Milling strips, sheer strip and beyond

Last week I started the stripping process with the boat. With all the forms in place and secured I borrowed some people to help me with milling the 1x6 boards into strips that are nominally 1/4" x 3/4". I had acquired 2 1x6x20' and 1 1x6x13' from the lumberyard in Des Moines, I also had a 1x10x12' of cypress that I will be using to build the football (the flatish are that makes up the bottom of the boat) and do accent work with. I also had a bit of walnut laying around as well that I will use to build up my sheer.
The lumber all got milled and stacked together with similar color boards (I had about 5 different shades of wood).
The first strip to get put on is the sheer strip which is also the most important because it gives shape to all the following strips as well. I used a thin piece of cypress with a similarly thin piece of walnut to build up my sheer.


sheer: The upward curve or amount of upward curve of the longitudinal lines of a ship's hull as viewed from the side.


This was a somewhat challenging process created more challenging because I am building this boat without staples. Most commonly people will align the strips and then staple them to the forms to keep them in place until the boat is all stripped out, however this leaves hundreds of tiny staple holes that are fairly noticeable later. I am trying to build this stapless which means I have to use a variety of clamps and hot glue to keep everything together.

I also laminated the stems using epoxy. There are two sets of stems. The interior are cedar and will be shaped to accept and hold the strips, the exterior and cypress with an accent of cedar and will act as a small keel once shaped.


After the sheer strips are on its only a matter of running a hand bevel on the following strips to make the previous one and attempting to make them as flush as possible as you build them up.

Kayak #2: Building the Strongback and Forms

The first (at least) 60 hours of this project went into building a set of forms that I would wrap the wood strips around to form the shape of the boat. The Redfish Silver that I am building is a 16' - 7" boat that should fit Sarahs 5'-7" very well. Sea kayaks are long boats because of two reasons. They track better over large areas of water; which means you dont need to work to hard to keep them straight. Also, the longer the boat the faster you can go. This boat also has a slight fore rocker designed in which allows for better turning with just your body. This is a pretty narrow boat with only a 22" beam (width where you sit) which make for a slightly more tippy boat, however this is an advantage when it comes to surf, big water, or rolls.
I built station platforms out of salvaged plywood and MDF from the dumpster. This wood was very warped but I managed to get a relatively straight strongback (long straight piece of wood that the forms are attached too) from it. I built racks for my future strips of wood onto the stations.

Then I cut out the forms (which I received from the plans) and spent about a week aligning, sanding, measuring, and aligning again. The old adage is measure twice cut once. Mine was more like measure 30 times, cut once.
To help get the boat as straight as possible I ran string lines over the center line and sheer lines.

station risers with forms attached

viewing down the string lines to see the alignment

you can start to see the shape of the boat!

Kayak #1

I have wanted to build a strip-built wooden kayak for a while now. Mostly because I really like kayaking and wooden boats are superior to plastic ones in almost every way (lighter, prettier, custom built, etc...) Since I nearly graduated I decided that this summer was a great opportunity to try my hand at constructing one. After some finagling I got permission to build it at the ISU outdoor Rec gear room (yay!). And the research began to decide what boat to build.

Originally I wanted to do a fully custom designed boat but I decided against it when I realized all the detailing that was needed that I didnt understand. There are many kayak designers across the country. Most notably are Nick Schade, Rob Mack, Jason Babina, to name a few. I wanted to build a boat for Sarah who requires slightly different sizing. I chose to order plans for a Redfish Silver from Joe Greenly at Redfish Kayaks.

So. Step one was completed, I had a space to work and plans for the boat. I also have been using Nick Schrades book, The Strip-Built Sea Kayak, as a reference to where I deviate from the Redfish designs.

Step two was finding supplies as cheaply as possible.

#1, wood
Many kinds of wood can be used to build kayaks. Traditionally the people of Greenland and Alaska first developed kayaks out of driftwood to hunt seals. The standard wood now is clear (no knots) Western Red Cedar because it has a very good strength to weight ratio (.31) and its beautiful variations in color.

However, its impossible to find clear Western Red Cedar in the midwest. After calling about 20 places I finally found a lumber yard that would ship it for free and I only pay for the wood. Along with the cedar I chose to use local Cypress for its yellows and reds

and I plan on doing some trim and detailing with Walnut.


#2, fiberglass and epoxy
Ive never worked with these materials before so its a little scary. After the boats gets stripped I will cover it with a fiberglass coat to give it its strength. I found a great deal on MAS epoxyies and sent out for a $345 order for hopefully everything I will need.

#3, tools
A kayak is largely a hand built project however I did need to round up some tools. I bought a nice Japanese pull saw and a block plane. Chad offered the use of his table saw along with numerous other needed items. And Paul let me use his jig saw.

so with that I had almost all the necessary supplies to make this boat!

more later

Switching directions

Its time for this blog to move from Italy to Ames! So. I am going to be posting things that Sarah and I have been working and playing with this summer! enjoy!