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Sewer to Solo River Tripper

Conk

Conk

Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
202
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Location
Genesee Valley, Western NY
A Walnut tree stood in the path of a village sanitation line and was sacrificed to the project for the good of the community. The tree was in a family member's back yard, so I laid claim and went at it with chainsaw, maul and wedges; splitting its trunk into manageable, straight-grained pieces. Years later, after milling some Sitka Spruce, I was left with long, thin, quarter-sawn strips of the material. The two precious woods were destine for a project worthy of their strength and beauty. The Walnut was scarfed end to end and sandwiched between the thin strips of Sitka. The laminated stock, now ¾" thick and 17' long evolved into the outwales of my newest canoe.
https://picasaweb.google.com/114267878012874538920/HemlockSRT
 
Thanks, stunning wood work. I'm putting ash gunnels on an a well use MR Legend today, I'm more with the "good'nuff crowd". Nice job, Thanks for sharing such nice work.
 
Great job with nice details and great looking shop. I have 3 large Walnuts that have to come down for a solar project.
 
The “sewer wood” strip on the outwale is beautiful. And I really admire your outfitting touches. Let me count the ways:

Rabbeted and slotted gunwales with properly spaced intervals between the gunwale screws and the seat/thwart hardware. Calculating all of that to miss some unfortunate convergence of screw, bolt and slot is a tricky business.

Thwart bungees with beveled edge holes. Marked balance location for the portage yoke, Paddle and portage yoke keeps. Ridgerest seat padding on a tractor seat (nothing else comes close in working as well or as comfortably). Bookmatched deck plates that pick up the outwale stripe.

And that repositionable seat with beefy truss hangers and a crafty cant angle spacer. “Changes in the body weight distribution of the aging beer drinker can be accounted for in small increments over time”. . . .someone has been listening to my laments. The seat design alone blows me away.

The little bump out on the inwale to better accommodate the centering of flange washers. This photo alone shows some serious attention to craftsmanship

https://picasaweb.google.com/1142678...43144013017026

Seriously well done Conk. No surprise.

Will the foam block foot braces stay, or do you have further ingenuities in mind?
 
Thank you for noticing some of the minutiae details. You are the first person to ever notice and complement my chamfered bungee hole.

The foam block foot braces have been cemented in place. I have paddled the SRT long enough to know my "sweet spot". An adjustable foot brace would be ideal but the reality is that 90% of my paddling is from the kneeling position, so further ingenuities, barring a sudden body weight distribution anomaly, the 2 ounce, non-adjustable foam foot blocks will suffice.
 
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Conk said:
Thank you for noticing some of the minutiae details. You are the first person to ever notice and complement to my chamfered bungee hole.
Click to expand...

I have long appreciated the decreased abrasion and smoother friction of a well chamfered hole.

Is the little flange-washer-accommodating bump out on the inwales something Hemlock or another manufacturer does, or is that a new Conkesque thing?

Awesome canoe Conk. I’m assuming the SRT was a new naked hull from Curtis. Any chance Hemlock will offer that seat arrangement?
 
Mike McCrea said:
Is the little flange-washer-accommodating bump out on the inwales something Hemlock or another manufacturer does, or is that a new Conkesque thing?

Awesome canoe Conk. I’m assuming the SRT was a new naked hull from Curtis. Any chance Hemlock will offer that seat arrangement?
Click to expand...



The flange-washer-accommodating bump out, or what I prefer to call, stop-n-go inwale radius routing is something I like to do. I first did it when using softwood for rails where I perceived a need to widen the head of a machine screw to minimize pull through. I learned to like the looks of it, because, as you have already pointed out, it "shows serious attention to craftsmanship" or as my wife might describe it, an anal need to do it the hard way.

I am glad I did it to the softwood rails I have done but I do not believe it to be necessary on ash or other hardwoods. Most wood-rail manufactures, if they don't countersink flush, will use an unflanged finish washer. These will increase the surface area of a machine screw head, yet have a tendency to distort slightly when tightened, conforming nicely to an inwale radius. In the tricky business of stop-n-go routing you would need to know, the precise location of everything and you can't change your mind later. It would add significantly to the labor of the railing process. So, to answer your question. It is an anal Conkesque thing.

The seat arrangement is nothing new. It is Harold's design and has always been an option on the SRT. It will not fit in a canoe with a shallow amidships depth. It is heavier than a simple bench and many find the width of the bucket a bit confining. It is, Harold's signature imprint on the hull he designed.
 
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Conk said:
The flange-washer-accommodating bump out, or what I prefer to call, stop-n-go inwale radius routing is something I like to do. I first did it when using softwood for rails where I perceived a need to widen the head of a machine screw to minimize pull through. I learned to like the looks of it, because, as you have already pointed out, it "shows serious attention to craftsmanship" or as my wife might describe it, an anal need to do it the hard way.
Click to expand...

I can see how that stop-and-go inwale routing would add an exacting element to fabricating and fitting the gunwales.

Conk said:
The seat arrangement is nothing new. It is Harold's design and has always been an option on the SRT. It will not fit in a canoe with a shallow amidships depth. It is heavier than a simple bench and many find the width of the bucket a bit confining. It is, Harold's signature imprint on the hull he designed.
Click to expand...

I am not really familiar with Harold Deal’s designs and had a look at the Hemlock SRT page

http://www.hemlockcanoe.com/srt.html

Good to see a couple of familiar faces in the SRT photos.
 
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