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Thanks Andrew. A clear cedar hull all around is beautiful, but I have always liked the contrast between the cedar interior and a painted hull. If you go that route I would advise a coat or two of primer before the paint, so that the wood pattern doesn’t show through. I haven’t had this one on...

And this one is done, after much delay. Didn’t take many photos along the way, as opportunities to work on it were always unpredictable so I just put my head down and pushed forward as fast as possible on each step before having to take a break for other things. Used s-glass all the way, with...

Not a composite, but just finished my Freedom 17/9. The build in cedar strips was pretty straightforward.

Sorry for delay in this Brian - I was one of the people unable to post over the last little while until DaveO got things fixed. Tempting offer - will have to see what my appetite is after I finish my current tandem build, which hopefully will be sometime in early July. Definitely curious about...

Yeah, I spent a fair bit of time last fall looking for a Canadian source for s-glass (as I am sure you have too). Composites Canada and Aircraft Spruce (5.8 ounce only) were the only ones I could find. Did not push hard when I asked CC about 4 ounce-60” as I didn’t really need it for my build...

Great stuff!!! Many thanks for sharing dogbrain.

Check out this link - who wants to go first on a see-through cedar strip build? https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/scientists-develop-transparent-wood-that-is-stronger-and-lighter-than-glass-1.5902739

This would be of most interest to anyone thinking about building a fuselage frame style skin on frame canoe or other paddle craft, but I think there might be some general utility for anyone either building or repairing other styles of boats as well. It’s a pretty crude approach to stress...

My wife got me a book on paddle-making for Christmas - building a couple is on my “lockdown list” for the winter. I like the book and it will be helpful, but I’m sure I won’t learn as much from it as from your build thread Brian. Looking forward to this.

Alas, I don’t have access to a Munchkin labour force Jim, but I do have the staple puller - bought it off Amazon not long ago after seeing a post you made on it. Works great!!!

Not going to be a proper build thread, but since I have taken my efforts at a tandem tripper pretty well as far as my unheated garage will let me, I thought I would share a few things about it. The canoe is a Freedom 17’9” from Bear Mountain, shortened to about 17’4” to give me a little more...

Not at all - I haven’t done it but lots (maybe most?) people do. Cruiser on this forum used the 1/8 radius bits for his last build with 3/16 strips without serious problems, but did note that some strips tended to slip when going around sharper curves because of the need for shallower coves...

I recently bought a fairly pricey set of bits for 1/4 inch strips from Lee Valley (around $80 CAD), wanting “the best” after impulse buying a set for $25 - $30 CAD on Amazon to try out bead and cove last year. Not sure the Lee Valley ones actually cut any better, although they may last longer...

5/8 MDF here. OSB might also work well, but it is a bit more expensive than MDF and seems like it could be difficult to get smooth edges (although never tried it). Would have to go to something like Baltic Birch around here to get any plywood that is comparable in terms of true and flat...

Table saw here as well, with a 7 1/4 Diablo blade. Recently cut almost 1900 linear feet of strips, a mix of 3/16 and 1/4. Now about 2/3 through stripping my canoe and so far have found just 3 strips that had some serious thin spots. Used the skilsaw method to process a couple of large boards to...

Wow - 21 forms - I thought cutting out 15 plus stems was a pain. I am looking at doing the same thing, but by much less - going from 17’9” down to 17’2” or so, to let me build in my garage and leave some maneuvering room. Jim’s point on adjusting the stems caught my eye - I was just planning on...

Mike, just gotta say that I really like your real world testing of canoeing and outfitting nuts and bolts, and especially the fact that you take the time to share your results in this level of detail. It’s all gold to people like me trying to sort through the many options for outfitting and...

Would have been a good project, but hard to communicate with the seller so I bailed. I should be focussing on my cedar strip build anyway, and stop getting distracted by Kijiji ads. Thanks all for your input.

So this canoe came up locally. It’s a 16 foot prospector, and the seller notes that it needs new outwales and repair of a tear in the canvas. Based on the photos the rest looks to be in decent shape. Replacing the outwales seems pretty easy, and I think I can muddle my way through either...