Homegrown Skateboards on Maritime Made

skateboarding isn't only a sport the decks themselves are actually a form of art that's why the best skateboard decks are the ones that are handmade by artists unfortunately not all decks are handmade in fact most are built exactly the same in large factories all over the world but if you want a handmade limited-edition deck then you need only travel to homegrown skateboards in LaHaye Nova Scotia where they take the art of skateboard production to a whole new level the deck of a skateboard the part that the user stands on is probably the most personal part of all homegrown skateboards builds custom limited-edition skateboard decks in a variety of shapes and sizes the artwork is screen printed by hand and designed by a variety of local artists in fact each piece of artwork usually has its own unique story every skateboard deck at homegrown skateboards starts with seven layers of hard rock maple veneer veneer is a thin slice of wood obtained by peeling the trunk of a tree and is between one twentieth and one sixteenth of an inch thick the maple veneer is grown and made in New Brunswick and handpicked by homegrown owner Jesse Watson in the first stage of deck construction piles of veneer are clamped together with a rough template they're then cut into a rough shape on the bandsaw the glue sourced from Quebec is starch-based the glue is spread evenly on each piece of veneer and then lay down to the previous piece once the pieces are ready the veneer is laid out in a series of piles each of the seven layers is a unique thickness and is laid out starting with the bottom face this is followed by a thicker core veneer a cross grain veneer another core layer another cross grain layer one more core layer and finally the top face layer it takes approximately 120 kilogram pale of glue to make 90 skateboard decks once all the deck layers have been glued they're placed in a giant custom press the press will accommodate a variety of deck shaping molds depending on the shape of deck that's being made using a large amount of pressure the press compresses the various layers of veneer together until they form the shape of the mold the deck is then left in the press until the glue is dry before being removed from the press each deck has to reference holes drilled into the outer corners to help line the deck up with various other pieces of machinery in the production process once ready the deck is removed from the press and is taken to the drill press here a custom drill system is used to pre-drill the holes for the trucks the trucks are the metal turning mechanism that hold the wheels because these holes need to be placed in an exact position the reference holes are used to line up the deck in the correct spot next comes a fun part each newly pressed deck is pinned to a specific template again using the reference holes the templates can be a variety of deck widths or styles once the deck and template are pinned together the bandsaw is used to cut out the final shape followed by a router that is able to cut a more accurate finished deck shape once the shape of the board is ready it's removed from the template and the edges are then rounded using another router first on one side then on the other once the edges are rounded to perfection the deck is completely sanded on a rotary sander finally Jessi uses the custom-made flat master which is a group of loose pieces of sandpaper of varying grits attached to a rotating drum a flat master will gently rough on the deck to allow for better lacquer and paint application now the deck has been fully sanded and looks like a skateboard deck it's taken to the spray booth once the custom safety gear is in place two coats of clear lacquer are applied to add durability to the finished deck when the lacquer is fully dry the decks move on to the silk screening stage where the artwork is printed on the bottom of each deck the original art designs are created by a variety of artists and transferred onto the screens by computer silk-screening our screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink blocking stencil the attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink as a sharp-edged image onto the deck a fill blade or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil forcing the ink through the mesh once the artwork is dry the homegrown logo is silk-screened on the top of the deck once the deck is completely dried it's ready to ride although every deck made by homegrown skateboards is a work of art most also have a practical purpose most skateboard owners will layer a sheet of grip tape on the top of the deck to ensure their feet don't slip off in the middle of a trick most skateboard owners will also quickly scrape scratch and dip their deck after only a few hours use luckily every homegrown skateboard deck is also designed and built to withstand a whole lot of skateboarding abuse

Channel: Eastlink

Views: 93,971

Keywords: Skateboards, maritime Made

Id: LY3H0z3DpU4

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 15 2015