Redwood Prospector finished

[BowneCR]

Howdy all, been a while since I have posted. I just completed my 2nd boat, a 16 ft. prospector. For this boat I used reclaimed redwood for the primary hull material. The wood came from an old water tower built in the 1870s. I had the good luck to run across about a hundred board feet. Age and mineralization have really darkened the stuff and it made for an interesting boat. The original planks I cut strips from were 3"x7"x14' - all quartersawn old growth timbers. Other specs: gunnels, seats and thwart are cherry from a local tree here in IL - fairly dark stuff. Accent strip is a composite cypress, basswood, walnut piece. Decks are curly cherry from the same tree as the gunnels, with a bit of birdseye maple mixed in. I caned the seats myself - 1st time for me on this. Overall a fun build, the only part I am not as happy with is the how much the weave of the fiberglass is visible on such a dark hull. You cant really see it from a pics, but when you look closely at the hull (and have the discerning eye of a woodstrip builder) the weave is visible. My first boat was a cedarstrip, and the weave is there, but due to lighter color is less evident. At any rate, I'm happy with how it turned out. Here are some pics:

[BearLeeAlive]

She looks beautiful, I love the colour of the cedar. Nice job on all aspects of the build.

[Glen Smith]

Very nice, a job well done!

[Karl Huebner]

Impressive. I like the detail on the stem joints. You do very good work.

[Patricks Dad]

Very, Very nice!

[Tom in MN]

I love the idea of building a canoe out of reclaimed lumber. I recently finsihed a square stern version of the 20' White Guide and did not buy any lumber for the canoe, or at least used lumber that was purchased over 10 years ago. I ended up with about 10 different kinds of wood in the canoe, and even used a piece of redwood for the deck that I recovered off the side of my house when I expanded a window to a patio door (also made some planer boards out of them.) Excellent job on the canoe, looks awesome. I love the dark color, very nice! In the door project, I learned that underneath the vinyl siding on my house is solid tongue and groove redwood siding in 10" widths. I figure there is about 1,000 board ft of clear redwood under the siding. When I retire, I am going to pull all of the siding and reclaim the redwood. That will keep me busy building boats for a long time!

[willo]

Nice! That dark wood looks great.

[pumpkin]

Beautiful canoe. Very nice lines.

Tom, you made me look at my house in a new way. Need help?

Matthew

[mbolton]

Very nice! How'd you like working with the Redwood?

[mtpocket]

That's one of the prettiest canoes I have seen yet.

[Sherm]

Nice job, I wouldn't fret over the weave too much, adds character, what a nice fine to
come across that old redwood, looks like you did alot of work sanding and smoothing the inside also....

[BowneCR]

Working with the redwood was actually really easy. It cuts, sands, and glues up well, both with power tools and hand tools. I used Titebond II, and the glue lines don't seem very prominent from a color perspective. I did sand pretty meticulously though. I would say that when trying to colormatch with thickened epoxy I used cedar dust rather than redwood dust mixed in with silica. The redwood dust just comes out too dark. The only thing about the redwood that is worth mentioning is the smell - there isn't any. I actually like the smell of cedar when working with hand tools, you don't get that with redwood.

[doe4rae]

Congrats on a beautiful boat! I have been thinking about using Redwood for my next one. I love the dark color. Your decks are beautiful.. the grain of the wood is outstanding. Just gorgeous!

[binysykyl]

Redwood Prospecting is not finished yet because it is still in the use for some products. The main reasoning of low demand is its price livecareer resume review as people cannot afford this redwood products.