Cutting strips

[Bryan Hansel]

Pedro, I do not surface plane the strips. That'd be alot of work for something I'm going to sand the heck out of anyway. I'm all about less work is best work.

[Rob from Hamilton]

Bryan,
If I was going to plane them, I'd only bother doing the inside surface of the strip. I enjoy going over the boat with a spokeshave, and then we'll be sanding anyway.
Rob from Hamilton

[Bryan Hansel]

I would agree with that, but even on the inside a significant amount of the surface of the strip is sanded. I've found with a circular saw and a good thin kref blade that I can get a consistent width on strip, so bead and coving works out just fine.

[ealger]

I'm kind of curious how cove and beads can be cut true without first sizing the strips to a consistent thickness?
Ed...

[Rob from Hamilton]

Hi Ed,
That's a good question. I'm on my fourth boat. My first boat I bought my strips pre-cut from Carlisle Canoes. The strips were great. No planing necessary.
My second boat, my brother in law cut them, and he did a really good job, but they were only 8 feet long. They were really consistent, but I had alot of joints. Of course the canoe was a 10 foot long "toy" my 14 year old son designed and built from scratch, so it didn't matter. We made the strips out of old hydro poles. Surprisingly, they worked great!
The third canoe was a Bob's Special, and I had a cabinet maker cut them with a "tractor" fed table saw. Suirprisingly, I had alot of inconsistencies there, and since I wasn't used to planing them before, never bothered this time. We had alot of trouble lining them up during the build, and honestly, wanted to scrap the whole thing a few times. But, we persevered, and managed to come up with a pretty nice boat. It was a project that my son and his friend built, so for the cost of the wood etc, we gave it to his friend.
This current Redbird is built from strips once again cut by someone who knows what the heck he is doing. Carlisle Canoes. The strips are almost perfect even without planing. He'll say they're not, but they're certainly almost perfect.
Although I can't rip my own strips, my son and I bead and cove them. We're not perfect, so we might wreck a strip once in awhile, but we build some pretty canoes.
Rob from Hamilton

[Bryan Hansel]

ed - Somehow it works. I use an oversize bead and cove bit, and maybe that's the trick. I don't know.

[Jim Dodd]

The skillsaw I use is an old Makita 13amp.
I've used blades with 40 teeth and ones with 24 . The 40 tooth seemed slowed, and the strips were no better than those cut with a 24tooth.
Having said that, there was absolutely no need to plane strips! Thickness uniformity was very near perfect!
If I could find a better method that did'nt cost thousands of dollars, and take up a single car garage to store, I would use it!
I guess that tells my view point.
Thanks
Jim