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!
 

Matched Pair

 The next project in the shop is a matched pair of canoes, one a 17 footer and the other a 12.5 foot solo canoe.

The first step is to set up the forms and get them level, plumb and aligned correctly.

1923 Larson Duck Boat Restoration

 I believe we are finished with this clean up and polish project! I have way more hours into this than I should have put but the end result is worth the extra time.. It will never float again without a layer of fiberglass on the hull, but it will make a sweet wall hanger for the client.

About a hundred years of barn dust and cobwebs, dry rot. An entire quart of varnish went into the wood on the first coat topside. I don't think I have ever seen wood that dry before.

Interior stems

So I get the question a lot, "How do you bend the boards around the sharp corners?" Do I use steam or soak the boards in water or a half a dozen guesses. The reality is quite simple, I use clear oak for the interior stems and do this in three pieces. I rip strips just shy of a quarter inch, apply a liberal amount of glue, and bend them around the end forms and clamp, clamp, clamp. Oak is a nice hardwood but it is also flexible when cut into thin strips. Seldom will it crack or splinter while bending as long as you go slow and steady. These stems give a good surface to glue the body strips to as we start to come up the sides.

Due Diligence

Doing all of the research to make sure i want to invest in a large project is a lot of fun and can be educational as well. I managed to get yet another book from the Inter Library Loan program. CanoeCraft is a fantastic book that takes you step by step through the strip build method of making a canoe. Methods and materials are similar to the Strip Built Kayak book. but when it comes right down to it, a canoe is not for me. I'm going for a kayak.