Marquetry Attempt #1

So I am taking a break for a couple of weeks from ski building due to an ACL reconstruction surgery I had last Friday. Since I’m stuck in bed with my leg elevated, time to update my build thread!

Following up from my last post, I have rebuilt the last pair of powder skis that I messed up on my first try, here they are!

Just needs the topsheet painted and finished, laser engraving and a tune and they’re ready to go! I am going to try a new finish for the topsheet – entropy clr/clx to get a more glossy and hopefully more resilient finish than the poly and spar I’ve been using.

What I’m really excited to share is my next build – I feel like a lot of new stuff came together and brought things to the next level! I pressed my first marquetry inlayed topsheet design!

so the inlay is a trace of the matterhorn mountain from a vacation photo I took years ago. I did the tracing in autocad:

Next, I cut out each shape in different veneers using the laser and exported dxf files for each mountain shape and carefully assembled them like a jigsaw puzzle. the painters tape is temporary and then I flipped it over and used veneer tape with holes in it to seal the seams from underneath before pressing:

everything layed up on the casette:

in the press:

and here’s the result from layup!

looking forward to recovering from surgery in the coming weeks so I can cut them out and finish the build up! the build is an all mountain shape, 95 at the waist and 17m turning radius. 2.2/10/2.2 tip mid tail core thickness, 20 oz triax fiberglass with a 1″ wide unidirectional carbon stringer under the core. really looking forward to seeing these through to completion!