Paddle with this

 

I really enjoy making the Greenland style paddles. Its real satisfying to take a cedar 2x4 and create something that fits in your hand and begs for the water. I picked up a no.4 bench plane and sharpened it up. The curls coming off the bevels are just so nice! Besides, it makes the shop smell good.

Second Fill Coat

 Just needed a second fill coat of epoxy to give me enough base to sand and fair the hull.... oh boy, sanding time again!

Walk Arround

 This is a cool little walk around the gunnels on the latest canoe..

Decks and Gunnels are done

 The Ash gunnels have a lot of figure to them, pretty sweet actually. With black walnut noses, the fore and aft decks fit tight over the bulkheads and provide a great place to grab on. The seal coat of epoxy was just put on when these pictures were taken and I expect the wood to darken just a bit as it cures. 

The ash wood was sources locally and was destined to become fence boards. With the emerald ash borer in the area a lot of this material will become available.

The next step is to sand down the fill coat of epoxy and get it ready for varnish... then set the seats.

Milling the gunnels

Working on the 17' canoe first to get it out of the way. Today's project was to mill the gunnels and get them installed. I am using some ash lumber a friend gave me to try out, a little different feel than the maple used on previous canoes. The ash is a bit more flexible, easier to bend around the sides, temporary thwarts need to be installed to maintain the shape while the outwales are installed.

Scuppers were cut every 6 inches and are 6 inches wide and a quarter deep, just big enough to get a line through to tie down gear. Inwales were glued in place with epoxy and the outwales were screwed through the hull into the inwales.

still have a few more days on this one, next up is the milling of the decks!