I'm about to start a new canoe using pine as the primary hull material. I picked up some really dark walnut in hopes of a good contrast to the pine. Is walnut durable enough to use as outwales and stems? All the pics I have seen, seem to have walnut as a deck or accent stripe. Thx 4 the help.
DK
Walnut for gunwales?
-
Glen Smith
- Posts: 3719
- Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 9:08 am
- Location: Baie-St-Paul, Quebec, Canada
Walnut Gunwales
Walnut is fine for gunwales IMHO. I hope you realize that you are not going to have a lightweight canoe using pine and walnut unless you use some "weight loss" techniques.
-
Juneaudave
- Posts: 522
- Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 12:42 pm
- Location: Juneau, Alaska
- Contact:
It ought to look great! Walnut finishes so nice. It might be a pain in the :?: to bend if it is kiln dried but it can be done. What kind of pine did you get? I'll bet a pine/walnut combination will look out of this world! You might consider something other than ash to carry the theme into the seats and thwarts...Good luck...Juneaudave
Hmmmm... maybe a little lighter and much more rot resistant than white ash... however, white ash outwales will be more durable and resistant to wear.
Characteristics of various woods can be found here, I took a quick look before replying, so you might want to confirm.
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/techmenu.html
Characteristics of various woods can be found here, I took a quick look before replying, so you might want to confirm.
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/techmenu.html
-
Rod Tait
Walnut
I have used walnut for stems and gunwales on canoes. They look great and are really sharp when oiled or varnished. As in another post, they are hard to bend. American Black Walnut is hard to find with a straight grain which means that when you bend it you have to be very careful where the grain is going. I have had completely finsihed gunwales(scuppers, tapers etc.) blow completely apart when being bent. Grain can run in all directions and it is difficult to tell which way is best to bend it.
If I was to choose walnut, I prefer to use Peruvian Walnut. The grain is more constant, the wood is much softer and lighter and it is also has a much darker consistency to the colour. Of course, soft may not be what you want to protect the outside of your boat unless you seal with epoxy, which is what I do.
If I was to choose walnut, I prefer to use Peruvian Walnut. The grain is more constant, the wood is much softer and lighter and it is also has a much darker consistency to the colour. Of course, soft may not be what you want to protect the outside of your boat unless you seal with epoxy, which is what I do.
I used American Black Walnut for the stems on my last canoe. The wood came from a tree that was harvested about 20 miles from where I live. It was air dried. I found it to be very easy to work with. No problems steam bending. Shaping the stems was a joy. I just used a block plane and finished with a cabinet scraper-no power tools. Look for straight grain. Burl would look great for decks. I've always wanted to build a pine canoe and have mentioned that several times on this forum. Good luck.
Dave
Dave
-
Jeff in Pembroke
I've just finished fitting black walnut gunnels on my canoe. They make a beautiful contrast with the EWC hull. I'm building a Redbird which has quite a bit of recurve at the bow and stern and I had to steam bend the outer gunnels. My outer gunnels are 5/8" wide by 3/4" high with a taper along the lower edge as described in Canoecraft, as well as a 1/8" by 5/16" strip on the upper, inner edge that acts like a 'cap' to cover the cedar hull. The inner gunnels are 5/8"wide by 3/4" high with 5/16" scuppers and a 16" taper at each end. The inner gunnels could be clamped and epoxied in place without steaming.
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.
Do you think Peruvian Walnut will be too soft for stems? My local supplier has sold me on PW for my stems and gunnels, saying that it's comparable to American Black Walnut, just a bit darker. ABW is like hen's teeth around here (Central Florida), difficult to find at any price. I haven't purchased any PW yet, and it would be nice to know if I'm making a mistake here before I shell out the bucks for this stuff.
-
Scott in Idaho
I'm using Peruvian Walnut for outer stems and accents on a decked Rob Roy. It's beautiful and works really well. Since I intend to occasionally use it in class 3 rapids, I'll let you know how the stems hold up after I hit a rock. :) I don't expect it to be a problem.Keith W wrote:Do you think Peruvian Walnut will be too soft for stems? My local supplier has sold me on PW for my stems and gunnels, saying that it's comparable to American Black Walnut, just a bit darker. ABW is like hen's teeth around here (Central Florida), difficult to find at any price. I haven't purchased any PW yet, and it would be nice to know if I'm making a mistake here before I shell out the bucks for this stuff.