Building the Huron

Pete in the Deep South · Wed Nov 08, 2006 10:43 am

After many months, it's finally finished.

Things that I did differently:
1. Placed the strongback on casters.

2. Stripped the bottom using the Hazen method.

3. Moved the thwart location 10" off center. Also, I build a small removal seat to be used midship(not shown).

4. Used matte varnish on the inside of the hull.

5. Used cypress wood for the rails and hull. Full length strips were used. The cypress wood added very little additional weight and looks nice. Cypress may be a little soft for rails, but is strong enough I think for 15' canoe. We will see!

6. Purchased cherry contoured seats from www.edscanoe.com . Good looking seats and the price was right!

7. Offsets were taken from Ted's book(Hey, that's not different). The Huron builds just as easy as the Bobs Special. It's not quite as beamy,and it's a handsome little craft. I reduced the length to 15 feet.

8. I took many months to build....I guess I'm slowing down in my old age.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v507/ ... use/Huron/

pawistik · Post by **pawistik** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:27 pm

Hi Pete,
The canoe looks great. By the way, there's an extra s in the link to Ed's which causes it not to work. The corrected link: http://www.edscanoe.com/ Looks like a decent place to get some accessories.
Cheers,
Bryan

Glen Smith · Post by **Glen Smith** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:41 pm

The canoe looks great!

I edited the faulty link.

Pete in the Deep South · Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:21 am

Thanks for the comments...I realize that my canoes are "Plain Janes" compared to some of the canoes that I see on this site. That's what is great about the stripper. They all have beauty that transcends our skills be they great or limited.

Just a few additional comments:

1. I forgot to mention that I used rectangular profile brass ordered from www.onlinemetals.com for my stems. I was breaking my half oval by not being careful while drilling for the screws.

2. Also, the matte finish varnish was Epifanes.

To Glen: Thanks for editing the faulty link and all that you do to make this forum one of the best on the internet.

Bryan Hansel · Post by **Bryan Hansel** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 10:16 am

Looks great!

pawistik · Post by **pawistik** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 10:55 am

Pete in the Deep South wrote:...I realize that my canoes are "Plain Janes" compared to some of the canoes that I see on this site. That's what is great about the stripper. They all have beauty that transcends our skills be they great or limited.

Plain Janes can be great. The beauty is in the grain of the wood, in the fine details such as your end caps, the pinstripe which contrasts and accentuates, but doesn't distract. Some would call that style simply elegant.

Cheers,
Bryan

canoeblderinmt · Post by **canoeblderinmt** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 1:24 pm

Pete,
A very pretty boat. The seats look comfortable. I hope you enjoy her for many years to come.

Greg

tdoes · Post by **tdoes** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:44 am

Congratulations. Inspirational stuff.

How did the casters work out? Did you have any problems with movement?
I'm delighted to see how the lighter-coloured timber looks as my wood will probably be very similar.

Pete in the Deep South · Tue Nov 14, 2006 7:34 am

To Tdoes: The casters worked out perfectly. It was nice to be able to move outside for the sanding. I don't think I had any movement, but I think my strongback could have been built much lighter.

There is a engineering college near me that builds all of their canoes on strongbacks with casters, and their strongbacks are small and light.

pawistik · Post by **pawistik** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:48 pm

Regarding casters and strongback stability: Those who follow the Moore's style of building build something that is rock solid, immobile, and wouldn't shift in a major earthquake. But there are other schools of thought out there. Followers of the Schade style, use a 2x4 (preferably a straight one) as their internal strongback and this is supported on a couple of sawhorses. The approach taken by Pete and myself is somewhere in between. We used well-built Moore's-style strongbacks to give a stable structure to support our building efforts, but we put the whole thing on casters for the sake of convenience. I went one step further by using the Moore's-style external strongback, on casters, to support a Schade-style internal strongback (I was building a guillemot kayak of Schade design following the instructions in his book). For more on my reasoning and comments in this regard, see the posts in my blog from last October.

Cheers,
Bryan.