The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

One trick I picked up from a caning web site is a technique called couching. Instead of leaving the holes in the corner of the seat visible, cut a peice of golf tee to the same thickness as the seat itself. The golf tee is placed into the corner hole and the binder cane is pulled over the top of the...

Keep us up to date on your progress. The guide boat is on a short list of boats I would like to build.

I use a technique called couching that I learned from Wayne Sharps website, I use a cut off golf tee and pull the cane over the top of the peg from both directions and tie the cane off underneath. Wayne explains it well on his website.
http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~wayne/Caning/CaneStep7.htm

I have the plans and built the Merlin also, the plans are for use without stems. You would need to remove 3/4 in. to compensate for the thickness of the inner stems if you are planning on building with a stem, and the stems would normally stretch to the first form. The seat should be mounted 6 in. a...

Where are you able to find white cedar for that price in Wisconsin? I live about 45 minute west of you and haven't been able to find much that is even close to clear.

I'm in Fond du Lac County, 50 minutes from Madison.

I recently acquired an unfinished 38 special and am seeking opinions on using a double paddle versus a sliding seat. I am considering a double paddle so the 38 special with my wife aboard may be better able to keep up with me if I build a kayak in the future. I am looking on using the 38 special as ...

I managed to get through the the process of carving the scuppers. If I had to do it again, I would definately not use maple. I had to proceed very slowly taking off a very small amount of wood at a time, and still had some small peices tear out. Nothing that I wasn't able to fix, but still very frus...

I was using a straight router bit on a small router table, I think the problem was the opening for the bit was too wide, so I am going to try again with a sacrificial fence. If that does not help, I'll try the block method with a fostner bit.

I am building my first canoe and am having a lot of problems with tear out while routing the scuppers. I am gluing the torn peices back together right now but I don't know if I will be able to salvage the inwale or if I have to start over. I practiced on a peice of pine to get the depth to where I w...