Gunwale wood?

[BWCA66]

So I recently acquired 2 strip hulls, one cedar and one redwood, and I'm trying to decide on gunwale wood. What different woods have you all used?

 

[Canotrouge]

Spruce, ash, white oak.... But others have used cherry, red oak( I don't think red oak is a good idea)... birch, I'm sure I read some where cedar was used too!!

 

[stripperguy]

For wood gunnels my favorite is mahogany
light and strong easy to work with
I’ve also used oak and ash even used southern yellow pine once
the pine took more maintenance but was nice and lightweight

 

[Cruiser]

Partial to cherry, easy to work, readily available and has a really nice look .... once it gets a year on it, the colour darkens and looks great

 

[Jim Dodd]

I've always used Ash with no complaints !
I abuse it, and it takes it !
Watco the dickens out of it, and forget it ! The last coat I apply is brushed on and left to dry. Takes for ever, But I haven't had to redo any !

Now for the SCORE ! We have found a Mill that we use for our Wood Shop.

I bought 6 Ash planks, full inch thick, Kiln dried, 18 1/2' long x 15" wide. For $50 a plank. It's not perfect, but good enough for me ! I've looked for ever trying to find long planks of Ash ! I'm set for life now !

He has three left, if anyone is interested ? They may be his best planks !

Jim

 

[Robin]

I just picked up some ash this morning, 10's and an 8', it was rough sawn but my friend Bob planed it to 3/4" and ran it thru the joiner on one side. I'll rip it on my old under powered table saw to 3/4 plus and then make a 8-10" splice.
This will be used to restore plastic canoes. I have 20' ash for my wood canvas canoes.
I have always used ash as that's what Chestnuts came with and I like the look. I have used cherry which does look better and better with age as Cruiser mentioned. I have heard white oak is nice too.

Ash-Gluing up splices with Titebond III

 

[Guest]

I have only ever regunwaled two canoes in wood, both with ash. Neither had much sheerline rise at the stems, but even the MRC Independence needed some clamps and two pair of helper hands to hold in place during installation.

Are there tricks to doing that solo beyond a boatload of clamps? At what point, with what woods and stem recurve, does steam bending become necessary?

 

[Foxyotter]

Cherry, and elm are nice and if you can find some sassafras is also pretty. It depends on how you use your canoe and what you want out of it. Ash is kind of the standard and for good reasons. White oak and ash are both very durable but both a little heavy. You could have a more durable heavier outwale and less durable lighter inwale.

 

[dougd]

I have recently turned to poplar, considered a hardwood by the charts and have been happy with it and it's light and easy to work with. For my WW boats I still stick to ash as I know how rugged it is when I hit a rock.

 

[alsg]

Sapele. Looks like mahogany, cheaper and more eco-friendly.

 

[Conk]

It depends on how you use your canoe and what you want out of it.

My gunwale species list is up to seven… Ash, Mahogany, Cherry, Tulip, Sitka Spruce, White Pine and scarfed bits of American Walnut laminated between strips of Sitka.


"Are there tricks to doing that solo beyond a boatload of clamps? At what point, with what woods and stem recurve, does steam bending become necessary?"

Start amidships and work towards the ends, after four screws are in place start moving the center clamps to the ends, shouldn't require more than seven clamps for screwed in place rails, cementing them with epoxy however, would requite a boatload.

Size, species and grain selection all factor in the bend ability of a good gunwale wood. A cracking sound is your best indicator of when steam bending should have been employed. Most modern hulls have a very gentle sheer-line, that IMO does not necessitate steaming.

 

[dogbrain]

I’ve used ash before but spruce on the last two builds plus the 1928 old town. It’s less than half the weight of ash but obviously not as strong. I don’t have any long term use info but it does dent relatively easy compared to a hardwood, but not as easy as cedar. The original spruce outwales on the old town lasted 90 years seeing some hard use and neglect, so I suppose that is some good long term data and convinced me to go with it.

I used screws only on all these and there is enough upturn at the ends that it required me to steam bend the ends. Like said above, if you’re screwing on gunwales you don’t need that many clamps, but extra hands make it easier at the start.

mark.

 

[Fitz]

For the sheer sweep, I typically soak the rails for a few days in a PVC tube and then use the polyethylene bag method to steam them. The poly bag allows you to periodically try the bend to see if it is ready to go, and then you can clamp the rail, bag and all, to the canoe. There is no cooling off of the rail to worry about. The photo shows genuine honduran mahogany. A few weeks ago, I did the same thing with african mahogany. Both worked fine. The photo above was taken at about 35F and there was still no cooling off to worry about. You do need a good hot source of steam.

JPF

 

[Guest]

Gunwale dimensions, width and depth, must matter as well. Even with an easy sheerline rise installing the ash gunwales on the Independence was a chore.

I had a rare day’s use of a cabinetmaker Uncle’s shop and his high end tools, help and advice. We planned a straight grained ash plank down to 5/8” thick, but ripped the strips (I guess) kinda wide, 7/8”. All of them, inwales and outwales both, enough for two canoes.

Once run through his router there was still a lot of flat surface top and bottom on the gunwales. Nice fingerhold below the outwales when under the yoke, deep flat inwale surface for mounting flange washers and machine screws for thwarts and hung seat.

More depth than I needed, and heavier/beefier than I wanted, but thanks to his tools and help they came out so perfect I wasn’t gonna try to skinny them down. 20 years later we still have the glass Independence; those gunwales may outlast the hull.

Folks who make wood gunwales, what dimensions do you use? And what shape/cross section? I recall that Bell wood gunwales had a peculiar sloping cross section, at least on the outwale, with a rational for the design.

EDIT: Actually, probably the other way around; planned to 7/8”, ripped to 5/8”.

 

[Alan Gage]

I don't think I've ever made a set of gunwales to the same dimensions. All have depended on what boat it was going on, the intended usage, and what wood species I was using (and whether or not I was wrapping it with carbon).

I once spent a lot of time trying to find the gunwale profile I liked best. I have a box full of 1' gunwale sections with different dimensions and round overs. This was the one I liked the best:

20150322_010 by Alan, on Flickr

The heavy round over helps water drain when the boat is inverted for a portage so that it tends to fall out of the boat instead of running down your arms into your arm pits. It's still fat enough for a good finger hold when lifting. Of course it doesn't leave an attachment point for seats or thwarts on the inwale. But in boats where I've used that profile the thwarts were epoxied into place and reinforced with cloth. The seats, as with all my solos, were floor mounted.

On other boats where I've used a thin inwale I've simply glued a short piece of 1/4" wide wood (or whatever thickness is needed) to the areas where the thwarts/seats/yoke need to be attached.

20170102_003 by Alan, on Flickr


Alan

 

[memaquay]

I've used every wood possible, knarly black ash that was a bear to work with but looked beautiful, and even Birch, which proved to be strong and light. However, like Stripperguy, I really like mahogany, its just really hard to find around here.

 

[goonstroke]

I did a little Black Friday shopping for gunwale wood, but came home empty handed.

I want something on the light side (i.e., lighter than ash), and was thinking that spruce would be ideal. However, nobody around here seem to stock clear spruce boards, or really any spruce that isn't junky "SPF" whitewood mystery meat dimensional lumber. (And spruce grows like a weed in this county!) My easy local options are poplar and white pine.

So, two questions for the gunnelwise:
1. Is white pine legit/viable as a gunwale wood? I was thinking it was not, but Conk mentions it above and obviously he knows what he's doing. I know it's light, and as easy to find as a gallon of milk.
2. How good is poplar? Is it comparable to spruce in terms of strength/weight? Doug and Conk both mention it. Can one get away with say 5/8x5/8 rails on a 16' boat that won't be abused?

If I'm patient I'm sure I can find some decent spruce, and aluminum may also be an option if I want to wait, but I'd love to be able to make progress with the off the shelf options.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[ppine]

White ash
Sitka spruce
Mahogany
Walnut or cherry

 

[ppine]

Sapele. Looks like mahogany, cheaper and more eco-friendly.

How can wood imported from other countries be more eco-friendly than locally sourced American grown wood?
sorry I am a forester and had to ask.

 

[alsg]

How can wood imported from other countries be more eco-friendly than locally sourced American grown wood?
sorry I am a forester and had to ask.

I only meant sapele is more eco-friendly than mahogany, which is endangered.