My first cedar strip canoe build -- 17' Kooteny (was Micmac)

[bernjo]

Here is the progress from the weekend:


Question: Bear Mountain in the book Canoecraft recommends cutting down the center line with a chisel. I am tempted to use my Japanese pull saw. What have more experienced builders done?

Thank you,
Bernard

 

[stripperguy]

Bernard...very nice work!
I use a 4" circular blade trim saw, but I have also used a 7 1/4" circular saw and a many times used a jig saw.
I usually cut just a smidge away from the line and finish to the line with a piece of 32 grit stapled to a long straight piece of wood. You're gonna want that keel joint line to be as straight as possible.I have photos somewhere...

 

[stripperguy]

Found 'em...
Here's my nephew using his 6 1/2" DeWalt

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And here he is using that chunk of wood with 32 grit to straighten out his joint line

View attachment 00a6sUSqbBItraPfbKytxj-khznbUphpnah6SdAuRmUKR3Ap_fEY4Ndx6q0eQg3x1pLG-CRpGiNBGl7i7NIPpkfoiKeHG8omgnZy


And here's a link to ALL of the photos of his build, I think they're fairly complete.

 

[Cruiser]

I still find a chisel/small plane/sanding stick the best way to get the line straight, they take off less at a time .. so I find it harder to make mistakes that will haunt you. First time I did it manually I was totally amazed at how straight the line was and doubted I could have done that with power tools.

Brian

 

[Jim Dodd]

I use a pull saw, to cut the center line. It works fine ! Power tools can get away from you, and ruin what you've labored so long to produce. At least I'm more comfortable with the pull saw. Others are comfortable with power.

You can stay close to the line and come back with a chisel, or plane. Just be sure that the edge you trim, is straight up and down.
I use a plane, left to me that belonged to my Dad. That way he helps with every canoe I build !
A pic.

 

[Jim Dodd]

bernjo

Good to see you stopped with your last strip, a little short of center. I stop even sooner. It makes piecing that last few strips in easier.

Fitting the strips, is very satisfying! When they snaps into place perfectly, you will feel a mild rush !
Don't put too much pressure on the strips, or it will bow the keel line up.

If you cut one short, don't worry, you can use it on the next course.

Have fun ! Looks great so far !

Jim

 

[wingnut]

Pull saw for me, then use a sanding block to finish off. Looking good.

 

[bernjo]

More progress...Stripping complete

And staples pulled .

Hoping to take it outside to so some sanding this weekend with the nice weather that we have forecast. I probably better check what fiberglass I have on hand and order some epoxy

 

[Jim Dodd]

Looks Great !
I see a bundle of left over strips to the side. Good start for another canoe.
Weather should be great for some outside sanding.
Think I'll do some myself !

Jim

 

[bernjo]

Does anyone have any experience or opinions about the UV inhibitor epoxy? Any reason not to use it? I plan to varnish for UV protection, so this would be an example wearing a belt and suspenders

 

[Jim Dodd]

I used RAKA's UV inhibited, on two canoes so far, one stripper, and one composite. Too early to tell if it is really beneficial.
I could tell no difference in color, once applied.
It seemed quite comparable to the regular resin, with the 350 non-blush hardener.
Pot life and mix time seemed to be very close, in my use.
Same price.

The coloring helps prevent mixing them up. The cup in the fore ground is mixed UV inhibited resin.

Jim

 

[BWCA66]

So here's a question for builders to weigh in on - do you scarf strip joints or butt them up to each other? With bead and cove is scarfing worth the effort? I do like the idea of scarfing the boards before cutting the strip's.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Big can of worms ! Not really. Every builder will have their reasons, for different ways.

Me, I butt join the strips between the forms. The bead and cove makes it easy, and barely noticeable, if done right, and you just keep on stripping.

Scarfing planks is fine, so long as you can stagger the joints.
Say I need a 16' strip. If I spliced my planks at a little over 16', it would be tough to stagger the joints. Now if I made 18' spliced planks, I could stagger the joints better, but I would be wasting more wood, as I trimmed the ends.

Really it boils down to the builder !
Over the years, I prefer Butt joining the strip, on the forms.

That's a 2" clamp, and there is plenty of room to slip another strip between the jaws. Once the next strip is in place, I pull the clamp. The bead and cove holds everything in place, and you just keep stripping.
One does want to make these joints, where there is minimal stress on the strip !

Jim

 

[wingnut]

I scarfed the joints on my recent build mainly just for looks. I'm sure not many would take the time to wet the strips to match the color and grain pattern but the results are less noticeable joints. Scarfed together the strips twist from the stems to the bilge just like full length strips also.

 

[bernjo]

No Title

Here is the progress as of yesterday. I think that I filled staple holes and cracks too soon. When I did the finish sanding I opened quite a few back up and need to go back and refill. I tried several fillers and ended up liking Elmers Ultra thickened with wood flour the best. The filled holes that you can see on the bow were filled with an Elmers off the shelf filler that they had at the local hardware store.

Has anyone tried using plinking sheers to cut the bias strips for the stems? Last summer I built a stitch and glue paddle board for my wife and had some trouble with the fiberglass fraying. When I switched to cutting with plinking sheers the fraying went away, although my technique also improved during the process.

I am hoping to fiberglass the hull this coming weekend.

Bernard

 

[Jim Dodd]

Looks great !

I'd be a terrible seamstress ! My bias strips on the ends, have caused me Nightmares .

I hope you have been following Sven's build !

Jim

 

[Cruiser]

So here's a question for builders to weigh in on - do you scarf strip joints or butt them up to each other? With bead and cove is scarfing worth the effort? I do like the idea of scarfing the boards before cutting the strip's.

As Jim said, this can be a big can of worms depending on who you talk to. In reality, either can work ... IMO it really depends on the situation, if you have a few strips that need to be joined, I would just butt them .... however if you have quite a few, you may want to skarf prior to using the strips.

For my last build (Freedom 17), I was using white cedar, which meant that the majority of strips needed to be joined/skarfed. I find skarfing individual strips to be finicky, so I simply planned for the skarfs by purchasing paired pieces (of 2x6 rough) so the lengths equaled ~20' ( i.e. 8+12s, 10 + 10) .... then I just used a 4:1 skarf to join the stock pieces. This pic is one of those pieces after I cut the strips, tinted epoxy was used, because I wanted the joints to pop a bit as a design feature. Staggering the joints was pretty straight forward as I did up batches with 3 different joint areas, plus as you can see, the joints naturally stagger a bit anyway.




Staggering the joints is pretty straight forward and is easily handled when you do the strip book matching. After slicing these strips, they were cut in half, planed, beaded and coved and not a single joint let go ... and best of all, only 3 skarf joints were required for the entire build.

If you have a source of shorter stock material, I think skarfing the source material to make longer boards makes a lot of sense and saves a lot of work ,plus you could even get creative and use this step to add some design elements to your craft.

Brian

 

[wingnut]

No Title

Nice job on your boat. My strips on the stems end up frayed and terrible looking but they do sand out smooth and hardly noticeable when done. Some good info on glass work in the cruiser build thread.
I go the cheap route on cedar and use rough sawn. I end up scarfing just about all the longer strips to get knot free wood. looking over my solo hull that's now sanded fiberglass the only scarfs I can find are the ones where the strips got flipped and the colors didn't match when I glued them together. Here's a pic of one of the mismatched joints

 

[bernjo]

Filling the weave question:

I glassed the hull this weekend and put the second fill coat on this morning. Should I continue to apply fill coats until the weave is completely gone? Or should I let the epoxy cure and sand some before putting on additional coats?

Thanks for any advice,
Bernard

 

[Cruiser]

I usually put on three coats before I leave it to cure, and then sand. It looks like you good use the third coat, it is almost there IMO.

I would feather that added stem fiberglass before I did the 3rd coat ... that will make it disappear.

Brian