Scarfing strips - all at once or in smaller batches?

[Sawdust]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum (been prowling it as a guest for a while though) and have found a lot of useful information. I'm in the process of building a Chestnut Prospector from an older copy of the Canoecraft book. So far I've got to the point of creating templates for the moulds from the offsets in the book, and have made (hopefully) enough strips for the build. I still have to put the bead and cove on them, but have the bits and just finished building a router table to do it.

Since I couldn't get clear cedar in anything like a sensible price around here I've been rooting through the decking boards at Home Depot for the better ones. Needless to say despite my best efforts there's going to be a lot of scarfing going on.. Which brings me to my question.
Do you find it easier scarf all your strips together at the beginning into full length strips, or do you do them a few at a time as you need them? In addition, I've noticed that most people on here seem to be scarfing strips together, but the book says to butt join on a station. My instincts say to scarf because it's stronger, but I was wondering if this becomes redundant when you encase it in fibreglass? Obviously butt joints are going to be quicker, but I'm not about to shoot myself in the foot for the sake of a few hours of extra work.. :smile

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts,
Rob.

[wb9tpg]

I'm at the exact same stage of construction as you are and will be interested in the answers you get. I am planning to scarf my strips too. Good luck

[Glen Smith]

If I don't have full-length strips I normally only scarf the sheer strips and use butt joints for the rest. I make the butt joints between stations rather than on them. You should disperse the joints so they don't line up for strength and aesthetic reasons. Carefully match the color and grain of the strips and the butt joints will all but dissappear.

Edited: Joined photo for reference.


Stand back a few feet and the joints become invisible.

[John Brice]

I had the same problem - the longest strips of white cedar were 9 foot. I scarfed individually so that I could stagger the joints. I you scarf all the strips together the joints are going to line up. See www.tinyurl.com/jb-scanoe.


Good luck, John B.

[Mihun09]

We are in the process of building the Cottage Cruiser and like you, could not afford full length cedar so we have been buying what we can find and scarfing the strips. Since we also cannot afford to just buy enough cedar at one time for the whole boat, we run off strips for what we have, scarf them and put them on the mold, then get more and repeat. We also don't have a thickness planer so are just ripping the strips as clean as possible, scarf, router and then lay up. It is working pretty well with few issues of the bead not fitting the cove because the strips aren't perfectly flat.

It looks like we have enough boards to complete the boat and will be under $300 for the planking wood. We have scarfed 12, 11 and 10' boards to shorter ones to try to stagger the joints and flip them lengthwise to offset them further, but some do line up although not board to board. I also took a stick of charcoal and highlighted the joint so I could see where they would fall in relation to the others.

Karin

[BearLeeAlive]

I opted to scarf the joints on the strips before I built, doing them all up at once. I did it before the final run through the planer and routing the bead and cove. I did 12 at a time, and it took 15 minutes or so to make 24 cuts on the table saw, and glue up the 12 joints in the jig I built.

I did end up having to do a couple as I was stripping, and that worked just fine too.

Butt joints will work just fine took, like Glen showed. The time either way is about the same.

[Sawdust]

Thanks for the replies.. From what you're all saying it doesn't make much difference, I think in the light of that I'll do the joins in batches as I go. I'm thinking I'll only be getting a few strips on a night after work anyway, so I can fit a few scarf a few then quit for the night while everything glues ready for the next day. That way I'll also be able to see if I'm getting an embarrassment of joints in one area..

I see the point about the joints lining up too, but I don't think I'm going to have too many problems since my lumber is a mix of 10 and 12 footers and also because it was knotty (and I have to cut them out) so I'm going to have all sorts of lengths available. I also have some that are one colour one end and another the other - I'll probably cut them where they change and use them for lengthening strips of each colour.

For what it's worth I have a few strips that are chocolate brown, a few that are a pinkish red colour, a bunch that are a honey colour and then a bunch that are quite pale. I was thinking I'd use the dark ones at the sheer (to contrast with ash gunwales) then a light accent strip, then red, then honey, then pale on the lower area of the canoe as any scratches will show up less against the pale wood. It's hard to visualize if you've never built one before - does that sound like it'll look OK, or would I be better off just mixing them at random?

So many questions!

Rob.

[Patricks Dad]

I think your strategy of planning where the strips go to control how the craft looks when it's done is right on. The random-pick approach doesn't look as nice (in my opinion - but it's just that. An opinion).

[willo]

Ditto what Glen said, full length strips for the sheer are nice , and butt joints are quick and easy after that. The reality is butt joints take only a minute or two to prepare unlike scarff joints that need to be cut on special jig , glued up , clamped and left to dry. It really is an individual choice , pros and cons for both.

[BWB]

The question of scarf or butt joints may be moot, but for me personally the scarf is preferable for one reason. The butt joint has no strength and the scarf has essentially the same strength as the strip. To me that matters, on the water it might not.
I also think that if you have the option, doing all your strips at once has the advantage of running them all through the same machine setup. It is really nice not to have to deal with even very slight variations in strip width or thickness when you get to the boat, or particularly when running the bead and cove.
Staggering the scarf joints is no problem if you make your strips up from a variety of random lengths. At this point it's also easier to color select for each individual strip. To my eye, a radical color change within a single joined strip is more distacting than different colors side by side.
It is nice to have an adequate bundle of identical strips on hand before you start. It will make selection easier, and pay dividends when the sanding and fairing stage arrives.