The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Francois,
Marvelous work. I am especially captivated by the yoke. I know how much work that must have been, and you carried it off wonderfully. I bet it is comfortable. Your use of contrasting woods is very nice, it shows off the canoes lines well.

Greg

RR, I guess it all depends on what tools you like using. Most bandsaws have very small tables so you may need to rig up an infeed and outfeed table to handle a long strip safely. I love handplanes, so if I were in your shoes, needing a long, tapered strip, I'd strike a line and plane down to it. If ...

An AMAZING job, MT, you should be proud of your efforts. The inlay stripes are great, and the care you took with matching and offsetting other strips for effect are just stunning. You will definitely turn heads wherever you go. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of you and your beautiful canoe o...

Ed, I went on the internet and found a picture of a soaring eagle I liked and printed it on heavy stock paper. I traced that pattern onto some ebony that I sliced to about 1/8" with my bandsaw. That's where I am right now. I've been working on the hull and getting her faired and smooth. Mostly ...

RiverRat, Here's a link to my experience with cheater strips. They were pretty easy with a pull saw and block plane. http://photobucket.com/albums/y258/canoeblderinmt/BooBoos/ I think they are pretty hard to pick up if you didn't know about them, so mum's the word! :sealed lips Greg

Thanks, Karkauai! Actually, I hurt both my thumbs putting up a cultured stone fireplace. I had just put up a stone, which came loose and fell. I caught it, and while I was holding it, another very large stone came down and cracked me across the thumbs. Boy did that hurt! :crying Finished the firepla...

I guess it happens to the best of us: we clamp, staple, tape, screw etc, and still after sanding we have gaps between strips. You can mix up some epoxy and fill the gaps that way, but I have another method. I use strips of wood and CA glue to fill the gaps. It works fast, and gaps virtually disappea...

The Fix is in! It looks like I've gotten my bow and stern straightened out and a few more strips and I'll be into the "Football". Updated pics are here: http://photobucket.com/albums/y258/canoeblderinmt/BooBoos/ I ended up adding two strips per side and I think it'll close up with a nice t...

Hey all, Thanks for the ideas and the encouragement. Tom, I agree with the whole hypotenuse thing, but I did add 2 inches of rocker, and shortened the stem and the first (and last) two stations to try and cut down on that famous White Guide tendancy to "sail" in crosswinds. The lines look ...

Hello all. Learned a good lesson today. As I'm minding my own business, busily stripping around the bilge, I notice that something doesn't look right around the stems. Which is a bit of a misnomer, as my boat is stemless, but you know what I mean. There is more height left on the stem than distance ...

Tom, I did a search on "fishing" and found the following posts: Rick in PenderH Guest Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 3:23 am Post subject: stapleless method -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have strip built several wee lassies, and now I use mono...

Beautiful job!! The use of woods for accent is very nice, a very eye-catching boat. The bow seat looks a little far back. Is there a great weight difference between the anticipated paddlers? Or will the bow kneel a lot? Just curious. You both should be very proud, and what a great thinng to share be...

Erik, What a let down after all the great work you've put in. I think a fix-up shouldn't be too tough. Without seeing any pictures, I think I understand what you are facing. My guess is that rather than being a wet/dry problem there was simply some tension or instability in the maple (the grain is o...

I'm very excited about this canoe. Having lost my cherry on the 18.5 footer and had a couple of years (has it been that long?) reading all the great tips here I'm confident I can build a nice boat this time out. I'm half way done stripping as of tonite! This fishing line method is FAST! Here are mor...

Well all, I'm going over the deep end, stripping a twenty foot boat alone. It's a little bit of a challenge and has required a few little tricks to try and manage the 23 foot long strips. I had my dad help me with the gang ripping, planing and routing. Now I'm on my own and am fretting the glassing ...