Twins!

please read the following with the voice of the "Count" from Sesame Street...

I see TWO, TWO CANOES! ah hahahahahah!

Inwales

Here we are gluing on the in-wale spacers with epoxy. These will have another piece of maple glued on the inside portion to create the entire in-wale. Once its all in place, screws will be put in from the outside to reinforce the whole construction. Would hate to have it pop off at some critical point.

I don't have enough clamps to do both sides at once... have to put more clamps on my x-mas list...

Rough Lumber

Here is a pretty neat deal... I purchased an Alaskan saw mill attachment for my 20" chainsaw. Finally had time to set it up and install the ripping chain I bought from the local saw shop. After carefully reading all of the directions and safety information I managed to make a few black walnut planks. These will be used for the front and rear decks on the canoes along with accents and spacers...

Turned out pretty cool....

Glass Wetout

Finished the wetout on the inside of the canoe yesterday... here is a most boring video of a time lapse I did to see how the trail cam would work in the shop...

Shop Setup

The next two canoes will be 12 feet in length. I think it will speed things up a bit if I use two sets of forms and strong backs.

 

The design for these 12 footers are for a double bladed solo, with a couple design features from a two different craft. I am combining a more pronounced tumblehome with a two inch increase in width. This should add a touch more initial stability and a flare of style. Next step is form lofting and cutout... stay tuned for more adventures in canoe building...

New Project Boat

I am such a sucker for a canoe....

Obviously its missing a couple of parts, but I should be able to find aftermarket thwarts to stiffen her up a bit. I tried to do some research on the canoe and company but apparently Herter's no longer is in business. I  haven't found enough information to identify it... For now I'm just going to call it the 17' beercan canoe. This canoe does have one feature I haven't seen before, it has a chine at or just above the waterline. I would assume that this is to give the boat additional initial stability. When I get it out on the water, we'll see if it feels tipsy or not...

Please leave a comment if you know anything about these canoes!

bOOOORING!

Sand, sand, sand, sand, sand... boy I sure hate this part of the process but it is totally necessary to lay the base for that nice final finish. I start with an old paint scraper that I have sharpened the blade into a convex shape that fits the internal curves of the hull. This takes off the big glue drips and cuts some of the unevenness off. Then we are off with 60g sand paper on my random orbital for the leveling grind, then smoothing with 80g paper until I'm just sick of it. The final sanding is with 120g paper to make sure all the scratches are gone. This process takes an entire day to complete, an extra pot of coffee helps a lot.

And She's gone....

Good by Queen Charlotte, thanks for spending time in the shop. I hope you enjoy your new fiberglass and graphics....

Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak of the graphics i am putting on the QC project. I had some custom

stickers made and did a little painting with plasti dip (cool stuff). I will seal everything with one more coat of varnish then reinstall all of the hardware...

QC Progress

I was playing around with plastidip and came up with a great idea for the back deck of the Queen Charlotte. Its a little rough at this stage, but we really needed something to dress up the back deck.

A little masking tape, ruler, protractor and a straight edge and there you have it..

Good strips gone bad

Ok so its not all fun and games.... this is what happens to strips when the boards you buy are wet and frozen and stored outside at your local lumber yard... I swear they were all straight and pretty when I milled them....

Cheesy?

Here is one end of a Greenland style paddle I made for a door prize at the SDCKA annual meeting/conference. Do you think the hand lettered web site is cheesy?

Almost there....

Just kidding, I have way to much to do. Here is a sneak peak at the Greenland style paddle I'm working on, going to finish it with spar varnish.

 
And the hull is complete on Canoe#2!

Baby its cold outside...

But things are warm and running in the shop this weekend. I am almost, but not quite, finished with the hull of canoe #2. Just a couple more strips to close it up and then on to fairing, sanding, scraping, sanding, sanding, sanding...

And just for fun, I am carving out a Greenland style paddle from a cedar 2x4 to give away at the annual conference of the South Dakota Canoe and Kayak Association.

New Year Update

I haven't taken any new photos yet this year but wanted to post a quick update. Now that the holidays are over its time to get some serious work completed. First up is the Queen Charlotte overhaul, deck glass, cockpit glass and graphics is on the to do list for that one. Canoe #2 is about closed up, just a few more strips to go, although I do need to mill those strips (I hate it when I underestimate what I need). I do have the fiberglass on hand for the canoe but need to order epoxy.
The annual meeting/conference of the SDCKA is coming up fast and I plan on donating a Greenland paddle or two as door prizes.... I suppose I better get them made right?
And other fun stuff... While on vacation, I met a guy named John who makes super awesome electric violins... check out his site at http://www.jordanmusic.com/ He is defiantly providing inspiration on my next generation of electric ukulele....

Block Plane

I will tell you that there is no better tool for trimming and fitting cedar strips than the lowly block plane. As we start to fill in the bottom of the canoe, we need to fit the bottom strips to those on the sides. The easiest way is to scribe the angle on the strip, hog off the excess with the band saw and then true up the edge, trim and shape a bead to fit in the cove of the previous strip. 

Besides cedar smells so nice when you plane it.

Getting closer

Canoe Two is getting closer to completion today as the bottom strips are started. The sad part is that I don't know if I have enough strips on hand to finish up the hull. I started with the same amount of boards as canoe one... oh well, it wont take much time to mill up the final strips if I need them.

 

Canoe Two Update

Continuing to install strips, just a few more rows to make it to the waterline. Its kind of cool how each boat takes on a style and life of its own. On this one the strips are about half and half, light/dark. So I started with the light ones first, filled in the wedge with darker strips and now am blending from light to dark around the water line to all dark on the bottom. I'm not much of an artist but I think the effect will be pretty cool once I get the fiberglass all whetted out..

New Acquisition

Here is a project for spring, a 16 foot roylex canoe from The Blue Hole canoe company in Tennessee. I believe this one was constructed in 1986. The hull has some major dings and scrapes but I haven't fond any de-laminations yet. As near as I can tell, this was setup as a white water boat, with the surface damage that it has I would love to hear the adventures this boat could tell.

This project will have to wait for spring. My intention is to make any repairs necessary and set it up for small water fishing. But for now its to the rack to wait out winter....

End gaps

So how do you fill in those end gaps anyway?
If your first strips follow the curve of the bow and stern you get a cool smooth transition on each end. However as you progress along with each additional strip you end up with a funky weird curve that the strips have a hard time holding. So I like to put on two strips following the curve and then the third strip goes parallel

with the waterline to relieve the stress. This leaves an odd triangle that needs to be filled in. Fortunately with enough fiddling around you can fill in this area with hand shaped strips to fit....