Canoe Building

[mitch]

This winter I am planning on building a cedar strip canoe. It will be the first one I have ever built. We have the plans. It will be 17' 9" long. We plan on taking it to the BWCA next summer. Does anyone have any tips or tricks to make the building go smoother, quicker, easier or work better? Thanks for any help.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Never built one, but I'm wondering how much this thing will weigh? Has anyone owned one that can chime in?

[leechlake]

type in "Joe Seliga" in a search engine and you will find a lot of information and stories on canoe building. Mr Seliga is an old time craftsman building canoes in Northern Minnesota for a really long time.

[fish-n-geek]

I attacked this project a few years back, but got side tracked by college, work and buying a house, so I never got more than half done :-( I plan to start again after I build my new house.

I would look into buying bead & cove strips. They are supposed to be much easier to form. I spent a lot of time beveling my strips so they'd lay right, and I think the bead & cove would be a tremendous help.

-rus-

[MNice]

Joe builds wood & canvas, not cedar strip. Total different way of building. Do a search and you'll find tons of info. Have fun. I am a woodworker and I plan on building one someday, but I'll keep my kevlar for now.

[mitch]

A guy that I talked to said that the canoes he has built weigh around 50 lbs. My uncle tried to pick it up expecting a lot of weight and almost fell over because it was so light.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Sweet! I'd have thought they'd be heavy, too.

[Curly]

Sounds like a great project, hope it goes well. Post some pics as the project is progressing.

[mitch]

I will. I hope it turns out good.

[cheesehead]

I have always dreamed of building one also so here's my two cents

buy a bead and cove router bit set $75

buy the lightest cedar wood boards you can find.

you can cut the boards 3/16" or 7/64" thick to save a little weight

Do not skimp on the epoxy. Cheaper is not better in this case.

My plan was to use standard ceadar boards and cove and bead all 4 sides and strip it with short lengths. Kind of like a hardwood floor looks. I was also going to use polyurethane glue to join the boards.

read the book Canoe craft for ideas on construction.

[Marmot]

I have been working on a solo cedar strip canoe for the past year. I have most of the form constructed. I still need to plane the bow and stern pieces. I milled the bead and cove edges on the cedar strips this past weekend. Hopefully, I can start striping the canoe after Labor Day.

Good luck on your cedar strip canoe!!

[mitch]

How many hours have you been working on your canoe. We are hoping to have two 17' 9" canoes done before school gets out for the summer. One canoe for my family and one for my uncle's. I read somewhere it doesn't take as long to make one after the first one because you know how to do it and you already have the forms made.

[Marmot]

Making the form and sanding takes the longest.

How much time have I spent? That is hard to say since I work on it a little every once in a while.

I think it took me around 7 hours to rip and mill the cedar strips. That is including setting up the saw and router which took some time.

What pattern and/or literature are you using for your canoe construction?

[mitch]

I'm not exactly sure my uncle has the plans.

[Marmot]

Linky for bead and cove bits

Quote:

---

buy the lightest cedar wood boards you can find.

---

I think you want to be concerned with the percent of water (is that the correct term??) of the cedar. Too little and I think the cedar gets brittle when stripping them to the form.

Quote:

---

you can cut the boards 3/16" or 7/64" thick to save a little weight

---

I do not think this is a good idea if you are going to use a bead and cove edge. I cut my right at 1/4" thick.

[Marmot]

Oooh...Oooh...click me, click me for a HSOforum that shows a novice building a cedar strip canoe. I forgot I have had this site book marked for a couple of years.

[mitch]

I stumbled upon that site a couple weeks ago too.

[Marmot]

As I progress on my canoe, I will try to post updates on any problems I encounter.