They were priceless antique blown glass swans hand made by an eight year old cancer patient who was blind and did his work by smell. I’m going to need millions in restitution.
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I just had a thought…
Cut adhesive backed vinyl in a cool as pattern, paint the poly on the open spaces with an overlap on the vinyl, spread the frit, let it get tacky dry and then remove the vinyl. Would that work?
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i’m gonna cut some stuff this weekend and send it to you, see if you can do something sic with it 
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@longhairedboy I was thinking about ordering some glass frit. How do you like it? Do you still recommend “fine” over "medium?
I am plannjng putting on a coat of clear polyester resin, then letting it dry a bit and get tacky, then sprinkle on an even layer of glassfrit. Then letting it dry and brush off the frit that didnt stick and seal with another coat of resin.
Thoughts?
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I think after some use i have decided that the fine is just too fine.
I’ve got a couple pounds of medium sized frit coming, 1 of opalescent black and 1 of clear transparent.
The majority of the fine chunks are probably big enough, but there seems to be a lot of dust as well. I’m hoping the medium has less dust.
However, the fine looks pretty decent… once you get a few coats of poly over it it resembles melted sugar:
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Awesome, I thought the fine looked, well, fine. I am going to grab some medium frit and try it out. I skinned a landyatchz dinghy in this star wars fabric for my kids board and the clear MOB is just not quite good enough TBH. Are you using standard water based polyurethane? I have polyester resin, but I guess I will grab some polyurethane for the frit.
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yeah the clear grip tape is basically garbage, even from MOB. It looks ok on light colored boards but not ona nything dark, and glass-n-poly looks soo much better on everything.
I use minwax clear spar urethane, water based. Usually i use gloss but sometimes i use matte.
That mini cruiser looks sick. I love it.
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Hey handsome, can you explain once again how you do achieve your best clear grip results ? I got a sweat nude Vega deck and I kinda don’t want to hide the wood with some boring black grip 
Way I have been doing it is by putting a layer several layers of spar urethane down and let each one dry before starting the next and light sanding in between. Then when you are ready for the grip coat. Lay down a layer of spar like previous and then sprinkle on the glass frit and let it dry then put another layer of spar on it and let it dry then your are finished. I like using waterbased spar as it dries quick and it brings out some nice grain and tones in the wood.
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Thank you for the tips! How many base spar layers approx do you apply? 5-10? How much resting time between each layer?
Edit : got a brand you’d recommend for the urethane and frit?
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@longhairedboy is correct the best surface you can put on your board is crushed glass or if you buy it like i did its called frit and you can get it on amazon. This is what I used one my board,
It is awesome grip and I believe can last longer than most of the components of your build however it is time consuming.
The benefits are:
- better grip than the best tape on the market
- you can do any number of colors and put below the grip surface graphics will be protected and last.
- it cleans up much better than grip tape with a little bit of water and soap
- it does not peel on edged as most grip tape does over time
- It is custom
The downsides:
- It takes time!!! to do right
- you need to prep the board surface properly
- It is is a permanent finish (however it can be repaired or enhanced)
So above many comments have been added to how to properly apply but here are few additional items I learned on my first board.
- Put down a couple of primary coats of SPAR urethane.
- Don’t rush sanding as it will just clog you sand paper.
- Don’t rush coatings as if the previous coating is not cured it can get gummy which means more sanding.
- Apply glass frit when urethane is gummy. Pay attention this stuff can flash up quickly.
- Over coat should be dabbed on with brush it you brush across frit it will cause air bubbles.
Here is final board with frit installed…(The white hue is due primarily to the fact I brushed last coating and got air bubbles remember dab it on!!
Overall the best coating you can out on a deck, when completed you will feel the difference at it is significant.
Good luck,
Kevin
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I usually do 3-4 base coats but I use the brush on kind so it can be very thick coats. Water base is usually dry in like 3-4 hours depending on the temps and humidity of the room its in.
glass frit can come from anywhere
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Think I’ll be doing this on my hummie deck.
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the way i’ve been doing it lately is without even brushing on an initial layer. I wet it heavily with a soft bristle brush and sprinkle in the frit in sections. Usually by the time i get to the end of the board, i only have about 30 to 45 minutes longer to wait before i brush on the second coat.
I often do 3-4 coats on top of the frit to lock it in.
One of the interesting things about it is that when your feet finally wear it down, it can be patched easily using the same methods used to create it in the first place. In fact, its more work and less return to try and sand it down first, so don’t bother.
A lot of my customers just enjoy it while it lasts, then go ahead and grip over it with MOB or Vicious or something when it finally wears off.
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Definitely. The pigment in the dyed veneer is often soaked up by the poly resulting in swirly candy red/clear areas of the board and add a dimension to the finish. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t add additional pigment to achieve a desired effect.
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I have a @hummie deck coming my way. I don’t want to cover the carbon fiber but at the same time I have a theme for my board and a few colors are necessary to pull it off. Thanks for the reply, love looking at your work on IG.
I am planning on giving this a go in the next couple of days. Home Depot doesn’t carry miniwax anymore!
Thats the poly I was going to get, but instead got this triple think stuff. I don’t know if the added viscosity will be a good thing or a negarive thing in this application.
Only one way to find out!
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