Saturday and Sunday, 31 May - 01 June 2008

After cutting the normal coloured cedar parts for the feature (8 pieces of identical lengths) I was able to glue up the full length of the half chevron part of the feature. Installation of 3 pieces: 2 thin walnut strips, and the half chevron in between, proved challenging. The walnut is too thin to be the last piece. It is too flexible to only wedge down every 12". Lots of additional clamping was needed to get the strips sitting well.

For the remaining features, I have glued the narrow walnut strip to the half chevron pattern strips. The addition of less than 1/4" extra width should not be a problem for the hull curvature, as on this line of the canoe, the side is still very close to vertical. Stretchy packing film provided the clamping pressure along the entire length. I expect to complete installing one side tonight.

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Tuesday, 03 June 2008

The 3 lengths comprising the other feature strip were installed; with 10 hands on while it was wedged into place. Working with full length pieces was an advantage, although one broke prior to and again during installation.

Two problems have materialized. First, the thin walnut strips preglued to the strips with chevrons twisted somewhat. I need to plane these off flush on the outside and reshape the bead so the next strips will not be forced outwards. Second, the curve of the strips meant the second strip with chevrons should have been about 1/4" longer than the first one, so the chevrons would align at each end. Careful dry fitting should have been done. Oops. But it really doesn't show all that much to the casual eye. Having the walnut strip separating the chevrons makes the alignment a little less critical, as intended.

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Wednesday to Monday, 04-09 June 2008

Steady though slow progress, installing two strips at a time. I am carefully mixing strips from all 5 original planks as I go, and matching the selections on each side. While not critical on the sides, it will be important for the strips on the bottom of the canoe.

Interrupted the work on my canoe on Friday to assist Murray with the fibreglass and first coat of epoxy. It turned out very well, and Murray continued afterwards with his other coats, some sanding, and has removed it from the forms, a real milestone.

Meanwhile, I got up to 11 strips on each side, of a total of about 43 per side at the centre station. The shape of the hull is gradually becoming visible. So far, the wedging has not produced any problems, but the curved at the chine is the critical area, where most encouragement to stay to the form is needed. I also glued a piece of walnut to build up the twisted piece that I had planed down a bit too enthusiastically. It wouldn't have mattered, except it was at the end of the strip by the stem that was the worst, and would be very visible against the finished stem.

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Tuesday, 10 June 2008

A total of 4 strips went on tonight, in two successive operations. Strips are now reaching the curved chine, and tend to pull away from the forms more noticeably. So far, my clamping/wedging L-brackets have had enough reach to place a wedge on the previously glued strip, so all the strips stay against the form. Past this point, however, more measures will be needed to keep the rest of the sides tight to the form.

I have pulled out the remaining ash, to see how much material I have for seats, thwart, and yoke. I will need some additional clear ash for gunwales (inwale and outwale), and have started enquiring.

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Wednesday to Sunday, 11-15 June 2008

The strips have rounded the curve of the chine. Today, strips 39 and 40 were installed, out of an estimated 86 total. These strips twist and curve much more than the previous ones, and it takes a bit of effort to get them into position initially. But the curve and twist are an integral part of the curvaceous shape that is becoming steadily more apparent and more appealing.

This twist and curve is also the source of some difficulty. The hull does not stay tight to the forms in several places, particularly where the curve reverses (from convex to concave). So some additional bracing has been rigged, as seen in the photo below.

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Saturday to Monday, 21-23 June 2008

Being away from Calgary for the week interrupted progress, as did the all-day SAWS AGM on Saturday. As of Sunday night, I had 48 strips installed. They are getting progressively more difficult to install. The amount of twist increases with each strip, and there is less form accessible for clamping and wedging the strips, especially clamping tightly to the stems. Two more strips on one side (and four on the other) will complete covering the inner stems.

The next decision is whether or not to install a secondary feature strip. The one on the course canoe did add a visual punch to the finished canoe. I am thinking of doing something quite simple, such as two thin walnut strips. I have scrounged some more offcuts for the purpose … the walnut looks good, but the purpleheart would be too much!

Monday night I was able to rip the walnut offcut pieces into 1/8" wide strips, then ripped 4 full length cedar strips, with the intent of replacing the sawcut with the walnut. Two strips together make the feature: 2 thin walnut lines, 5/8" on centre.

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Tuesday, 24 June 2008

Installed two strips, so the total is now 50. We spent a bit of time describing the process to a few first timers. Murray talked about his next canoe. Lastly, for a change of pace, worked on machining a teak mast step for a sailboat.

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Wednesday to Monday, 25-30 June 2008

The secondary feature strips (two thin walnut lines, 5/8" on centre), like the main feature strips, took a bit of care in glue up. I did two strips at a time. On the first two, I tried clamping them between a series of boards. It went too slowly, the glue started setting, and the thin pieces did not keep in good alignment. However, I planed off the proud side of the walnut, and think it will sand down well enough. FOr the next two, with some help, I used the stretch packing film, pressed the pieces level just ahead of the film, and inserted the walnut with glue applied as we progressed (instead of all at once). These turned out much better.

After installing both pairs of feature strips (bringing the stip count to 54) the inner stems are almost entirely covered. From here on, I worked only on the starboard side, installing strips to ensure they filled all the space up to the centre line. As of tonight, the starboard side is complete.

Next task is cutting the keel line. After that, every strip on the port side must be fitted precisely to the cut keel line. It may be only possible to install and wedge one strip at a time.

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Tuesday, 01 July 2008

Canada Day celebrations were marked by cutting the keel line!

All the strips on one side were installed, covering the bottom beyond the keel line. A straight line is cut, using markings from the stations as well as a line snapped from the centre line of the stems. Due to the hull rocker (curved front to back) the line was held above the hull, and a small credit card size level used to transfer it to the hull. A rough line, about 1/2" over, was cut with a hand saw, then it was pared close to the line with a sharp chisel. A rabbeting plane completed the work of taking it to the line. It looks pretty straight in the photo.

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Update of 01 September 2008

The end of August provided strong motivation to progress on the canoe; so much so that I took a couple of vacation days, that allowed me to keep up with or even surpass my planned construction schedule.

The inwales and outwales were scarfed together, with cuts made on the compound sliding mitre saw. I joined them before dressing down to final dimensions so the alignment was less critical. Tapering the long pieces, for about the last 30", was made quite simple with a jig, using a couple of hold-down clamps I bought earlier, with purpose unknown at the time. The subtle angle between the straight and the taper was smoothed over with a hand plane, and the end brought down to the correct final width.

I machined scuppers into the inwales with a 1/2" router bit. Cutting into the wood, where at least 1/4 of the bit circumference is touching wood, seems to cause a lot of burning, which is very visible on the ash. I spent a lot of time with a 1/2" dowel and sandpaper to clean it up, and ease the edges. I applied two coats of epoxy, knowing it was much easier to apply to the inside of the scuppers before installation. The surfaces to be bonded, to the hull and to the decks, were left uncoated.

Before attaching the inwales, the epoxy on the hull must be sanded where the inwales are to be bonded. I chose to sand the entire inside of the hull, thinking it would be easier without the inwales in the way. Most of it was done with a random orbit sander, making good use of the flexible pad to reach all of the surface. The ends had to be done by hand of course, with liberal use of paint scrapers to clean off the lumps.

Gluing the inwales was not as difficult as I anticipated. An extra set of hands helped, to place and tighten clamps while the inwale was held in position often with quite a bit of force. The tapered ends made curving the sheer line up to the stem a bit easier. Screws hold it except at the ends where the inwale thins. By the time the second inwale was installed, the clamps removed, and the hull trimmed flush, I measured the width at the midpoint, and discovered the sides needed to be pulled out over 4". A temporary thwart is clamped in place to hold the overall shape while measuring the deck openings.





I dithered about the design and material for the decks. I want the decks to extend as far as the chevron design at the ends: approximately 25". The curve of the sheer line is about 5/8" away from a straight line in the centre, so 3/4" stock will not be thick enough. I went through all my offcut collection of hardwoods, and soon realized I would have to actually buy some additional wood. I wanted something that would come close in colour to the dark parts of the chevron design, and eventually found a hardwood with very similar colour before coating with epoxy. I doubt it will reach as dark a shade as it is hardwood, while the chevron used a softwood. (Not mentioning species deliberately ... there will be a species itentification test!) I cut tapered lengths of this wood, mahogany from old door styles, and a bit of walnut. The blanks were epoxied together last night, and I will begin the shaping and fitting today. It should be on the water by about mid September!

Update of 07 September 2008

The decks are now completely shaped, but I have had a lot of trouble with cracks in some of the wood. I pried open and reglued everywhere I could, but as I cut deeper into the wood as I shaped it, more cracks kept appearing. I decided to fibreglass the underside of the deck, where most cracks are, to ensure it holds together. The photo shows them with the first coat of epoxy on the cloth. I will go out in about half an hour to apply the second coat. It is cold enough tonight that I had to turn on the workshop furnace so the consistency of the epoxy was suitable for spreading, and so that it would cure reasonably well.
The decks combine the same woods (or colours) as the feature strip, as you can see below.




I also cut mortises and tenons in the parts for the seat frames, glued them up, rounded over the edges, and have put on one coat of epoxy on them also.





Update of 14 September 2008

The decks are installed and the outside of the hull has had its first sanding with #80 grit. I cut the bevel on the outwales, and they are ready to be sanded to take out the saw marks.
Last Tuesday had a great turnout, but the shop was obviously very tight with more than 2 people at a time. So I did some cleaning and rearranging of the shop, not only to get the BMW motorcycle out where I can work on it!




Update of 28 September 2008

I have become resigned to missing my target of launching in September. There is still much to do, primarily sanding and varnishing. At one coat per night, I expect to spend over a week applying varnish.

Meanwhile, the final glued on parts of the canoe, the outwales, were installed last week, relying only on clamps and glues. I was prepared to use screws at the deck area, where clamping across the taper can be difficult. However, wedges with sandpaper glued to one face proved very handy, and clamping went smoothly.

After applying more epoxy to the spots where the fabric was exposed, I sanded and exposed the fabric again. So I added a much thicker layer over these spots, and over a larger area … hence the patchy appearance below.

taken 28 September 2008



Update of 05 October 2008

Scraping and sanding is tedious. I cleaned up the gunwales and decks, scraping and sanding to get them ready for the usual three coats of epoxy. I should mention that I am trying the approach to brightwork put forward by West System Epoxy. Rather than merely applying endless (17?) coats of varnish to wood parts that aren’t submerged, I am sealing them first with three coats of epoxy. Afterwards, I plan 4 coats of Zspar Flagship varnish on everything. The varnish and epoxy combined should provide lots of depth to the finish. In the photo, two coats of epoxy have been applied to the gunwales and decks.

taken 05 October 2008

After cutting the lines of the thwart roughly on the bandsaw last week, I started carving the finished shape with a spokeshave. Once again, the grain in the ash I was using, while attractive, changed direction frequently, and became very difficult to shape. I reverted to using a RO sander to finish rounding the curves without risking any more chipout. The results aren’t bad.

taken 05 October 2008

There is a lot of sanding in the next while, getting the gloss off the epoxy so the varnish will have a good bond. The varnish also needs sanding between coats. Tuesday night I hope to cut the groove for the caning, and start on installing the sheet cane on the seat frames.

Update of 13 October 2008

Scraping and sanding is becoming even more tedious. The last preparation getting the gunwales ready for epoxy led to too many runs to count, and a lot of work to get rid of them. I am not yet finished that. Worse still, the scraping has exposed more glass cloth, particularly just below the gunwale, that will need to be touched up again. Starting to feel like a circle: scrape and sand à apply epoxy à epoxy runs à scrape and sand … what this needs is a good, predictable, reliable, exit criteria from the loop.

The seats have both been fitted, and spacers cut and drilled to hang from the inwales. After some discussion, I went with a wider piece instead of a dowel, to give a little more resistance to the seat being able to sway back and forth. But because the seat rail is offset a bit from the solid part between scuppers, I chose to cant the spacers. The bolt holes and inner faces of the spacers are still plumb, so that should I choose in future to raise the seats higher, all that will be needed is to cut the spacers down in length. Turns out that 6” bolts are needed for all the seats. Longest I found in stainless steel in Calgary are 5”. Seems I need to place another mail order (Edmonton carries 6”).

Following a suggestion from Murray, I tried suspending the canoe from the rafters, so I could work comfortably on the underside of the decks and gunwales (with head sticking into the canoe, á la Mr. Canoe Head). It did make working more comfortable (than hanging upside down into the canoe) and had the

taken 13 October 2008   taken 13 October 2008