The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Hi everybody, I ended up putting the lams inside some wet towels and soaking them overnite. I also used an extra sacrificial lam on the outside. I then steamed them this morning for 20 minutes and they bent like wet noodles around the forms! Thanks for all the other insightful comments :dancing

Thanks guys, i will try all of those suggestions

Greetings everybody;

I'm steaming my stem laminations, pine for the inside stems and cherry for the outside; unfortunately, the cherry laminations keep breaking when I try to bend them around the stem molds. I've been steaming them for half an hour each time.

Am i doing something wrong?

Randy, thank you for the generous offer. You may be right about the shipping costs; i will look into it, and if it is not prohibitive i will contact you. The only other variable i must consider is the 3/8 strip you mentioned. I buy my strips from Noahs; i do not have a router and router table (i've ...

Thanks again to you both for your counsel; Martin from Green Valley replied to my email and said the Shearwater design is too big for most people. With that opinion i think i will stick to a 15' solo design instead of 16'. Randy, any feedback on how your Freedom 15' behaved in the bwca? Also, i just...

Randy & Jim; thanks for the ideas and pictures. MoonMan had suggested i look into the Shearwater design; I read about it on the Green Valley website, but there are no photos. So i can't tell if it also has shouldered tumblehome. Did either of you consider the Shearwater design? Another question:...

Thanks MoonMan; The Freedom 16 seems the ideal canoe for me, i just don't feel comfortable with the hard chine.

Any feedback on building that hard chine?

Hello everyone, I am contemplating building either of the above boats. I have a couple questions: 1. I know it is a solo canoe, but could a small person (110 lbs) come for an occasional short ride, kneeling in front perhaps? I am 200 lbs, and we would not be carrying any other objects. 2. Each desig...

MoonMan, thanks for the idea; i will have to consider that option...

Sedges, thanks for posting those pics; nice work on that canoe...

Jeff, i will certainly look into Fingerle Lumber as well; thank you!

Thanks Rod and Sedges for the interesting commentary.

Sedges, do you have any pictures you could post of that beautiful guide boat you referred to?

Rod, so even in BC chocolate cedar is scarce...sounds like i should reconsider my initial idea..

Greetings everyone, Does anyone know where i can obtain enough dark western red cedar to strip an entire canoe? I was up at Langford Canoe in Dwight ON last week and was really impressed with the color of their wood canoes. The owner told me they only use dark red cedar from British Columbia. Thanks...

Glen, thanks once again.

One final question: on a scale of 1 to 10, how hazardous would you rate this mission?? :frightened

As you can see from the photo, i made a fiberglassing mistake on the stems. I've been thinking i'll just live with it, but now i'm wondering if i could use a mallet and sharp chisel to remove the epoxy hardened cloth that is not seated against the stems. Then i could lay in some new cloth strips wit...

Glen, thanks a million

Ok Glen, i think i have achieved that:)

So now when i look at it, it has the white stuff still on it: do i need to wipe that off, or is it ready for varnishing?

thanks again