The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties. We used Gorilla glue for the first time when we did the stems. I had heard that it dries dark (which it does) and we used Black Walnut so this matched nicely. What we did not know at the time was how messy it was to work with. The strips were sliding quite a...

1/4" radius = 1/2" diameter which would mean it would be used for 1/2" strips.

You want 1/8" radius for 1/4" diameter used on 1/4" strips.

The bit set at lee Valley have 1/8" radius

If you are using natural cane I would not use Vaseline but instead soak the cane for 10-15 minutes in water/glycerine solution. Vaseline will mess up your finishing later. Clothespins help hold the cane as you soak it. One idea I've seen for looping the cane for soaking is to use the inside of the l...

I did some searching for hidden latches and came up with a VERY interesting site. Southco makes what I think you are looking for. Go to Southco.com for info on where to buy. They have some hidden hinges that work something like a trunk at: http://www.southco.com/product/class.aspx?cid=7457 They have...

Noah's marine or Lee Valley have it and you can order online if you are not close enough.

From what I have read there is nothing wrong with using any decent Carpenters glue as long as you consider the dried colour with respect to your strips. For stems and gunwales we used epoxy.

I wouldn't based on a couple of web searches. One of them is below: http://www.craftsman-style.info/finishing/041-applying-shellac.htm A lot of other posts deal with whether the shellac has wax or not and what other chemicals are in the shellac and in the varnish. There are tons of combinations betw...

Try Noah's Marine at 54 Six Point Rd, Toronto, ON, M8Z 2X2. They are about 1 hours drive from kitchener.

Tim,

as it turns out your link is the most current. I sent Wayne Sharp details on a cradle that I made and invited him to post this on his website. The photos were posted on only the most recent.

https://mavdisk.mnsu.edu/wayne/Caning/ChairCaning.htm

You could always do what I do.....Get wet ;-) Seriously though, a friend of mine always says that canoeing is a water sport so you should expect to get wet. His biggest pet peeve is seeing people run a canoe up on the shore so they don't get their feet wet. Where I paddle this would be on solid gran...

I would say yes in both cases (plastic or natural) and varnish again after caning with natural cane.

I did not and wished that I had when trying to varnish the frame under the cane.

I would suggest that you use the search feature in this site and look for epoxy problems and pre-coat. Take your time to look through the old messages and you will find messages (especially from beginners) asking for help after they had problems. You will find a common theme running through these me...

We shortened the Redbird to 16 feet by moving the stations to 10.75 inches and modifying the stem molds by using the multiplier 10.75 / 12. I stayed with imperial and just rounded to the closest 16th inch.

The process was pretty straight forward and we are pleased with the results.

We had a lot of knots in the wood that we used. Even though we also had some strips break at the knot this happened during the dry fit and we just cut the end and used a butt joint to finish the row. The knots and irregular grain give our boat an interesting look. I can see your point though since y...

This project is coming to a close. The only thing left now is the finish coats of varnish. I will be prepping the surface this week so that everything is ready to go for this weekend. I've been waiting for the weather to warm up so I can transfer the canoe from the basement to the garage. I was able...

It looks like you have three cradles. I'm just guessing here, but I would bet the problem is in the centre cradle being slightly high (with added foam). Try removing just the centre cradle and see if it corrects itself. I used slings made of 4" canvas strips. I just had to use spreaders on at l...