just finished producing a number of boards for Longboard Living in Toronto and my plan for next year is to experiment using custom top sheets similar to those used for snowboards.

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Did you know that Sugar Maple, grown in northern Canada is the best skateboard building material available? It is 10% stronger than maple grown in the North Eastern States. It is all because of our longer, colder Canadian winters.

If it's snowing in your part of the country and you can't longboard ..... BUILD THEM!

Try out a cabinet scraper for taking glue and paint off of a deck.

Be prepared! When laminating any skateboard remember to have all your tools at hand. All glues have a wet time. Some are longer than others. Titebond III has one of the longest wet times, 9 minutes as opposed to 4 or 5 for regular water based woodworking glues. That extra 4 minutes makes a big difference when gluing up a deck.

For dancers that are longer than 48" you can offset 1/16" maple veneers as you laminate your deck. Butting them end to end works great. Make sure the offset of veneers is at least 16" apart.

Use a vacuum cleaner to evacuate most of the air from a TAP bag before using the manual pump.

Always use the same paint brand when painting your deck. Different paint brands are sometimes incompatible with one another.

After purchasing veneers by mail, let your veneers acclimatize to the moisture content of your shop for a couple of days before laminating them into a deck.

Keep unfinished decks out of anywhere there is a lot of heat. The outer layers are prone to cracking. Apply a sealer coat ASAP after sanding your deck.

After using your glue filled roller. Do not wash it out. Place it in a ziplok bag. It will last for weeks and be charged with glue for your next build.

Water based glue makes maple veneer more flexible. Applying water to tight bends on the top and bottom of the outer two layers will make it easier to achieve tighter bends.

Apply clear packing tape onto your foam mold to protect it from glue while pressing.

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