Getting over the hump.

This is when everything gets tricky. the joints at the bow and stern start to become more complex, the strips start to twist more, and the concave of the canoe is at it's maximum. Clamping changes almost at every strip. You have to show some creativity in getting a tight joint between strips. Especially the outside of the canoe. The inside is usually a tight joint being the inside of the curve/tighter radius. But the outside can be trouble. glueing only a 2-3 foot section at a time makes this much easier. gives you the time to be creative with tape and hot glue. Or even surgical tubing if required. If struggling too much one could router the cove more to one side to help with this. I just kept on as it seemed to work for me the way it was going.

The 'football' taking shape

getting over the hump

nice tight joints on the inside.

     Between waiting for glue to set, i'd started to work on the Yolk. I'd looked forward to hand carving this. I borrowed a broken Yolk my father in law had salvaged from a wrecked canoe. This one served as my template. it looked to be hand carved as well. Wasn't symmetrical enough to have been machine made. I laminated the stock up using my salvaged piece of oak. laminating it wold give it extra strength over a single piece. But I didn't want to glue too many pieces together or it would start to look a bit like it had been repaired or something. I used a jig saw to cut it into it's rough shape. 1/8th larger than my finish size

I then roughly sketched out the inside and outside shape. Then out came the carving gouges and i set to removing to bulk of the material. With good sharp gouges, this is easy a quick. the hardest part is marking what material to remove. having a template is the way to go. trying to do it from memory or just guessing will get you in trouble fast.