first peek

While trying to figure out the stem problem, I decide to take the canoe off the form. I can try to bend the stems directly on the form instead of bending them over the canoe. This is an exciting step since the only view I've had of the inside of the canoe is from underneath. I've waxed the form at each station, so I hope the canoe won't be glued to the form. I am able to get the shell unstuck except at the front end. So I unscrew the last 3 stations from the strong back and it seems ready to lift. I know the shell will be weak so with Laurie's help I lift off the shell and flip it over on the ground beside the form.

At first glance it looks ugly, but underneath the dried glue, sawdust and rough strips there is some beauty. The stripping pattern looks great, the joint from the last strip will need some work - I guess I didn't persuade it enough. I sand some of the bottom, but realize that the sanding effort for the inside will be much greater than the outside.

stems

Before taking the canoe off the form, I need to make the outside stems. Normally this would be done before stripping, at the same time as the inside stems. I soak and steam some 3/4 x 1/4 ash pieces and bend those around the end of the canoe over the inside stems and strips. I could glue the pieces together and screw and glue them to the canoe at the same time, but I want to be able to cut a joint on the laminated stem piece after it has dried. This joint will over lap with the keel. So I screw the first piece of ash to the canoe and then glue the next one to that and repeat with the third allowing them to dry in between.

The result looks ugly with some spaces between the laminates. I can't get enough pressure over the entire surface of the bend to get a good seal between the glued pieces of wood. I will try to use a solid piece next, but will need to build a form to bend the wood using clamps and straps to hold it instead of screws.

get out the 40

With the stripping done, it's time to fare the hull and start sanding. I used a small hand plane to smooth down the edges - very zen-like process with aromatic cedar shavings flying. It gets a bit touchy when I hit two strips that have opposite grain. In a few places, especially with the eastern white, the wood gets gouged.

I start sanding with a orbital palm sander that' noisy and has no dust bag. Eventually the noise gets louder and less orbital until the sanding pad flies off the end of the sander. After a few unsuccessful attempts at fixing it, I buy a new bigger, quieter sander with a dustbag and a good dust mask. The CanoeCraft book recommends using an 80 grit for rough sanding the hull. I read somewhere that a 50 or 60 grit is okay. It's slow going in some areas, so I try a 40 grit which leaves the hull kinda rough but goes more quickly. I can pass over again later with a 120 and wet/dry.

2nd half

Time to fill in the rest of the strips. I'm trying to keep some semblance of symmetry, but the differences in strip widths make it a bit challenging. The western red is quite dry and brittle on the cove milled edges. I put a lot of faith in the ability to fill spaces with wood filler. The last 3 strips take me 2 weeks to finish. The pattern ended with a thin oval of white inside the red. The strips are not symmetric from front to back since the canoe is not. I also need to trim some of the cove edge on the last piece so I can slip the last piece in and I need to deal with the fact that the centre line edge is not exactly straight (I can't get the wood to squint). I'm planning on adding a keel so the centre line on the outside is not important. The important joint is on the inside that I won't have a good look at until I get the canoe off the form.

So after lot's of moaning and fitting it's time to glue up and go for it. The last piece doesn't exactly slip in with the added glue- I need to get out the persuader for a good fit.

centre line willies

When filling in the right side at the top, I left the ends of the strip overlap the centreline. The next step is to trim those to the centreline with a chisel. So all I need to do is find my chisels, scrape off the rust, sharpen them and chisel out a straight 8 foot line with a slight bevel. This definitely gave me the willies. I hummed and hawed about other ways to do it, but finally bit the bullet and with a little touchup with the rasp, sander and dremel came up with a line that if you got far enough back and squinted, it looked straight. The real test would be when I filled in the second half.

wood run

The stripping goes swimmingly, but as I move up towards the bilge curve, I start to get nervous. I don't think I have enough wood to finish. Once I start to close in the top of the canoe, I will need less and can use some of the ends cut off from the longer strips. I but-joint some of the smaller pieces, but I still need more wood. I shop around on the Internet, but can't find anything local. My friend Grant has some eastern white cedar left over from some that he milled a few years back. Even with that, I will need more. We were planning a trip to Guelph in a week, so I decide to bring back some of the western red cedar that I've got stored in Jamie's garage.

When get the wood back from Guelph, it's very dark compared to the strips already on the canoe. So I try to incorporate a pattern with the red and white that doesn't look like pin strips. As I am stripping the top, I only do one side at a time. So I won't know how this pattern works out until I fill in both sides.

the beautiful outdoors

With the arrival of spring 2008, I contemplated on a place to work on the canoe. My neighbour John builds his birchbark canoes in one of those temporary garages that you build from 2x2's and plastic. I thought I would go with something more simple - a big tarp hung off the side of the house. Of course it was an old tarp so it leaked and sagged, but that and the bugs just made things a little more interesting. With the tarp up and the strongback leveled, I bought a big jug of carpenter's wood glue and got ready to strip.

The first strip was quite exciting. There were already about 10 strips on the form, so I was just following what was already there. Of course I used too much glue, bent a few nails and missed one of the forms, but overall it was quite satisfying. Eric had used nails to hold each strip in place while the glue dried. This leaves a hole in the strip, but is less time consuming that gluing without nails.

another canoe

In December of 2007, my neighbour Eric asked me if I wanted his partially complete cedarstrip canoe. They were moving and he didn't want to haul the canoe and form again. I had seen the canoe in his basement. It was an asymetric 16' design with about 10 strips on the form. I would be picking up where I left off with the Peterborough. So on a cold December night a bunch of us moved the form out of Eric's basement, into the back of a van and shuttled it to the side of our house. I didn't know where I was going to work on it, but with a few tarps it would keep for the winter.

The very beginning

The thought of building a canoe occurred to me back in 1998. I had seen a book called "Canoe Craft" in Peter Lister's house and after buying a copy for myself decided on the Chestnut Prospector which was a favorite of Bill Mason's.

I set up shop in a barn loft on Winkie's farm near Guelph. After cleaning out a large amount of pigeon and bat shit covered hay and setting up some tarps, I started on the forms for the canoe. I bought some great smelling western red cedar from Classic Boat Kits in Dunrobin, Ontario. The guy milled the strips in his basement. The choice of a hot barn for a summer workshop proved to be a mistake and I didn't get past completing the forms.

In the summer of 2000 I cleaned out the garage at Mark Rodford's house and set up shop again. The time away made me rethink my choice of Prospector, which is more suited for whitewater travels. So I morphed the forms into a Peterborough-esque style. Once I had the form setup, I realized I was at the point of no return. I knew if I started and did not finish, I would have to move the project around on the form. I decided to pack it up and wait for another day.

The form parts and cedar have been resting in a few places since - Mark's shop, Mike's backyard and Jamie Jupp's garage.