Shout out to Bear Mountain Boat Shop...

A week ago, I contacted Joan Barett at Bear Mountain Boat Shop about expounding upon the Peterborough plans I used to build my canoe so I could sell them to an interested costumer. She told me that people at Bear Mountain Boat Shop have to remain in business, so I would not be able to sell the plans. Yet, because she was impressed that I called her before just selling them, she sent me Nick Offerman's (Ron Swanson to Parks and Recreation watchers) video of his construction of a Cedar Strip Canoe. I've already watched many of the sections and am dying to build another Canoe. I just wanted to shout out to Joan Barett for her kindness with her sending me a free copy of the movie.

New Website Ideas

This is the first post of its kind, but, as I approach 4,000 views, I want to thank you all for your continual support for my blog. The newest update is that I want to inform you all that a new website is in the future for "CedarStripCanoe" (My twitter name if you have not started following me yet.) I am not sure what the new website will look like, so this is where I need help from all of you. If you have any bursting ideas for what you want the new website to look like just shoot me an email at cedarstripcanoe247@gmail.com, and, as always, continue to tell everyone about the art of cedar strip canoe building. Also, if you want to help me out pay for a domain name for the new website... All you need to do is just click on the ads and actually visit the site. It's that simple!!! Google pays me directly per click through Google AdSense. Therefore, if you click on the ads, send me an email with your name and tell me that you clicked on the ads and I will put you on the "Donor" page when the new website is up and running. Thanks viewers and keep paddling.

Social Media

It has been a while since I have blogged. After the canoe was completed, I still have yet to take it out on the lake, yet the all finished canoe now lies hoisted up in the garage. (A project which was finished right before I left for college.)

I want to, in the near future, to turn the blog into a more interactive website. But in the meantime you can like, follow, and favorite the blog on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Like the Facebook page of "Making Cedar Strip Canoe" or watch the  YouTube video on the blog. Or if you're more into twitter you can follow "CedarStripCanoe." I will be posting and tweeting every week of more insights into the process of how to make a cedar strip canoe. I know this is more of an informal post but it is just to show I have not forgotten about the blog. I have just been busy. 

Cedar Strip Canoe

Does it float?

The biggest question I was asked when I was building the canoe was, "Does it Float?" My only answer to them was "I hope." Now, after testing the canoe in my neighbor's pool, I can successfully say that, "Yes, it floats." But I still have to test if paddles straight...

Varnishing the Canoe

 After the canoe was cleaned from the dust and shavings by vacuuming it out and wiping it down with a tack cloth, the last step was to varnish the canoe. The varnish protects the boat from the sun's UV rays as Ted Moores states the canoe will get more damaged from the sun than from the rocks. The sun breaks down the epoxy and wood and therefore it is mandatory to varnish it. I bought Cabot varnish from Lowes because of its UV strength and marine durability, however it was too thick. I applied the varnish with cheap brushes from Harbor Freight, which I think was my problem. These brushes did not enable me to apply a thin layer of varnish so I spent a week waiting for the varnish to dry. After a week, and the varnish wasn't really drying, I applied mineral spirits to it. The thinned out varnish dried a little better, but the best way for it to dry was out in the sun. The last step is to put the brass rings on the ends so it can be carried on top of the car.

The seats...

Because the project's due date was approaching quickly, I was not able to cane my own seats, like I had wanted to. However I was able to buy pre-made seats. Even though they are made out of ash instead of white oak, the white in the ash provides a nice contrast from the red in the cedar. Now that the yoke and seats were ready to be installed, all I needed to do was to install them.

Building the Yoke

 After the gunwales were smoothed down, the next step was to build the yoke. The yoke differs from a thwart in that the yoke is used to portage the canoe while the thwart is used mainly for a third seat. I wanted to add a yoke to my canoe because I thought it would serve a better purpose. Following the plans from Chris Glad's Yoke Design, I adapted them a bit to what I wanted. Cutting the drawn out design on a band saw, I then sanded them down on a horizontal orbital sander. Then after it was sanded I routed the edges so it would have curved edges, which won't hurt my neck when I portage it, as seen below. When the yoke was finished, the next step was install it and the seats.

Sanding down the Sheer-Line

The next step was to sand down the sheer-line of the canoe. Because of the crude surface where the gunwales and the cedar sides meet, they needed to be plained smooth. First, sanding down the sides with a belt sander, I got a rough smooth sides in which I could then scrap with a cabinet scraper. The flush gunwales's sides could then be sanded down to round them out. Even though this step did not take a very long time it was necessary for the installation of the seats and thwarts.

Installation of the Gunwales

 After the decks were installed, the next step was to install the gunwales. The outwales were installed before the inwales, because I wanted the stainless steel screws facing the inside not the outside. The gunwales extended from stem to stem and after being epoxied on were screwed to the frame with 3/4" screws. The inwales were more difficult to install because they had they had to be cut down because of the decks. After cutting the correct angle with a dremmel (as seen below), the inwale was epoxied and clamped to the sheer-line of the canoe and then screwed in with two 1 1/2" stainless steel screws every scupper. The starboard (right) side was finished first and then the port (left).  The crude sheer-line of the canoe needed to be sanded down flush to ensure a smooth curve.

Installation of the decks

 The next step was to install the decks of the canoe. Because of the moderate recurve of the canoe which is the area exposed to the wind, the longer decks were not conducive to the the canoe's current shape, so i had to cut down the canoe's recurve to fit the deck. After mixing up some epoxy, I put placed it on the place where the decks were going and tried to screw them in with brass screws. Yet, because of the strength of the white oak, I had to use steel screws. The decks had to be installed first, before the gunwales, which was the next piece to be installed.

Building the Decks

 The decks on the cedar strip canoe are probably the most versatile aspect of the canoe. The decks differ in length, type of wood, coaming, and end design. My decks were made out of white oak so it would compliment the white oak of the gunwales. 20 in. in length by 11 in. at the width by 3/4in. thickness, the dimensions of wood were to big to be made with one piece of wood. I decided to make the decks at the bow and stern the same dimensions to ease the construction process. Also, I decided to make the decks longer so I could hide the rough sanded and glue globs at the stems.  Since the wood was only 6 1/2 in. wide, I cut the wood with a table saw at a diagonal so I would be able to achieve the desired width. After the wood was cut on the table saw it was not perfectly straight, so I planed it flush. At this point, I did not care about cutting off the point at the triangle to fit in to the canoe but more cared about whether the sides were correct. To enable strength with the butt joint, a splice was made and a place for it was cut on the table saw so the two pieces could fit together and combine to make a bigger piece of wood. When the glue dried, I wanted to ensure that they would not break so I drilled a piece of white oak underneath. After the triangle decks were made, a curve on the bottom was cut with a band saw to help with the consistency of the curves of the canoe. After the decks were made, the next step was to install them.

Building the Gunwales Part II

 The second step of building the inwale was to make the scuppers. The scuppers are helpful in to ways: they enable the water to drain out of the canoe when flipped over and they allow gear to be tied down. Scupper lengths vary from an inch to multiple inches. My scuppers were 3 1/2" long and were spaced 3 1/2" away from each other. The scuppers were not only cut on the chop saw but also routed to give them a curved edge, which would complement the whole curviness of the canoe. They were then glued onto the inwale outer strip at the correct spacing and then clamped down with multiple binder clips from Staples. After the glue dried, it was  sanded with a belt sander to ensure a smooth surface. Then finally the next step was to build the deck.

Building the Gunwales Part I

The first step after the interior was sanded was actually not building the decks but was constructing the gunwales (gunnels). Even though, the decks were the first piece to be installed, I built the gunwales first. Because my white oak board was only ten feet long, I had to scarf the pieces together. The outwale or (outer gunwale) was only a strip of white oak 3/4" x roughly 3/4". The inwale (inner gunwale) was 3/4" thick yet was slightly different than the outwale. There were two components to the inwale: the outside strip and the scupper. The long strip was 3/8" thick as well as the scupper. The next blog post will show the assembly of the inwale, since the outwale construction was very basic. 

Sanding the Fiberglass (Interior)

Sanding the fiberglass on the interior was much more difficult than sanding the exterior. Because of the tumblehome of the canoe, the curve was hard to sand with the orbital sander. Also, while applying the epoxy to the inside, the epoxy wanted to run because gravity was forcing down. Near the bow and stern stem piece the epoxy began to pool, so I used a sander extension on the dremmel to make it smooth. Sadly, while applying filler coats of epoxy, some epoxy got on the outside of the canoe which had to be sanded off. Sanding with 80, 120, and 220 grit, the interior of the canoe is finished except for a last sanding and then varnishing. Some canoe manufactures even used to sell canoes this way (without trim and detailed interior). The next step was to work on the two decks at the bow and stern.

Fiberglassing the Interior

As Ted Moores states in Canoecraft about working on the interior, "most amateur builders find this stage the least pleasant because it is dusty, uncomfortable, and frustrating to work on the awkward inside curves." As all ready stated about the sanding, the awkward curve is very difficult to sand. That being the case, multiple coats of epoxy resin needed to be poured onto the 4oz. fiberglass, because smoothing out the curve is more difficult on the inside than on the outside. Doing the same process as before, the fiberglass was smoothed out and hooked to the edge of the stern-line with clothes pins. The cloth was wetted out and after it dried the excess cloth around the stern-line was removed with an exacto knife. 6 oz. Fiberglass taped was placed on the keel-line to help strengthen the places where the strips didn't fully touch. Three additional coats of epoxy were applied to fill out the weave and ensure smooth continuity on the surface of the interior. However, near the stem the epoxy began to pool between the white oak and the cedar strips, which started to glob together and was hard to fix because of the tight space to work in. Nevertheless, most of this area will be covered with the deck and will not be visible. The next step was to make the gunwales.

Sanding the Interior

Sanding the interior of the canoe was not as time consuming as sanding the exterior. At least, it may have felt that way because I had the entire day to work because of Spring Break. Even though I had more hours to work, the process was more difficult because of the tumblehome or the curve of the canoe. Using an orbital sander, the sides of the sandpaper were quickly used up because more tension was being placed on them. The sanding was very tedious and tiring just like the exterior, and so I began to listen to another audiobook. Noticing many openings between the cedar strips, I decided against using wood filler, but used epoxy mixed with cedar sawdust. This was a good idea, except that it turned the color of the wood darker than I was expecting, but it does not look bad. It just darkens the naturally lighter cedar. I put to coats of this epoxy mixture on to ensure filled in cracks and a smoother interior. But like Ted Moore's states, you know what the end result of fiberglassing can look like, so you feel more compeled to take your time. The next step was to fiberglass the interior with 4 oz. cloth.

Flipping the Canoe over

This is probably the only time, flipping the canoe is a good thing. When floating down the river, a flipped canoe isn't all too great. Nevertheless, before the canoe was flipped over, it needed something to hold it when flipped. I know some canoe builders use saw horses, but I didn't want to scratch the bottom of the hull on wooden horses. So generally following the plans to build a cradle, from Ted Moore's Canoecraft, I built my own deviation from it with scraps of lumber from my garage. After the two cradles were built, I unscrewed the stations from the strongback and pulled up on the stern, but it didn't budge. Realizing some epoxy had glued a station #7 to a 2x4, I broke the epoxy bond and the canoe lifted off the frame. It felt weird seeing the underside of the canoe for the first time, since I had become so accustomed to seeing the outside of it. There was a lot of glue and wood filler that had made it's way through the cracks and holes, but, in all, the inside looked really good. It just needed a lot of sanding.

Sanding the Fiberglass

After the third coat of epoxy dried, the next step was to sand the fiberglass smooth. Especially near the fiberglass tape and the double draped cloth towards the stern, the fiberglass had to be sanded down smooth to create the "glass" look. Starting with 80, 120, and 220 grit, the canoe felt smooth yet some of the cloth was nearly exposed after the sanding. So I mixed up another batch of epoxy, and spread it smooth over the entire canoe. Even though there were very small streak marks from spreading the epoxy, I decided that wet sandpapering the canoe would be futile because it would have to be done again. Also, I waited to apply Marine Varnish for the same reason. The canoe looked very "canoey" but I still had the entire interior of the canoe that needed to be finished.

Fiberglassing

After the blog post about how to mix the epoxy for fiberglassing, it is time to post about the actual fiberglassing. The process is actually quite simple, seeing that I read so much about it that I was so nervous. But my neighbor was there to help me apply my first coat and he assured me that it was not that complicated. The night before I had clean the canoe surface with a cloth and had blown out the entire area around the canoe with a pneumatic blower. Before fiberglassing, I thought sanding would never end and I thought of giving up the whole project all together, because of the monotony of it, yet the fun of fiberglass totally made up for it. First, I laid out the 4 oz. cloth and wet it out with the mixture of epoxy and hardener. After 24 hours, when this dried I did it again. So now I had 8 ounces of cloth all the way around the entire canoe. However, after each cloth dried, the excess had to be cut off with a knife or scissors (which ever was more accessible.) The bottom picture is the canoe after two coats of epoxy. I laid 6 oz. Fiberglass tape on the stems to ensure strength and the tape needs a couple more coats to fully wet out. But in all this step was a lot of fun because you could see the beauty of the colors become very vibrant, when you were so used to seeing whitish sanded wood. The next step is to sand the fiberglass to ensure that it is smooth throughout...