Level
Once I’ve kept the stacks of deck planks in the press for a day, I released them from captivity. The resulting sandwich already was fairly level.
What you need
planer
Now came the best part. Just as suggested in my resources, I gave it a couple rounds of planer treatment! I don’t own a planer myself, but my local carpenter Tischlerei Mitsching was nice enough to do the job for me. If anyone reading this is near them, check them out! Unlike me, they absolutely know what they’re doing.
I ensured that my stacks kept the same height. So for each round of planarizing on one stack, I removed an equal amount of material from the second one. For the top side of the stacks, it isn’t as important to get an optimally leveled surface. I stopped once the colors and grain popped out the way I liked most visually. To do that, it made sense to really only remove small portions of material at each round the stack went through the planer. The more material was taken away, the more the surface color contracted and made room for the layers below.
There is not too much to add here… but it’s worth spending a few moments to appreciate this amazing looking piece of psychedelic wood.
By now you probably understand why it’s so much fun to work with skate decks, especially colored ones. You can’t know exactly how your final product will look. One last thing to point out again… As you can see in the picture, the top deck on the right stack slid to the side a bit while being pressed. If you read the full “Squeeze” post you will know why. Just make sure to carefully center your decks before applying full force.
Resources
If you like the aesthetics of planarized skate decks, you’ll love this, too.
