Prospector 16 Stem Rounding and Size

[Captain Barnacles]

Hi All,
I am just starting to build my very first canoe, a Prospector 16, and have a small query regarding a section of the book which I don't fully understand and it doesn't seem to be covered in the DVD either.

In the section of the book regarding glueing up the stems it says something along the lines of "when the glue is dry remove the stems from the mold and using a block plane round the end of the stem at the keel end" (sorry, I don't have my book handy to give a verbatim quote). Does anyone have a picture of this step that they could share please? I'm not sure how the rounded end should look. I thought that the end of the stem should remain flat so that it butts up against the mold at station 6 and can be screwed to that mold.

Also, the book calls for the stems to be ⅞" wide but the notes on the plan say that the inner stems should be ¾" x ¾", I presume I should plane down my stems to the ¾" dimension before putting them back on the stem molds for bevelling?

Lastly, should I slightly round the inside edges of the inner stems?

Many thanks in advance for any advice and help.
Paul.

[Andrew Nemeth]

Hi Paul,

I’m no expert, but I’ll try to answer your questions to the best of my understanding. I’m just starting to build a Freedom 17/9 and will be laminating my stems this coming week. Hopefully, someone can confirm my comments about and your specific build.

As for “rounding the inside stem at the keel”, I believe this refers to a roundover on the two corners of the stem where it meets the keel in plan view (when viewed from above).Nick Schade of Guillmont Kayaks posted a pretty clear video titled “Laminating Stems for a Cedar Strip Canoe” on Youtube. It will probably clear up which corners (edges) to round over and how much to shape. Here is a direct link to his video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-jZurBweYm0 (If a direct link violates this sites TOS, moderator please delete)

As for the specific widths for the stems of your canoe, I can’t say for certain, but I believe the inside stems are narrower than the outside stems since the inside stems will only need to fill the space between the two sides of the hull whereas the outside stems need to cover over two thicknesses of the hull (and a bit of the inside stems). I don’t have my plans in front of me but I believe I will be making my inside stems 3/4” wide and my outside stems 7/8”. Truth be told, I’ll probably laminate both inside and outside out of 1” wide stock and plane to width. Always better to have a bit too much than to come up short. I’ll be documenting my build on Instagram. I should have photos posted of the stems by this time next week.

Hope this helps,

Andrew

[Captain Barnacles]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you so much for your reply, that video was very insightful and has helped me tremendously.

Regarding the stem width, I think that your logic makes perfect sense. The inner stem will be bevelled down to ¼" at the leading edge then the strips will be ¼" each side, therefore ¾" all up so ⅞" for the outer stem would give full coverage plus a little extra.

I think that there's much to be said for oversizing the stems, dispite my best efforts (and I have laminated wood many times before though never with epoxy) I still had a slight misalignment in my strips, hopefully not enough to of a misalignment to necessitate remaking them though. When I was laminating them it was the warmest day of the year so my working time was reduced and in hindsight I should have probably waited for a cooler day to do it but after months of planning and what seemed like an age building the strongback and molds I was keen to make some progress.

Where can we find you on Instagram? I'd be interested to follow (and try to keep up with!) your build.

Many thanks,
Paul.

[Andrew Nemeth]

Paul,
I’m pretty new to Instagram, but I think all you will need is my screen name, andrew.nemeth.100, and you should be able to find me. I’m not sure if the TOS here would allow me to post a direct link, so I will hold off for now. If you have trouble finding me, Private Message me through here and I will send it to you privately.

I was considering a build thread on here, but I will be making a few composite clones off of my wood hull before finishing the wood hull. I know this site is directed towards wood canoe construction so I’m not sure if the composite clones portion of my build would be welcome here.

Are you posting any photos of your build? It would be fun to follow another build in real time.


-Andrew

[Captain Barnacles]

Thanks for that Andrew, I'll see if I can find you on Instagram (if I can't I'll get one of the kids to help me!)

I hadn't considered posting pictures on here but I'll start taking some and maybe try to add to the collective wisdom here. If nothing else I'm sure I'll be able to demonstrate how not do some of the stages of the build