• Happy Weed Appreciation Day! 🌱🌿🌻

Ideas for alternate/reclaimed wood for stripper.

Joined
Jan 31, 2013
Messages
260
Reaction score
10
Location
Middle of the Florida paddling paradise
Trying to figure out a inexpensive way to build a solo stripper on my old (very old) form. They just cut the work week for every one down to 32 hours a week. So I have a little time to build now. Just not much money. Have the glue, sand paper, webbing for the seats, oak for the seats, staples, staple gun and polyester resin. Any ideas on were to get the inexpensive wood for strips?

Yes I know polyester resin is not the best. But unless some one wishes to donate epoxy resin I can not afford it. Hey my 1979 Mohawk blazer is polyester. Just need to figure out how to get it to bond to the wood.

The form is from plans and book I bought from Canoe and Kayak magazine back when it was Canoe magazine. My book is so old it talks about using polyester.

Thanks for telling how to do it and not that it can not or should not be done. Posters here seem to have a can do attitude.
 
Last edited:
Trying to figure out a inexpensive way to build a solo stripper on my old (very old) form. They just cut the work week for every one down to 32 hours a week. So I have a little time to build now. Just not much money. Have the glue, sand paper, webbing for the seats, oak for the seats, staples, staple gun and polyester resin. Any ideas on were to get the inexpensive wood for strips?

The first thought that comes to mind is to find a source for reclaimed or salvaged wood.

I once worked on the adaptive reuse renovation of a 200,000 sf warehouse, originally built in 1914. The floors were maple tongue and groove on sleepers. The demolition guys knocked holes in the walls and pushed the flooring out of the building with a bobcat. It broke my heart to see it all go to the dump.

In Baltimore there are two places that sell reclaimed parts and pieces of old buildings that are being demolished. The ornate stuff like crown molding and art deco sconces is pricey, the plain wood stuff like doors, frames and flooring is much less so.

I’m not sure how you would deal with nails or etc with a planer or saw blade, but I suspect that the quality and type of wood used in a 100 year old building might be either unavailable or darn pricey today.
 
I built two strippers using reclaimed cedar siding, actually the trim boards from a cedar sided house. My ex-B-I-L was doing a vinyl siding job and carefully removed all of the cedar with me in mind. The cedar boards were finished on one side and rough on the other, it made little difference to the glue joints.
Both of those boats were polyester lay ups, one was 20 years old when I sold it, the other was 28 years old when it was crushed in a swamping on Round Lake Outlet in the spring of 2012. The remnants of that crushed boat still live on as photo frames.
And no, polyester is not the best, but it does work...
 
If weight is not a concern, look for some white pine. Not sure if you are in the States or Canada, but it tends to be cheap in Canada. If you can find a local mill, it's often around a buck a board foot, which would work out to about 60 bucks for a normal sized canoe. Also, lots of strapping is made from white pine, and it's dirt cheap, often free, but you will have to work it. White pine is usually very clear, I've built a couple of canoes with it.
 
Back
Top