Another first timer here!

[TerryJames]

Hey guys!

Like many before me and many more to come, I am an absolute beginner. I have absolutely Zero!!! wood working skills and have never even been on a canoe. I live in central Wisconsin which is a very beautiful area with tons of areas to go canoeing. I am a pretty avid fisherman, and have recently just purchased a home on the Wisconsin River. Since the property has a pretty decent size boat house, I thought, why not build a boat?

Over the past month, I’ve been obsessing over this idea and took to Amazon to get started. I found a copy of Gil Gilpatricks book on how to build a strip canoe, and read through it pretty quickly. I had a ton of questions after reading the book so I’ve been watching every YouTube video I could find on the subject. I quickly learned that CanoeCraft was the “go-to” book for builders so I bought that as well. Low and behold, a lot of my questions have been answered, but there are always a ton of new questions popping up. Reading through this forum has also helped out a ton, but some of the answers seem to be conflicting. This is partly due to everyone having there own way, and one way may or may not be better for certain people based on experience, tools, or for various reasons. Learning all the different ways is very intriguing and I am anxious to try some of these methods out.

With that being said, I have ordered plans from Bear Mountain for the 15ft Prospector Ranger. These should be arriving tomorrow hopefully. I am also in the process of locating lumber (which seems to be rather difficult even though there is a lumber yard here in every corner). I am going for the standard WRC and am also looking for a 1x6x10 of either Mahogany or a Dark Walnut for accent peices. I would assume that one 10ft section would be enough for that?? As for the wood goes, I have only been looking for S4S as I do not have a thickness planer or jointer. Would I be ok with buying rough cut on one side and just running a quick sander over it seeing that side is going to be going through the router anyways?

Looking forward to the advice, and really glad everyone here seems to go out of their way to be willing to help.

Oh yeah, one last question! I’ve seen some videos of using a plastic syringe for applying the glue. Where does one find these, and are they reusable? I plan on going stapleless so would either need to buy a truck load of them, or find a good way to keep it clean. Also, for the gluing, some say to wipe the glue as you go, and others say to wait until it is dried then scrape it. I’ve read that if you wipe as you go, then the glue gets into the grain and can be noticeable. Suggestions?

Sorry for the long winded introduction, and I applaud anyone that actually read through all of this. I’ll try to keep my posts abit shorter in the future.

Thanks
-TerryJames

 

[alsg]

Welcome. There are many ways to skin a cat. I bought both Gil's book and Canoecraft. I ended up building one of Gil's designs mostly using his methods. It is isn't rocket science. It is a lot of sanding. A single 1" x 6" x 10' board will be enough for accent pieces but you will need something for seats, decks and gunnels. As for strips, I like to plane the top and bottom face smooth and then cut strips with a band saw, leaving the blade marks knowing these would be sanded out. Glue syringes available many places. Amazon, Rockler to name two.

 

[TerryJames]

Thanks alsg. Don’t get me wrong, I learned a ton from Gil’s book but with never doing any wood working before, I wasn’t understanding some of the terminology. Canoe raft seemed (in my opinion) to do a little better job explaining it. It could also be that I was understanding the process a little better after watching some videos on it. Both books are very valuable.

Do you know if you can clean out this syringes after each use? If so, what works the best? Acetone?

thanks again!

 

[alsg]

I don't know about re-usability. I expect that wood glue wouldn't bond to the plastic, however, so I'd probably just let it dry and then peel off with my fingers -- just like the glue bottle itself when it gets that little hard plug in the end. Curious what others will say.

 

[DeniseO30]

Welcome aboard I've been 35 years plus woodworking, I came very close to having a retirement small craft and furniture restoration business but my son left us at the age of 35.

my first question would be what type of river is the river you're living on? Strip canoes are wonderful, but they can look pretty awful pretty quick when they start running over rocks!

If you're going to use bead and cove I think you will find just using the glue bottle you can get a very small trickle out of the nozzle that lays into the cove.

The faces of the strips can be saw cut, because they're going to be scraped and sanded but, you'll want the width to be consistent.

Just some pictures of some of my stuff over the years, the kayak is not mine,

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Welcome to the forum. I'm not one of the boat builders or wood workers, and am constantly in awe of their motivation and abilities. However, if you get the canoeing bug, I'll offer the old Lay's potato chip wager: I bet you can't make just one.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Welcome Terry !

Lots of great builders here !

Having said that.

Nick Shade has some great videos on Kayak construction, as well as a few great books ! Here is a link that you should find a lot of good info.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJIhvNAP_Tg&t=4s

As for strip gluing, You can buy applicator bottles or tips at most hobby stores.

Here is what I now use.



Jim

 

[TerryJames]

Denise. First off, I am sorry to hear about your son. I couldn’t imagine what you went through. I know it’s not the same, but I’m retired military and have done 5 deployments overseas and have felt the sorrow many times over.

Secondly, your work is absolutely amazing, I have been in awe of your work (as well as many others) ever since I found the forum.

I did did end up buying a planer today so hopefully I will be able to start with flat boards. Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to use it.

I have also found the syringes on amazon and ordered 4 dozen of them. They seem to be cheap enough where I can just dispose of them if I can’t keep them clean. I am going to attempt a stapleless construction so the gluing process is going to be strung out over many days.

Thanks again for sharing!
TerryJames

 

[TerryJames]

Forgot to add, the river I live on is not shallow (15 - 20 Fow where I will be paddling) and I know it quite well so I don’t think rocks will be a problem.

Jim—

Ive watched some of Nick Shades videos as the kayaks intrigued me. I’ve got my heart set on building a canoe first, but maybe the next one or the one after that, or the one after that... I should probably get through the first one before I plan any more.

That is is if I can find enough wood to build it. Have visited 6 lumber yards so far not counting (Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Menards). None of my lumber yards here sell WRC except one and they only have 1x12s at 6.73 a board foot which Seems awful high based on the prices of the big box stores. Only problem is the wood at my big box stores seem to have a lot of knots and cracks. Suggestions?

I was able to contact a local cabinet maker and he had some really nice Dark Walnut 1x7x10 for $50 a board. Not sure if that is a good price or not but the wood looked amazing so I picked up 2 boards to use as accent strips or maybe gunwales. That or I am sure I could find another use for it if I don’t use it on this build.

Thanks for sharing!
-TerryJames

 

[Gamma1214]

https://ocoochhardwoods.com/lumber/ Website says they have red cedar (western or eastern?... would it make a difference?) for $3.25 per board foot.

 

[DeniseO30]

thank you for kind words, it's been about 3 years now Sighs . And thank you for the compliments on my (our) work it keeps me off the street lol

It's doubtful the big box store people will even know what you mean when you say Western red cedar, just ask them to point you to the cedar decking & framing

You don't have to buy boards of any particular size because you're going to rip them up into strips, unless you buy the strips already cut from an outfit like Noah's.
Lumber that comes from the Pacific Northwest,. Western red cedar, Alaskan yellow cedar, redwood very ideal, but expensive, so you either pay a lot of money for. knot free long lumber, or take the time to rip up lumber in random lengths,

Stapleless it's just a waste of time, imho. But people do, get obsessive, about these canoes!

it's a canoe it's going to get used, or it's not going to get used and look like a piece of furniture. "have varnish will trave' gets old real quick lol. My prospector was split down the middle twice!
this is one of the reasons why I stopped building strippers and we went with tradditional wood canvas because it is an actual sacrificial covering.

You may wish spend a little bit of time on learning how lumber is cut how the read the grain, etc, I try to seek out sawmills rather than lumber suppliers,

Don't know where you actually are but you mentioned Wisconsin I have a feeling you won't have any trouble finding cedar here's one link for a tribal Forester supplier if they won't sell to you maybe they can steer you to A supplier. Good luck! keep us posted!
https://www.mtewood.com/LumberProducts/cedar

 

[TerryJames]

Never heard of Ocooch Hardwoods but it’s only about 2 hours away, I’ll be giving them a call first thing Monday morning.

Thanks Gamma, this is a big help.

I would also like to know if there is a big difference between western and eastern. I thought I read somewhere that eastern is heavier and is not a true cedar, but I may be wrong. I do recall that Eastern Tef Cedar is more of a blonde color than the reddish western cedar. Something to do with iron in the soil I believe?? Again, I thought I read this somewhere but I’ve been kind of on an overload with trying to learn this, so don’t take my word as gospel!

-TerryJames

 

[Gamma1214]

Western are (much) larger trees and would, most likely, be available with fewer knots. It is also lighter as Eastern (also called aromatic) comes in around 33 lbs/cubic foot which is similar to poplar and most pines. As far as cedar goes, I think Northern White is the lightest per cubic foot.

As Denise said, sawmills (especially small, local mills) are often the best sources and many even have kilns.

Woodmizer is one company that makes portable band mills and they have a link to people in your area that bought one. Might be worth a look: https://woodmizer.com/us/Services/Find-a-Local-Sawyer

 

[Jim Dodd]

Jim—

Ive watched some of Nick Shades videos as the kayaks intrigued me. I’ve got my heart set on building a canoe first, but maybe the next one or the one after that, or the one after that... I should probably get through the first one before I plan any more.

That is is if I can find enough wood to build it. Have visited 6 lumber yards so far not counting (Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Menards). None of my lumber yards here sell WRC except one and they only have 1x12s at 6.73 a board foot which Seems awful high based on the prices of the big box stores. Only problem is the wood at my big box stores seem to have a lot of knots and cracks. Suggestions?

I was able to contact a local cabinet maker and he had some really nice Dark Walnut 1x7x10 for $50 a board. Not sure if that is a good price or not but the wood looked amazing so I picked up 2 boards to use as accent strips or maybe gunwales. That or I am sure I could find another use for it if I don’t use it on this build.

Thanks for sharing!
-TerryJames

Time to make a road trip to Minnesota.

I know WRC is available there !

 

[ppine]

Any one that lives in Wisconsin should know how to paddle. It is already in your DNA.

 

[TerryJames]

Still trying to find quality wood of size. Would really like to use 16 footers but all I can find is knotty and weather checked. I’d be happy to make the trip to MN if it’s worthwhile Jim. Any suggestions? I tried to send you a Private Message but it says you have exceeded your limit.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Hi Terry !

Sorry about my PM being full ! I'll have to get it cleared out !

I know there was a supplier of wood in the cities. Maybe a Google search will help. Guessing they are spendy.

I've been casually looking lately, and yes it seems WRC is getting scarce !

I'll do a little checking also !


Jim

 

[Sven]

For my first strip build, I purchased 4 1x8x16’ cedar boards graded D or better. I purchased them from menards via special order. Instead of paying the 75$ special delivery fee for a small order I opted to pick them up at will call directly from the distributors warehouse in St. Paul, MN. The distributor is called weekes forest products.

those boards were kinda pricey at 55$ per board...

good of luck with your quest, clear or mostly clear cedar can be difficult to come by at a reasonable price unless you live in the Pacific Northwest.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Yes ,Weeks is the name that came up, years ago, in the Twin Cites.

I never inquired, as I found suitable stock at a nearby Menards.

Oh I cleaned up my PM storage.

I know others that have purchased 2X stock, but that seemed like a lot of extra work, as well as waste.

Jim

 

[TerryJames]

Thanks for the response guys. We have a Weekes Distributor in Green Bay here but they won’t sell directly to me. Like I said, I’ve checked all of the big box stores around me and haven’t found anything suitable. My fear would be to order the wood and have it show up with too many knots to work with. I’ve already done that once and they wouldn’t return it, so currently I have 9 1x6x16s (about $400 worth) stacked up in my boat house.