Penn's Wood Manufacturing
With a new skate season coming upson us Suburban Blend decided to get some new skateboard decks made. Last week we had the opportunity to pick up our new sexy decks and get a tour of where the decks were made.
Penn’s Wood Manufactoring is located in Franklin, PA and they make some the best decks on the planet. The Blend loves to support small businesses and Penn’s Wood is the perfect example of that with just 10 employees.
Owner, Joe McDonald, gave us a tour of the shop and told us how a skateboard is made. Every skateboard starts out as 1/24" and 1/16" thick pieces of North American Maple. 7 pieces are glued together and put in a press for one hour. Once the board has sat in the press it is taken out to air dry for four days. Once they have air dried holes are drilled through the board and then they are put, four at a time, on a CNC router to be cut. The router takes about one minute to cut each board. The boards then are each smoothed three separate times to a smooth perfection.
 More pics at skateboardrev.com |
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At this point the boards leave the wood shop and enter the painting area. For most orders a base color is painted on all the boards. They are set to dry and then go into another room. Every graphic is screen printed by hand onto a special plastic. This plastic and the board run through a machine that heats the ink so it adheres to board. Presto! A wonderful beautiful skateboard is made.
Above, the designer of the new Blend deck, Jonathan Bell, hangs out with his new creation in front of his record shop, Townhouse Records, in Jamestown.
Make sure to check out Penn’s Wood Manufactoring
And Jonathan Bell’s artwork and design work can be seen at www.d-formative.com
