Plank Ripping Sizes

[trei]

Ok, so I'm new to the whole boat building thing and maybe I'm just an idiot for not gathering this from any of the other sources. But I have some questions about the planking. I am going to ripping my own planking out of either sitka spruce or western red cedar. I have gathered the thickness should be 1/4". Correct? my boat is 15'9" long. So I will be getting wood that is probably about 17' long. Right? The one think I am really unsure of is width of the planks. It looks like most of them are about 1" is that at all correct? I just really have no clue how wide to make them...

Thanks!

[Rabbit]

thickness seems to vary with the choice of timber and what it's to be used for. for western red 1/4 seems to be the standard. stronger, heaver timbers might be 3/16. standard width seems to be 3/4 but i've seen people post using wider strips for some sections and narrower strips where there is more bending required. again for thickness i've seen posts of people mixing between i think thinner pieces for the sides and thicker pieces for the bottom. probably best to start with 1/4 x 3/4. the canoe craft book available from bear mountain is a good place to start.

[trei]

ok, that sounds good. Thanks!

[Cyril Gosse]

What craft are you going to build. Boat versus canoe. A Rice Lake skiff forms well with 1 1/8 strips because there are no severe bands while most canoes take 3/4 for the most part.
Cyril

[trei]

I'm building a 15'9" canoe. So it sounds like I should probably be going with the 3/4" strips

[BearLeeAlive]

Having only stripped one canoe, I am far from an expert. I was tempted to go thinner than 1/4" to save a bit of weight like some did, but ended up sticking with a 1/4" thickness and am just as glad I did. It would not have saved me all that much in weight.

I also debated as to whether to start with 7/8" strips that would give me 3/4" coverage after milling the bead and cove, of to start with 3/4" and end up with 5/8" coverage. I went with the latter, and am glad I did, because I followed the shear line with the strips, and there was quite a bit of twisting and bending at the ends. I had done up mock-ups with 6' lengths, and there was quite a bit of difference in how easy it was to flex the smaller size. If I were to let the strips run as they lie flat without any curve, and then filling in to the shear on the ends, I would definitely go with at least a 7/8" strip (3/4" coverage).

In doing my solo canoe, I used 34 strips from the shear to closing in the football, and it would have taken 28 if I used strips 1/8" wider. So really, we are taking about 2 extra hours tops to go with the smaller strips.

[SevenTenths]

I've only built one strip canoe ... so, grain of salt, but, next time around I'll likely use 1/2" wide strips for the tight curve of the tumblehome. I figure the extra time spent stripping will be partially offset by the reduction of sanding time to arrive at a fair curve.

sinc.
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