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My brother just stopped over, returning some tools he borrowed. Checked on my canoe build, and made the comment: "This is the coolest thing anyone in our family has ever made.....including Grandpa Jackson". Grandpa Jackson was a carpenter, woodworker, and woodworking teacher his entire adult...

Looks like I'll be making some more clamps....

Decided to get a little bold, and try gluing two strips at the same time. Maybe that's common, but I've been doing one at a time, until now. I'll probably be back to one at a time when I get to where the strips are twisted significantly, but so far they lay in pretty easily.

Not much time for canoe the last couple days. Had to rebuild a couple windows, before the boss hired someone else to replace them, which I didn't want just anyone to do, in a log home. Jim: This is the second pic I've seen of the Virginia Jim Dodd bungees. Can you post a pic or two that...

I'm up to 50 "Jimmy Clamps" now. I have another 24 spring clamps on order. Question on "keep the strips as tight to the forms as you can"....At what point do you consider it a problem? Mine are tight to the forms, to the point where I can't see light between strips and form, except for two...

Cruiser: Yes, it's stapleless. And I made plenty of Jimmy clamps. Way more than I'll need, or at least I thought so, until I started. I made 24. I'll be making more tomorrow. The last strip I put on yesterday pulled away from the forms in a couple spots on the bottom edge, where the...

I'm up to 5 strips, each side. It seems like as the number of strips progresses, so does the number of clamps needed. Last strip, 51 clamps used (for both sides), and I probably could have used more. I stabilized all knots while they were still in plank, before ripping the strips. I'm not...

Question on knots. I know they will make fairing and sanding a challenge, does anyone leave them in, or do they all get cut out? I kind of like the look, just not sure I want to deal with the hard spots down the road. Both pix show them book matched.

Well, I took a week off from my canoe build to go fishing. Fishing was so good, I made it two weeks. I'm back at it, and got the cove n bead cut, and the first strip on. One philosophy I've adopted is, I'd rather do something and not need it, than not do it, and wish I had later. With that...

Rain day today, so no machining strips. Finished a bunch of Jimmy clamps. Went to local bike shop, and they gave me way more tubes than I needed. Figure I can use some for holding strips in other ways??? Question for you seasoned builders. Anyone ever had any reaction to the dust from...

Well, I probably should have asked this BEFORE I cut all of my strips. Is there anything magical about choosing either 1/4" or 3/16"? I ripped all of mine to 7/32". By doing so, I have virtually no scrap. And, I figure why not go half way between the two thicknesses discussed? Well, anyway...

Finally found a use for my 40 foot extension ladder. I've had it for 20+ years, and used it once. It's heavy as heck, and who wants to be 40' off the ground on a ladder? Seems to make a great platform for machining cedar though. Just need to change the blade, and set up the guide on the saw...

Ohhh. Hadn't thought of epoxy seepage. Sure glad I asked about my "brilliant idea". Tape it is.

Well, I got some cedar I'm satisfied with. Ended up with 1 by 4's, they were closer to knot free than anything wider. It's flat grain, I bought (8) 16 footers. Better than anything I found at the four menards I went to. Just stabilized all knots with epoxy, so they're not flying out while...

I'm having a heck of a time getting the cedar I want. I have a source for clear vertical grain 1 by 8, but it's close to $15 per lin. ft. Went to 2 different big box stores yesterday, didn't find any 1 by stock that would give more than a strip or two clear of knots. The thought of trying to...

Great video, but just goes to show how much work I have left.

I'm fortunate to have a Format4 Austrian made planer. That's the only reason I'm still thinking of planing my strips. I can dial in the thickness to within .005", the finish is like glass, no chatter. with a light cut, knots don't blow up. Yeah, I'm aware of the challenges of mixing hard &...

Yeah, I've made a few "French Curve" scrapers. If there's lots of material removal, it's worth the time spent to custom shape a scraper or two. I have a bunch of cabinet scraper blades. I'll just grab one, shape and sharpen on the belt grinder. Question for those of you that go stapleless...

While this is my first stripper build, I've done extensive woodworking for a very long time. For concave shapes, I now use a random orbital sander, and add home made interface pads, which are basically a soft pad that has both sides of velcro (hook & loop) on each side. Sticks to the sander...

Jim: I realize now why you prefer stemless! As I suspected, first stem was practice. Bent another one last night. I have enough strips cut to do another, and I think I will at some point, to video the entire process with some tips & pointers. Unfortunately, there's NO WAY to video and do...