The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Patrick has completed the initial sanding (80 grit) after spokeshaving or planing all the joints and things are looking very good. We've filled several very small cracks with thickened epoxy but there remain several smaller cracks that are hardly visible and/or very shallow (you've got to look very ...

Not sure if this is too helpful but my son and I are building a Redbird that includes a feature involving a couple of butt joints (one above the other) in a few places. This feature is near the shearline in the middle of each side of the canoe (station 0). A picture taken during construction is show...

I'm no expert on this (the real experts will weight in I'm sure - listen to them) but I would think that 1/16" here or there wouldn't be enough to loose sleep over (particularly if you are drinking a beer while sitting in your moaning chair). Rather than worry about how the matching stations &q...

Todd, Good advice on maintenance aspects of epoxy'd gunwales. Hadn't thought of those.

thanks

Don't understand the nobility comment, but duct tape and clothespins would be novel...

Doesn't oiling imply that you don't epoxy the gunwales on but scew them on insead? I really like the looks of an oil fisnish but have been toying with the idea of having NO metal on our canoe (only epoxy to hold gunwales, seats, etc. in place). The only exception would be putting this coin on the de...

I thought that one of the primary reasons for bulkheads was for improved bouyancy, no? I don't think I need bulkheads for storage space (I'm in sync with Kurt's drybag comment) but was thinking of putting them in for the bouyancy. Is it worth it?

Thanks

Juneaudave, Thanks for the insights, The stems are looking great, but as I said, only 1/4" wide at this point (for most of their length - they "rolling bevel" down to zero at the keel end to match the hull near station 7). We considered making the edge 3/8" wide by simply making ...

We're getting closer to glass but we have a question on shaping the outer edge of our redbird stems. We've shaped them to follow the shape of the strips. With closed eyes, you can't find the seam between the stem and the strips. Following the natural curve of the strips resulted in a crisp 1/4"...

Wow, That's a fantastic looking boat. Great Job! Both Thumbs up!

well, we had a lot of GORP during our trip to philmont over the summer, It is pretty good, but after 10 days of eating the stuff for at least 2 out of 3 meals, you do kinda get sick of it. if you make this stuff to bring on a long trip, use some different ingredients to make it different each time, ...

We used paper towels dipped in water to make them "partially" wet. I'm afraid that we may have dipped a little to deep in some cases. One technique that seems to help find these places is flash photography. When I look at the hull in daylight or even flood lights, I don't see the places wh...

I have a friend who is into re-enactments of voyageur-day activities. I belive he has a very large canoe. I'll try to get some information from him on where he got it, if he built it and if so, where he got the plans. I'll post again when I have more info (he doesn't do email - just like the voyageu...

Our outer stem is a bit longer than needed but our strongback is a few inches longer than needed (and kind of in the way at times). We put the outer stems on our Redbird a couple weeks ago using only straps to hold them in place. We started at the keel end of the stems to ensure a tight fit at that ...

Our canoe project as been a boon for new tool purchases but we are keeping track of all material costs. Its getting cold in Chicago as well (6 F yesterday morning). Our garage is unheated but has a furnace in it to heat the office above the garage. We have found that a 1500 Watt electric heater and ...

I'd appreciate some insights on shaping the outer stem on the redbird. Any reason to not epoxy it in place and then shape it to match the hull rather than attempt to shape it before installing it? I was thinking that if we epoxied it in place first, we wouldn't have to fool with clamping in a vise, ...