laminating gunwales

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DanSadler
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2010 12:44 am

laminating gunwales

Post by DanSadler »

I'm having a hard time locating any lengths of ash longer than 16' in my area, Northern Ca. Has anyone used several small strips with seems staggered and laminated together, similiar to stems?
Rod Tait

Re: laminating gunwales

Post by Rod Tait »

You might have a hard time bending it especially if you are building a design with lots of upsweep at the ends and if you have to steam, your joints will come apart, even with epoxy as glue. Maybe you have already tried them, but my search finds several suppliers that might be able to help you.
http://www.higginshardwoods.com/product ... dwoods/ash
http://macbeath.com
http://www.mountstorm.com/lumber.php
wb9tpg
Posts: 114
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 7:01 pm
Location: Versailles, KY
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Re: laminating gunwales

Post by wb9tpg »

I ripped 3/4 x 7/8" ash strips from an 8' board and scarfed them together. the scarf joint is almost invisible if you use adjacent scripts. I took care to find a straight grain board
Opie8man
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:55 pm

Re: laminating gunwales

Post by Opie8man »

I am having the exact same problem, here in La Crosse, WI.

The solution that my dad and I came up was also to laminate the gunwales. There isn't much upsweep to the canoe, but enough that it could cause problems. I was thinking of laminating the boards with offsets to train them into shape before putting them on the canoe.

Any thoughts? Ideas of where to get an 18' board of ash?

Also, if you had to scarf the wood for the gunwales, where would be the best place to put the scarf, ie middle near thwart, back 1/3, front 1/3 . . .?

Sincerely-

Andrew
Chipper1959
Posts: 30
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:21 pm
Location: Cowansville Qc Canada

Re: laminating gunwales

Post by Chipper1959 »

I also couldn't find,(or deal with), 16ft pcs for mine so I scarfed jointed two 8fters together. I used Gorilla glue on the joint. My Hiawatha has quite a bit of curve to it so I managed to break both inner gunwales while trying to get them to fit. They didn't break on the glue joint however....but a few inches beside it.
Stencil
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:01 am

Re: laminating gunwales

Post by Stencil »

I laminated spruce with an outer of cherry (1/4") Worked OK and there is some upsweep on a Prospector to deal with as well. No breakage, lightweight and not ugly.
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