The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

One of the more important contributors to bubbles is thick epoxy. If you mix it in small batches, you can mix it well and get it onto the canoe before it gets thick enough to prevent bubbles from coming out. Bubbles usually appear in the later used parts of a mixed batch. Warming the wood of the can...

Congratulations on the beautiful boat and priceless experience. You and Patrick can make some more great memories paddling it.

"Building a Strip Canoe" by Gil Gilpatrick is addressed a bit more toward building a utilitarian canoe, rather than the work of art described in Moores's book. In keeping with that, Gilpatrick does discuss extra reinforcement for whitewater canoes, and says that he and his students have us...

If you are putting on a second layer reinforcement or patch, I prefer to have the smaller piece on the outside, despite the need to do something to the edge. The reason for this is that you can smooth the edge and still have a strong continuous layer underneath. If you sand a ridge smooth that resul...

If you bought the book and a set of plans, I would imagine that that provides two licenses for that canoe style.

As far as I know, the problem with brass screws is that they can break while you're installing them, but they are fine once installed: corrosion resistant, good looking, and strong enough. Bronze is stronger, but I wouldn't replace installed brass screws unless I needed to remove them for some other...

If you want people to notice your question, you can start a new thread for the question. Adding it to the 5th page of an existing thread suggests a continuation of that discussion, rather than a new question. Returning to the question of color in epoxy affecting the appearance of coated wood: yes, t...

Test first to be sure it will stick. You may have difficulty finding anything that will stick, and that won't be stiffer than the backing, which could help it crack or pull off as the rest of the hull flexes. Getting epoxy to stick to plastic is iffy. Usually roughing up the surface with coarse sand...

I took a piece of 2x4, cut it to a narrow wedge, mounted it on a stick, and glued on some coarse sandpaper. This fit better into the narrow bow of my canoe than did my hand, and sanded evenly. Next time I'll crown the surface slightly before gluing on the sandpaper.

Here's another good description of glassing: http://www.michneboat.com/Fiberglassing%20-%20101.htm I used the mixing and measuring method described there. Clear coat is so much thinner than other epoxy that some of the methods for spreading may not be as appropriate. Immediately after mixing, we pou...

System three clear coat is wonderful stuff. I didn't reply to this thread initially, since I had responded to the SB-112 thread next to it. System three has several epoxies. The one tested in the epoxy test is their standard resin, with one of their hardeners. Clear coat is different: much thinner, ...

My canoe has three layers of bias cut strips on the stems, with each layer a bit narrower than the one below. Here is what it looked like after putting them on: http://home.earthlink.net/~durgerian/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/skateboard.jpg Description can be found here: http://www.home.e...

I've used it, in combination with system three clear coat. The clear coat is very thin and runny, and cures slowly -- perfect for wetting out the cloth. The SB-112 is much thicker and faster curing -- perfect for the fillin coats. Both are much clearer and more colorless than anything used in the ep...

Many work, and it's not likely to be a problem. However, if the brush disintegrates and leaves bits of foam on your boat, or the handle dissolves and leaves discolored splotches, that would be very upsetting. All you need to do to check is to pour a little varnish into a paper cup, put a brush in it...

I built one outside in Minnesota when I was in high school 30 years ago. It worked fine, but it was a pain covering it with plastic every time I finished working, and of course there were a lot of days I couldn't work on it because it was raining. But just use the garage if you can, or a temporary s...