Canoe Update

Work on the boat is progressing nicely. On Friday I started out the day by making a carrying yoke. The week before I had glued a piece of walnut to an ash plank. Martin had a template of a yoke so all I did was trace it out onto the wood. I then used a bandsaw to rough cut the shape. After a bit of sanding on the drum sander it was was ready for shaping. This is where the artistry and customizing happens. To rough in the contour I used an angle grinder with a chainsaw type of device attached. It is a rather menacing piece of equipment but is really works well for taking a lot of material off in a short amount of time. All that needs to be done now is to sand it to a smooth finish. I then turned my attention to the canoe. The whole outside of the hull was sanded down in preparation for another coat of epoxy. To finish off the day I applied the epoxy.

The following day Martin and I glued in place the deck plates making sure that everything is square and symmetrical. I then turned my attention to the thwarts. After taking careful measurements from the plug I clamped strips of wood from gunwale to gunwale to achieve the final shape of the gunwale line. I then figured out where the thwarts should be placed and took measurements to that I could make them.

I spent most of my time today sanding / cleaning the wax from the inside of the hull. The wax that we used to keep the kevlar from sticking the plug had to be removed before we can apply the extra layers of kevlar to the inside of the bottom to make it stiff. You can see in the photo the kevlar that has been cut to shape for the bottom. Kevlar is a nightmare to cut! The only thing that will cut it is a very sharp pare of scissors or a laser and since we don't have a laser the scissors made for a very stiff forearm.