The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

3/4 x 3/4 on the outwale is the biggest they would need to be. If you plan on using screws from inside to hold the gunnels on, you will need them to be 3/4" thick so you have enough wood to hold the screw. If you epoxy them on, you might be able to trim them to 3/4 x 1/2 (wide). Inwales should ...

I built a wee lassie out of basswood with a walnut stripe and then used walnut for the gunnels, decks, seat and yoke/back brace. I found using walnut no different than any other hardwood on any other canoe I have built. I have worked with ash, mahogany, walnut. I think it worked out great. I also ha...

It depends on how long your boards are. If you have some extra length, you could stagger the scarfs between stations and leave the rest overhanging the stems where they get trimmed anyway. If you cut a miter across the board before ripping, that would leave you with a bevel on the cut strip. Interes...

Oh, an one more thing. Any hardwood will work for gunnels. I have made them out of walnut, ash, mahogany. It really doesn't make much difference. Inwales can be a little challenging to bend with some species, but if you keep them 3/8" wide they should be fine. Maple would make excellent gunnels...

I have scarfed gunnels on every canoe I have ever built (about 5 of them) no matter the length. full length gunnels are a luxury that I have not the time or money for. I am always on the lookout for that white ash log 20' long that will supply me with a lifetime of full length gunnels, but haven't f...

John, I looked at your pictures. Couple of questions? You made your scarfs as a miter, while most scarfs that I have seen are cut across the face of the strip or board, which I believe would technically be a bevel. With your method, it seems that you now have a joint that is 4-5 inches long, vs a jo...

I like to think in terms of how many linear feet of strips does one need, as with your question we do not know the length of the strips you intend to buy. Are the full length strips 16', 18', 20'? for a 15' canoe, I am going to say you need in the range of 1200-1300 linear feet if the strips are 3/4...

resawing with a bandsaw can be a little tricky. sometimes, depending on the type of blade, your set up and the wood, the blade will drift leaving you with two pieces of different thickness. Take your time and keep your feed rate slow. Do some research on re-sawing and make sure you test your setup a...

You could also try pinning your scarf joint with a dowel. After you have pre treated the surfaces with epoxy and have rewetted and clamping it up for the final, take your drill and drill a couple of small holes across the scarf and insert a couple of dowels that are also wetted with epoxy (and we pr...

Sparetime,

My uncle used to tell me one year per inch of lumber. So, if it is sawn to four quarters and you have good circulation through your stack, should be air dry in one year.

If it is green, you will have to store it with "stickers" between the boards to allow air to get to both sides of the wood. With all lumber, you will get some cracks on the ends of the boards. You can minimize this by painting the ends of the boards. In many cases, the logs are painted on ...

Sedges, Thanks for the link to the Y stern, I had not considered that. Does one just build with the normal stem, then saw it off and fit in the transom? I already have plans for the 20' White Guide, I hate to buy another set of similar plans just for the transom detail I have a lot of canoes to padd...

I am thinking of building a square stern canoe. We take a trip each year to the BWCA, where we motor in on lakes where outboards are allowed, then we portage and take day trips into different areas and fish, sitesee, whatever. I was thinking of building a square stern canoe that once in to our comps...

There is little chance you are going to get perfectly sawed 5/16 x3" planks out of a band saw. Resawing would be considered a rough cut which would have to go through a planer or thickness sander to finished dimensions. Joe Seliga is a famouns (now deceased) wood canvas canoe builder here in MN...

There were recent posts on this topic about 1-2 months ago. If you are not satisfied with the blanket coverage on your homeowners policy, take out a separate boat owner policy on the canoe. This would provide selected amount of property and liability insurance. Since you already have liability insur...