Maiden Voyage

So the canoe is done (sorta) and ready to glide through water for the first time.  We had an absolutely wonderful day outside, so I took a few pictures at home, and then some pictures during the madden voyage.

It was a sad moment when I had to put the ugly lime green license on it...but it has to be done...  The seats are webbed with 2 inch webbing fastened to the bottom of the seats with more of the brass screws and washers.  Its a simple, effective, and comfortable way to do a seat!

I also put a keel on which I think I forgot to talk about.  I cut it 3/4 x 3/4 and used two pieces of birch I had.  I would have prefered to use walnut as I think it would have looked a bit cooler, but I was all out of walnut and still have some birch...yeah.

I sealed all sides of the birch before I screwed it to the hull of the canoe, and then varnished over it.  I like the idea of applying the keel at the end of the build because if/when the keel needs to be replaced, it will be easy to do so.

So for the maiden voyage, my wife really wanted to go.  I think it had more to do with marking the milestone of me being done with it than anything else!  :)  I also got one of the 2 twins (Hannah) to come along for the ride.  Just a short paddle, but it was great to see how she handled.

A few pictures of the canoe on shore, and we called it a day!

Varnish and Finishing Touches

So am I finally ready to varnish?  At this point, my mind was spinnning.  There is that constant thought process of all the little things you can tinker with in order to make the canoe better, smoother, prettier, lighter....anything and everything, but they all take time.  At the time, our summers up here are not very long, and the push to get the canoe in the water over the 4th of July weekend was strong.

Putting that first coat of varnish on was very satisfying!  I used Z-Spar 2015 Flagship Varnish which seems to be one of the better varnishes you can use. It has a UV blocker in it which should help the canoe continue to look good for a long time. The canoe shines brilliantly once again!

I have one coat of resin and farnish on the seats, thwarts, and the yoke all before installing them.  I also added one last detail that was inspired by my brother.  I asked my wife who has much better handwriting than I do, to use a wood burner and burn in a fish measuring ruler into the rear thwart.  I spaced it a few inches in from the end so I could adjust it while installing it.  I have it set up now so that when you touch the fishes lips to the gunnel, it accurately measures your fish.  

The manufacturer recommends that I apply up to 4 coats of varnish.  I have 2 coats on it as of my July 4th launch.  I plan on putting one more coat on before a mid-August Boundary Waters trip, and then ill add any other necessary coats this winter.

Wet Sanding

So my brother came to with me with a good piece of advice. Rather than install all of the seats and thwarts like I had planned, we should wet sand and varnish the canoe without the seats installed....why work around them right?  So, I talked him into coming over one night and we got the entire outside of the hull sanded.  The inside took me about a week to get around to, and I finished that in 2 nights of work by myself.

The process for this is interesting.  My brother had done this before, so he said to draw all over the canoe with a black marker.  Once the marker is sanded off, you know you got that spot!  This seems to work well.  With wet sanding, it has hard to tell where you have sanded and where you haven't....so with the marker, it makes it easier to figure this out, and gives you an idea of how long to sand in each spot.

It's an easy enough step, but afterwords the canoe looks kind of dull.  I was very excited to get that first coat of varnish on and make it shiny again!

I deffinately learned while sanding that next time I need to be a little bit better with the runs in the resin!  For the most part, I didnt have any that were too bad...I had some bad runs when I put on the wet gunnells.  I think I went to bed as soon as i put them on when I should have checked for sagging resin for a half hour or so which would have save me TONS of time with sanding!  This was the time though to sand out any runs in the resin and make it nice and smooth for the varnish.  The inside took quite a bit longer with the concave shape, and its easy to tell yourself it wont matter once you start sliding around your Duluth Packs, but I kept telling myself that the inside was all I would be staring at on the canoe as I paddled mile after beautiful mile!

At this point, I realized I had a couple of things to finish up on the hull still.  I wanted to add the hole for connecting a rope onto the canoe, and I wanted to add a plaque with my name saying that i built the canoe. I think both of these ideas came from Gilpatrick's canoe making book.  The plaque was printed onto a regular sheet of white computer paper.  I played around with it a few different times, but finally figured out how to get it onto the hull, and looking somewhat transparent and "natural".  I put a thin layer of resin on the canoe where I wanted the plaque to go.  For me, i put it on the inside, down low behind the rear seat.  I wanted it to be something that you could easily show off, and yet something you wont be looking at all the time.  So with the thin layer on the hull, I also put a thin layer on the backside of the oval piece of paper.  I then positioned it on the hull how i wanted, and used my squeegee to press out the bubbles and keep it in place.  A second coat of resin over the top the next day and it was all done!

For the holes for the ropes, I used a 1/2 inch piece of copper pipe.  I drilled a 5/8 inch hole from both sides and put the piece of copper through the hull and inner stems for good strength.  I then used a pencil to trace a flush line on each side, pulled the pipe back out, and cut it off flush with the pencil lines with a hacksaw.  After i made sure everything was ok, I cleaned up the burrs with a wire wheel, and epoxied them into place! 

 The seem to work great, and I love how simple and clean they look.

Gunnels Part II

Alrighty...so busy as always is too busy.  The canoe is done!  I launched it only July 4th...needless to say, I hope to update rest of blog tonight so you can all see what I've been up to.  So last I left you, I was finishing up the gunnels and decks.  After I had the gunnels dry fitted, I took them off of the canoe and applied a coat of resin to the backside of them, I then applied them to the canoe with the resin still wet.  My idea behind this was that I knew that I needed the inside of the scuppered spaces to be sealed with resin, and did not enjoy the thought of coating it while on the canoe with just the 1/4 space to work in.  I also figured that the wet resin on the backside of the blocks would act as a glue and bond the gunnels to the hull nicely.  One way of thought says that the better the gunnels are attached to the hull, the stronger they are.  The other way of thought says that if they get damaged, you want them relatively easy to remove and replace...so I figured just using the resin and screws might be a happy medium.

The accenting of the tiger maple turned out ok.  I did some reading on it and it appears that in order to really make the grain pop, you should add some dyes to it.  I didn't have any, nor did I want to deal with it right now.  Applying the resin made the grain pop some, but you have to look it at the right angle to really see how cool it is.  Otherwise, it pretty much looks like the birch I used for the seats and thwarts, so no one really every really know the difference!

Gunnels/Decks

So, the last 1/3 of the project begins.  I started by cutting the walnut for the gunnels at my Dad's shop.  I chose a scupered gunnel design...I enjoy the cosmetics of the look.  My outter gunnel will compose of a solid strip of 3/8 x 3/4 walnut.  The inner gunnel has a solid strip of 3/8 walnut with 1/4 thick spacer blocks.  The blocks are 4 inches long with a 4 inch space in between.  I glued on all of the spacer blocks to the inner gunnel before applying everything to the hull of the canoe.  Right now, I have the gunnels attached to the canoe...but this was a dry fit.  I plan to take them off, apply resin to the backside of the gunnels to seal them, and then re-apply them for good.

 

I forgot to take any pictures of the building of the decks.  I wanted to do something a little fun/different so I got my hands on a piece of Tiger Maple.  I put a strip of walnut in the middle, and glued it together.  Im hoping that it looks really cool once I get the resin and varnish on it.

 

 

The gunnels are kind of a 2 person job as well.  I find it much easier to bend/hold the gunnels in place while someone else screws them in.  Im sure I will find myself doing some of this alone...but oh well.  I am screwing the gunnels on with 1 inch brass screws.  I am counter-sinking them so that they are flush, and then putting in 1 screw that lines up with the center of each 4" spacer block. 

 

Next up....seats, thwarts, and yokes!

 

Fiberglassing the inside

Well, I have not posted for a few weeks, but I have been at least somewhat busy!  I kind of grounded to a halt with the sanding of the inside of the hull...but I did finally get it all done.  I scraped the glue off and some of the cedar with a paint scrapper, and then sanded the entire hull with 60 grit sandpaper on the random orbital sandpaper.  This worked well, but took a long time.  IM thinking if/when I do it again, I will look for courser sandpaper for this stage...45 grit?  Anyway...I talked my dad and brother into coming over on a Saturday morning and we were able to get the inside fiberglassed pretty easily.

 

Later that night, I asked my buddy Karl to come over, and we squeeged on the 2nd coat.  I actually enjoy the fiberglass/resin work.  It is fun to see the results, and how the finished product is going to look.  I have decided though that when doing large areas of the canoe, that having at least 2 people is necessary to keep working efficiently.  Either having 2 people applying resin and one person mixing batches or resin, or 1 person applying and 1 person mixing.

 

The next night I brushed on the 3rd and finally coat of resin on the inside of the hull.  I think its turninig into one sexy canoe!  :)

 

 

Fiberglassing the outside

So the outside of the entire canoe is nicely sanded and it is time to put on the fiberglass cloth and resin.  I chose West Systems resin.  Their standard resin with special "expensive" hardener that should help guarantee I get the results I want.  Below is a picture of the resin with the pumps ready to go.

The first step is to lay out the 6oz fiberglass cloth and smooth out all of the wrinkles.  

After that, I mixed up the resin and hardener in a plastic cup.  I spread it on with a foam brush and let it sit for approximately 20 minutes.  Then I came back and squeegeed out the excess resin.  This completed the first coat.  I let this coat cure for approximately 6 hours and then put on the second coat of resin.  If you put on the second coat before the first coat completely cures, you get a chemical bond between layers...if you wait too long, your bond is a mechanical bond which is not quite as strong.  I put on the second coat with just the squeegee....the fiberglass weave is starting to slowly disappear in the resin.  The third coat of resin was put on with a brush.  My first attempt at this, I put it on with a foam 4" roller....but I got a ton of ait bubbles in the resin.  I had to sand it all off and try again.  The brush seemed to work much better for me in eliminating the air bubbles.

This stage is always fun because you get to finally see what the "finished product" is going to look like.  I absolutely love the colors of the canoe.  My canoe has a nice blend of dark cedar and light cedar which gives a really unique look.  I also love the knots in the wood, and I am very pleased with the walnut strips I placed in the hull, as well as the walnut stems.  

This weekend was the first nice weekend we've had yet this year.  Temperatures hit the mid 60's!  I really wanted to drag the canoe outside and get some pictures of it in direct sunlight.  The colors really show themselves off now.  I've got the 3rd layer on and the outside is basically done.  Ill do some more sanding when it is all done, and some varnish, and that's about it!  

After I took these pictures, I removed the canoe from the form with some help, and placed it upright on a set of canoe cradles I made up.  Pictures of them to follow!

Outer Stems and Sanding

So it has been about a week since my last update, and I have been told by a few people that they need more pictures!  Anyway....I have spent the last week sanding the hull with the belt sander and shaping the bow and stern to receive that hardwood stems.

Hardwood Stems:

I then went to steam the walnut stems for the bow and stern.  I used the basic ideas that I had seen online from other canoe builders to build my steamer.  The idea was to steam one set of strips, and then clamp them to a piece of plywood that was my template for the inner stems of the canoe.  I would leave it clamped for approx. 24 hours and then glue/screw/ratchet strap it to the canoe.   Then I would steams the other set of strips, let it sit over night, and repeat the process for the other end.  I made slight modifications to the steamer the second night, and although I can not say the results were perfect, I was able to bend them enough to do what I needed them to do.  Here is a picture of my steamer, and the strips clamped in shape ready to sit over night.

So...the next night I got my dad to come over and we rigged up a way to use ratchet straps to help hold the strips in place over night as the glue set up.  After we get the one set secured, we steamed the second set up and got them in the clamps.  All in all, everything went pretty well.

The walnut looks pretty blocky on the canoe before it is shaped.

The other side is already shapped.  I used the belt sander to get it to its primary shape, and then the random-orbital sander to fine tune it.  I really like the way these are going to look when fiberglassed!

 Rest of the week will be spent sanding.  I have some more sanding to be done with the belt sander, and then  lots of sanding to be done with the random-orbital sander.  I am using 120 grit sand paper on that.  With that, I can make it as smooth as necessary.  In my opinion...it is only about making it "look smooth".  You wont be able to actually touch the wood with all of the fiberglass and resin on it anyway!

The fiberglass materials should arrive late this week, so I hope to fiberglass the outside next weekend.

Stripping in the garage

So...as the title suggests, I stripped the canoe this weekend.  You have no idea how many times I referenced "stripping in the garage" one way or another, without thinking anything of it.  Oh well, good times!  So, I put the first 2 rows of strips on late Friday night.  First, I used a belt sander to shape the plywood inner stems.  I had to grind them back to a point, and at the correct angel that the strips will sit on the inner stems at.  This wasn't too difficult.

This is how the plywood stems begin.  I used the belt sander to round over the top (bottom), and then slowly blend it into a point.

And below, this is what the stems looks like when I was done.  They seemed to work perfectly as we stripped the canoe. 

After months of planning and preparing, there is a great deal of hesitation when you finally have to pull the trigger and set that first staple. After I had strips on both sides, I used a level to make sure that both sides lined up with each other perfectly...making any minor adjustments as needed.   I let these 2 rows set up over night so we would have a nice solid surface to work off of the next morning when my Dad and Brother came over to help strip in the garage :)

With the 2 rows of strips on, we started the morning by adding a row of walnut.  I wanted to have 2 rows of walnut, seperated by a row of cedar.  This is what my accent strips look like.

Once we got on a roll, the strips went on quickly.  The 8 foot boards were rather cumbersome.  The sides were built with 3 pieces.  For some reason 2 x8 does not equal 17.5 feet!  Oh well, I love the way the cedar looks.  There are some knots in the wood, and the lighter color looks great with the walnut accent strips.  We just keep working out way up the side until we get to the bottom where the curves get too tight to do, then we come from the top down.

The strips came up the sides nice and evenly.  We checked it a few times with a level to make sure the rows were even across, but never had to go back and change any spacing.  We got up to the football level by lunch time.  I then wanted to have a row of walnut accentuate the football design.  We had exactly the right amount left over to do this, so we added that row in on both sides.  We ran a piece of real dark cedar left over from my brother'c kayak as a centerline, and then work our way back to the sides.  These strips are run perfectly straight, and then you have to cut the end at the correct angle to fit in with the sides.

So we keep on with this until we get it all closed in.  The last few pieces are a real bugger!  Luckily, my Brother and Dad are very good at getting the angles cut perfectly so they seal nicely.  I let them work on that as i did most of the glueing and stapling of the pieces that they fit in.   This is what it looks like with the top of the canoe all done.  We called it a day after this as it was time for supper and we had done enough for one day!

All in all, not a bad days work!







So the next morning, I had to finish filling in the bottowm (which will be the top.)  The center line that I started from will be approximately at water level.  So i needed to work my way up about 2 rows, and then piece in shorter pieces for the bow and stern.  They are all left square and long, and will be cut to the final shape of the canoe later.

We then pulled out all the nails and staples from the top part that we did yesturday and Dad did a quick pass with the belt sander so we could see how it was looking.  I will pull rest of the staples later tonight, and either tonight or Monday after work, do more rough sanding with the belt sander.