The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Now that I am in the middle of making a lot of sawdust (cutting strips), I am making sure to track and order the strips by board. I am also trying to mark the grain direction, so that I can organize the strips and not worry about having grains going both ways. I have been running my fingers down the...

Jim, I am very fortunate with having access to my neighbours friend, he is a super nice guy, offered to help, answer any questions and come over and help with the glassing step ( that part still has me terrified). So it's like having a safety net for my first build, as well as his experience with lo...

So ... basically, if I build a second boat, 1/2" forms, but since I have the 3/4" now, it doesn't matter. I was sort of hoping it wasn't a big deal , because returning what I have and getting 1/2" material is a pain.


and thanks for such fast replies.

My wife figured it would take me a month to clear out the garage to reclaim my workshop, I am a bit motivated and had a week off, the recovery is pretty much complete. My neighbor has a friend who has completed 8 canoes ( his 9th is almost completely stripped) and I had a chance to go over and see f...

Getting close to starting my build now, wood is ordered, plans are ordered (Freedom Solo) and have started researching the "how" I will execute the various steps. (yes, I am one one of those people who plans out almost the entire job, sometimes several times, before I actually start work)....

When i started this post, I had sourced wood about 90 minutes from my home and I had intended on putting a rack together for the pickup to carry the longer lengths back. While I was in the box store picking up the wood for the rack, I started wondering if it was really worth all the effort and check...

More good info Moonman, I didn't really confuse the woods, but I did leave out that I wanted to cut my own strips and that is where the challenge comes in. I started the search for long strips and planned to buy shorter and scarf, if that didn't pan out. The northern white cedar I simply stopped loo...

All good comments, the purpose was to point out a few things and since there is a lot of eastern red cedar here, the pitfall of asking for red cedar, that doesn't matter in a lot places, but here it won't necessarily get you what you are after. I have sourced a lumber yard and I am going there in a ...

I plan on building a Freedom Solo and have been looking to source my wood. I live near Toronto and I didn't think the search would be as long as it turned out to be. This post is to share what I found, some of this may be obvious to veteran builders, but it may be of use to others who are in the sam...

Jim, I always found the same thing with boards, best were buried, unfortunately .... this afternoon the deeper I went in the stack, well, i was just deeper in the stack, with no good planks. However, talking with the owner , he said he knew some one who had a lumber yard in 69 and went out of busine...

PD, So that narrow strip is also cove and bead? That is a pretty slick adaptation to the chine, just basically make a thin strip at that point, cove and bead ... have to be careful making that one I imagine, not very big. Well, I have to finish regaining my workshop ( read that "clean garage ou...

PD, I was going to shave off that chine a tad. Looking at the picture you posted, it looks like there is a small strip added at apex of the chine that the regular strips butt against to form the turn. The description doesn't match that, so now I am a bit confused. BTW, nice pic ... very clear. I jus...

Thanks for the fast reply Snowman, It is all very useful. I now have a better idea of what I need to look for in grain pattern for the wood and that there is some leeway in the thickness of wood I cut for the strips. It is one thing to "think" you get it from what the book says and an enti...

Hoping to draw on the expertise of this forum ( I have learned a lot reading here) and gather some ideas of edge versus flat grain strips. I am heading out tomorrow to look at my first sawmill to try and source lumber for my first canoe project. I plan on cutting my own strips as I already have most...

Patrick's Dad :Thanks for the fast responses, the seat treatment looks very slick, but I have spent the evening trying to find carbon tube in Canada and I don't think that is going to happen. But I do have a friend who runs a machine shop, since I have a good idea of what the design looks like, I am...