First timer questions on machining planking

[SCUD]

So I plan on buying my own dimensional lumber. The book calls for

50 to 60 board feet of 1" softwood, 12" longer than canoe.

So if I I'm building a 15 feet long canoe, does that mean if I lay all my planks down flat, side by side along their lengths, the dimension of the box it forms should be 16' by 50' ~ 60'? That seems like a huge amount of planks. I realize my conception of it is probably wrong, can someone please point me in the right direction?

Also, how would one go about dressing the wood to 3/4"?

edit: spelling and formatting

[aliguori]

A board foot is 1" x 12" by 12". So 50 board feet of 1x4x1 boards at 16' roughly translates to about 9 1x4 boards.

If you're buying rough lumber, you'll potentially need to resaw it and definitely will need to use a surface planer.

I got pretty cheap lumber (rough 2x4s), resawed it, and planed it all to size. I spent an awful lot of time and effort into cutting out knots and scarfing planks together. I'm glad I did this because I learned a lot but for the next canoe, I'll definitely be buying strips and focusing my time on just milling accent strips.

[Rod Tait]

If you are milling from boards that are 1 inch thick and you want 3/4 inch strips, then first you need to plane down the thickness of the boards to 3/4". Following that, you cut strips off the edge of the board and with a thin kerf blade, you shoud be able to yield 3 strips per inch of width. To get 70 strips or so you will need at least 30 to 36 inches of width (accounting for wastage and knots). To get edge grain strips, your boards need to be flat sawn or else you will have to cut 3/4 inch strips off the boards and then flip the piece and re-cut off the side to get your edge grain strips. Getting the best milled lumber with proper garin orientation from a store or mill is the most important thing to consider or else there is more waste.

[BearLeeAlive]

Don't forget too, that you will lose 1/8" on the width of each strip if you are using a bead and cove joint, due to the lap created.

If you measure the hull length off your center station, and divide that by .75 for 3/4" effective widths, or .625 for 5/8" effective width (what you get by adding a bead and cove to 3/4" strips, you will get the number of strips required. Of course the last dozen on each side are incrementally shorter, but you do need to allow for a few wasted strips as well.