First Canoe

[WoodsNWaters]

I was going to make each strip long on one end and short on the other but figured it makes every strip fussy. Seems easier to make one strip short at both ends then add the long strip on the other side. Alternating sides, of course. I stapled one strip but haven't cut the ends yet.

My thinking above was wrong. Now I have to get the short strip -- the first of the pair -- cut to exact length for the entire canoe. After I glue the short strip down, there's really no chance to saw the bevel to match the long strip. The bead of that short strip is glued down into the cove of the previous strip and sawing down into a cove isn't gonna work*. Stapling appears to tighten everything up so the length of an unstapled strip is inexact.

I just read a post by @Gamma1214 about building "Raven". His method there was each strip had a short end which was beveled, and a long end which bypassed the opposite side's beveled end. Courses were swirled left then swirled right, left, right. (My words, not his.)

Re-do.

The Weldwood Professional Wood glue on the beveled ends of the first strip broke apart easily after a couple of hours. This saves the long strip but I'll need to scarf another full-length strip.

* A) Saw then X-acto-knife? B) Saw then Dremel? C) Glue and staple as far as the last lateral form then saw? D) Doesn't matter this boat is turning around. Each strip will have a short end and a long end.

 

[Alan Gage]

You do what you gotta do to in order to make it make sense in your own head but it seems to me you are going about this about the hardest way possible.

Lay the first strip and let it run long. Use a pull saw, with the beveled stem as a guide, and cut the angle on the end of the first strip. Lay the second strip and let it run past the first strip. For your next course the short strip will be on the opposite side of the hull so it will alternate back and forth.

I'm hardly one to stick hard and fast to convention but that's generally how it's done and I've never seen a good reason to deviate.

Alan