Scarf Joints

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Ben
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2009 11:51 pm

Scarf Joints

Post by Ben »

On my first canoe, a Freedom 17-9, I purchased 10 foot WRC and EWC and butt joined during the entire build. I was pretty happy with the results, but thought I could do better. For my second canoe, I decided to scarf all of the joints as I built the canoe. I built a prototype miter box that was ugly but worked so well I decided to keep it:

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I went into my old bag of tricks and built a Shooting Board (aka Chute Board) to finish off the angles. The set-up was made to make both my 6:1 scarfs and 30 degree accent pieces.

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More info can be found on the web if you Google "Shooting Boards" or "Chute Boards", but you should get the general idea from the pictures. The joints take about 5 minutes from strip selection to glue-up per pair, and the results are fantastic! The whole set-up was made with scraps I had laying around and a $3 toggle clamp from Harbor Freight.

All of the scarfs are made AFTER the bead and cove are cut. I use the bead side of a scrap strip as a backing for the glue-up, and make a few passes with sand paper when the glue is dried.

Let me know if you would like more info!
CatFaber
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2010 4:55 pm

Post by CatFaber »

Thanks Ben. This looks useful. I think I may try it on my next build.
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