Setting up the form and the first strips.

Up until this point it hasn't really felt like I've done anything that is making a canoe. Even though machining the forms is still more preparatory work, it does very much show the shape of what is to come. Because my boss is so awesome, he volunteered to take my PDF files of the canoe forms, transfer them on his computer into code for the CNC, and we got the CNC to cut out my forms. This saved me a lot of work and headache. This way I knew that my forms were accurate down to thousands of an inch.
   I set up the strong back that was lent to me for the winter. Thanks Pastor Ron. Because my canoe has to be shorter than the 16' the drawings call for, I set the mold stations 11 3/8" instead of the 12".

    While buying the baltic birch plywood i used for the station molds , I came across this piece of red oak for the seats and yolk in a dumpster. after asking the guys I was buying the wood from if i could take it, they said "yes" and here i have , quite a suitable, piece of  oak for my canoe at no cost! Yes, there is a large check in the board, but as i'm cutting into strips it doesn't matter much The baltic birch cost me around $85 for 3 sheets of 1/2" One of the reasons i went for the more expensive baltic birch plywood is that it came in 5'x5' sheets. this is the size of the table on the CNC.  So whatever station molds I could program into the CNC it would be able to use on the whole sheet of plywood.

     Once the station molds were cut out I just had to screw them to the strong back. Extra care had to be taken here to ensure that everything was square, plumb, and straight.  Once everything was set I could really see the shape of things to come,

  Once the mold was set up I could start setting the strips. This was what i've been waiting for.  This was the canoe itself being built now. I'm using the hot glue gun method.  This means, using a hot glue gun, I glue the strips to the forms instead of using clamps and blocks. I'm doing it this way because i've seen it work, and I don't have all the expensive clamps. I use the cabinetmakers favourite trick of masking tape between the stations to get the pressure needed for a tight glue joint. I also found some small diameter air hose to use to protect the sharp edges of the cove side of the strips while taping. Masking tape stretches and this elasticity allows it to hold the strips tight to each other. But you do use a lot of it. I figure i'll use 8 rolls of the stuff before i'm done.

    I couldn't decide for the longest time what to do for an accent strip. I was gonna do something fancy with light and dark woods, but decided to just get 2 dark cedar strips and use those. Simple is just better sometimes. If i make the second canoe, i might do something different there, but for this one, 2 dark strips will be all I use. I do have plans to add some detail on other parts of the canoe. It's quite something to see the hull start to take shape.

Making the strips

Since cutting the cedar into 9/32" x 2" it has dried out wonderfully. I flipped the pieces over every other day to make sure they dried evenly. It's quite amazing how much lighter the cedar has become. The moisture reads between 5-4% .

     Now I can start making the finish strips. First I had to get them all the exact same thickness. The shop has a nice thickness sander that I used for this. The sander was pretty close to the one wall so i had to bend the wood to get it in. Once everything was sanded to 7/32" it became easy to see the light and dark streaks in the wood. This is important to me as i want to use these colour differences to my advantage.

    Next I ripped the 2" wide strips into 2 pieces. These came out to around 13/16". This took some time. pushing 16 ft lenths through the saw 360 times. (120 pieces x3) I've been keeping the pieces in groups , depending on what board they came from. This will make matching grain patterns easier.

     Then came machining the bead and cove. I bought my router bit from Lee Valley

Rather than use a 1/4" bead and cove bit and end up with really fragile, steep sides on the cove profile i went with a slightly bigger bit ( 3/8") .  I'm glad I did this.
     I quickly made up a simple shop made router table and fence. I like my design as it's super easy to make, adjustments are easy, and it's the safest way to router as the bit is completely hidden. I didn't require any feather boards either. just light pressure to keep it tight to the inside of the fence and that's it.
Perfect cove and bead all day.

    With the strips ready to go I went on to bending the stems.
As of the writing of this post I plan on only making an inner stem. I like the look of stemless construction and will use extra strips of fiberglass to give the dent resistance and strength at the bow and stern. If it becomes difficult to make the front stemless, it won't be hard to change my mind and plane down a flat spot to attach the outer stem to. But for now I plan on just an inner stem to give me something to glue the strips to.

   I hand cut the form for the stem to be bent around, made some notches for the clamps, and checked it with a piece of plastic.

     Steaming is straight forward. But with steaming cedar it helps to soak it first as the wood is non-porous. Oak and Ash steam nicely, being porous. Once steamed I quickly clamped it around the form and let it dry.

The design

  My father-in-law is a hardcore canoeist who has contributed so much of his knowledge of canoes and their design. I was very unsure in the beginning as to what design i wanted. I've paddled his canoes and liked them both. He has a kevlar 16' prospector as well as a 17' Tripper . Both by Clipper. Amazing canoes.
  The Prospector has always look like a proper canoe to me. And after I had paddled my father-in-laws kevlar version, I knew how fun and versatile it would be. I scoured the internet, for prospector plans and found this,  NorthWest canoe plans. in here is a beautiful river canoe. It is based on the prospector but with more beauty added. It has more tumblehome , which always looks nicer, as well as a few for minor changes. I loved the design. Plus the plans are a free download! I just downloaded the files and went to Staples and had them print the full size plans for less than $10.

  While my boards were only 16'ft long , and I wanted a 16'ft canoe, I knew I wouldn't be able to build a canoe this long without having a joint in the wood somewhere.(because the sides of the canoe bend) My plan has always been to make the canoe 6" shorter to account for this.

  Now I wanted to build something different from the start. The birchbark canoe looks like a proper canoe with it's high sloping fronts. I plan on integrating this into my design. My hope is that I'll get a more traditional looking canoe with some slightly better whitewater characteristics. I know it'll be a bit more susceptible to wind, but I'm willing to deal with that. You can see the bow and stern in the changed plans.

Drying and milling the wood

  When i bought the wood it was soaking wet. Quite heavy too. So I had to get it dry. I'm storing it at the shop I'm Foreman of. I have lots of room and will be building my canoe here too.

  I let the wood sit for a couple weeks, testing the moisture content with a reader, it started reading at 32% moisture. But I think it was more as my arm reads at 32% ( don't think it can read any higher) A week later it was around 23%. 2 more weeks later 13% . i figured now was a good time to cut into the cedar and see what it was like. This old growth cedar has incredibly tight grain.

  I started cutting at just under 5/16 thick with a fairly thin blade on the table saw. first thing i noticed was the wood was still quite moist in the centre where the moisture reader couldn't read. So I'll have to let it dry some more. I cut 4 of the 5 boards into strips knowing they would dry alot faster with more exposure. I kept the last board in case i want to use it for anything else. My goal is to end up with a fairly light canoe. So using cedar where i can will help with weight. I joined one edge of the 16 ft boards by hand as i have no electric joiner. Plus my training is mostly hand tools. So i enjoy using them whenever i can as a spent years collecting and then finally building my toolbox for them. It's not a finished toolbox as i've a few more tools to get. But it's coming along nicely. I want to carve the front side some more too.