Cedar Decking -- make hull strips from it?

[Lee]

The local Menard's lumber store has 1-1/4" cedar decking in 6" widths and lengths up to 18 or 20 feet. The price isn't too bad. I'm wondering if that would be something I could rip useful strips from. They describe the wood as having "tight knots," which I assume means the rest of the grain is tight too.

I realize there are lots of variables that will make it hard to give me a definite yes or no, but I thought maybe there's someone out there who's tried it.

Not having built a stripper--yet--I'm also not sure whether strips that wide are a good idea. Most of what I've read is about ripping from 3/4" stock. After subtracting a quarter inch for the coves, strips from the decking would be effectively an inch wide.

Lee

[canoeblderinmt]

Lee,
I built my first stripper from cedar 1x6 "seconds" purchased at a very reasonable price. The only milled out to about 5/8", so I had a lot of strips, but they worked just fine. The strength is in the "sandwich" of the glass and the wood, not the wood itself. I'd say, "Go for it!"

Greg

[Doug]

With the ever increasing price of WRC, I think cedar deck boards are in my future.

Scarf joints will need to be used;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarf_joint
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1792415
http://www.glen-l.com/supplies/pxman-apscarf.html

Doug


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[Bryan Hansel]

Works just fine. I helped a friend with a canoe a couple of years ago. We bought decking, because the price was right. WE sorted through the boards until we found the perfect wood.

It may be in my future also, because the price I just paid for the current build was a bit high for the quality of wood I got. It took an hour of sorting just to get at the planks that I bought, and those are the worst I'll have ever used. I bet that decking would have been better or of the same quality.

[Lee]

Thank you all for the encouragement. I was unsure about the decking being useful, but now I'm encouraged to give it a chance. I've not been happy with the quality and cost of the cedar boards I've bought lately--the 3/4 inch stuff--and couldn't imagine it being of much use to mill strips from. We have a couple of specialty wood stores here that supposedly have better quality stock but the prices make me shudder.

Bryan, I wish I'd known I was going to be interested in boat building when we went through Grand Marais in early August. We took a motorcycle/camping vacation along the north shore.

By way of background, we bought an 18-year-old stripper canoe after we got home from our August trip. It's a good boat even after some ugly repairs by a previous owner. Looking at those, and wishing it had some different features, is what got me dreaming about building my own.

Thanks again!

Lee

[KenC]

As others have confirmed, cedar decking works fine. Its what I used. The "5/4" decking available around here is actually 1" nominal thickness, so you do wind up with either some wide strips, or some waste. I've seen knotty decking that would be absolutely useless for strip-building, and "clear" decking that had only a few tight knots. Also with grain orientations all over the map. Be choosy, and it'll work out fine.

[Tim Eastman]

We don't quite have an even dozen replys yet so I'll pitch in my two cents too. We used 5/4" cedar decking just fine. Used it to build the Kestrel. It was our first ever canoe. Some waste from planing off enough material to run the boards through the rip blade but the decking was cheap and a good splice hid the joints just fine.