The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Glassing won't solve any of the fill issues, it is like painting, it will highlight any surface variations ... so you need to fair the hull if you want it to look decent. I would do the rough sanding, board the hull so that it is nice and flat, then fill the cracks and divets with thickened epoxy, t...

Hi Eric,

On my last build posts I covered off adding the extra strips at the bow/stern here https://www.canoetripping.net/forums/fo ... uild/page8

You may find something useful.


Brian

Eric, this is likely where you are https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3cQMb80y9xPSVZasVhikpONR9vELM1AmMXOUjUOqZFXulss_ANh8hw0nCzrOLRnZOmoOQbg9wWpMa8SJ0VlNLSlC4aLX8ABiRQS5Jz4rO2X1OYVrEP50ZEIgDkRssr8dhNH2UZOL2rbwnBXoCtfzaph=w1024-h1365-no?authuser=0 and this is where you want to be to recoat ht...

Hard to visualize without the pics/ However I have read that applying the glass to one side can cause distortion issues ... wood like to move with temp and humidity changes, with glassing one side, one side can move, one side can't. I can think of all sort of scenarios, maybe that is what happened h...

Thanks Jim, that is a big compliment ... knock yourself out.


Brian

It's time to start getting ready to varnish and make the paddles shiny and presentable. Since we have used epoxy on the blades and shafts, there is one extra step that needs to be done, washing the paddles to remove any amine blush, that may or may not have occurred in the finish. Get a bucket of wa...

While the batch is waiting on the epoxy to cure (for me 10 days) the single handles can be final sanded. Given all the curves on the asymmetric handle I like to use a small piece of foam with the sand paper, it allows me to follow the contours. Sand the handle out to 220-280 grit ... I like to vacuu...

These paddles have a slim profile, and are made almost entirely of softwood, this makes them sleek, light, easy to shape and sand. It doesn't however make the blades as strong as I think they need to be, so let's fix that now by adding some fiberglass to the equation. First step is to finish sand th...

Hi Jim, the twin sets have already seen a couple trips last fall ... I have older paddles done with plain epoxy that have taken quite s few trips and seen more than a few rocks. They all seem to be fine as well. Adding the glass strands was new, using the epoxy is not.

Brian

Putting some type of tip protection on a paddle is almost a given, there are a few types, but these will be getting some re-enforced epoxy tips. First we make up some tip forms, for the single paddles just use the paddle to trace out the shape, for the twin, use the pattern to trace out the paddle s...

Rounding the shafts for both the twin and single blades is the exact same process IF you leave the shafts as a regular rectangle. Our singles aren’t, they have that taper, so an extra step will need to be done. To mark up a regular shaft, first draw a line on the face, perpendicular to the side. The...

We are ready to attach and shape the handle on a single blade paddle. This is my own asymmetrical design I have been refining, but doing a symmetrical paddle is pretty much the same operations, just adjusted a bit ... the symmetrical operations center the handle and the asymmetrical will be from one...

Cove up and stapleless here as well, maybe lazier, fishing line is just way too much work and fiddling for me.


Brian

That is a great boat Lyle and with all the straight lines stripping should be straight forward and strip width isn't much of a concern. NWC is a great wood to work with, I have done several builds with it, including my own Freedom 17, love the look and the workability it has... give us pics


Brian

That looks interesting Jim, might be good to carve the handle shapes and maybe smoothing the transitions ... I will check into it a bit more. As far as doing the blades, I have found that it is really difficult to keep a flat surface when using any kind of rotary sanding tool, it can hog the wood of...