Subject: Re: [baidarka] Wood for skin boats
From: brian.nystrom@att.net
Date: Mon Oct 01 2001 - 16:42:03 EDT
Wes,
I just finished my first skin boat and I agonized over
these same issues for way too long. Here's what I
learned.
- Gunwale boards - Use the local lumber that gives you
the best selection to choose from. Otherwise, you'll
drive yourself crazy and never build a boat.
In my area (NH) that would be white pine. The only spruce
I've seen around here is construction grade and generally
unsuitable for boat building. The main thing is to get
clear wood with consistent grain. I searched for
specialty lumber and ended up with southern yellow pine,
which is too heavy and tends to chip and tear when
drilled. I would have been much better off with D-select
white pine, which is abundant here.
I was planning to build according to Robert Morris'
method, but couldn't find appropriate 2" stock and green
wood was not availble at all. Instead, I used Bob
Boucher's suggestion of taking 2x8 stock with flat sawn,
symmetric grain and ripping it along the grain line. This
worked well,and although the boards did twist slightly,
the twist disappeared when I put them in the forms and
spread them.
- Kiln dried vs. air dried vs. green. - From what I can
gather, green is best, air dried is next, then kiln
dried. In my case, kiln dried lumber was all I could find
and it worked fine. Again, build with what you can find
locally and don't worry about it.
- Stringers and keelson - I used fir, since in was easy
to find CVG wood locally. I also used it for the stem and
stern plates. It's a bit heavy, but it's stiff and
strong.
- Ribs - I tried Alaskan yellow cedar as suggested in
Morris' book and it failed miserably. Perhaps it was
because the wood was not green (it was kiln dried), but
it simply wouldn't bend without splitting. I ended up
using 5/4 air dried ash and it worked great. There are
three caveats with ash:
1) Be very concious of the grain orientation in all
directions. Select a flat grain board and make sure that
the edge grain has little or no runout.
2) Soak it for a few days. I'm really not sure how much
this helps, since the 1/4" thick rib stock seemed bone
dry in the middle after soaking for 4+ days, but perhaps
it raises the moisture content in the center without
soaking through.
3) Steam it thoroughly. I found that ribs bent best when
steamed for 10 minutes of so. When I bent the 3/8" thick
coaming ring, I steamed it for a full hour and it bent
readily. From my experience, it seems that under-steaming
is much more of a problem than over-steaming.
- Deck beams - Mine are all pine, of one form or
another, as are the deck stringers. I made the masik,
knee brace, foot brace and rear deck stringers out of
2" pressure treated lumber that I've had kicking around
for 5+ years. I used it because it was what I had on hand
and it worked great. I guess you need to be careful when
cutting it due to the chemicals in it, but I had no
problems.
If I could give you only one suggestion, it would be to
go with your instincts and don't stress over it. That's
the key to enjoying the process. If it makes sense to
you, it will probably work just fine. I spent a lot of
time and energy agonizing up over minor issues instead of
having fun building a boat, and it was all for naught.
There is no such thing as "perfect" wood and it's
unreasonable to try to find any.
Buy some wood and make a boat out of it. It's a blast!
-- RegardsBrian > Hey Guys, > I want to build a skin boat (possibly a Greenland first then a baidarka) but I > am having problems finding the right wood or maybe the problem is knowing > exactly what wood I need. I live north of Green Bay, WI so I don't have access > to the fancy Sitka spruce which is on the West coast. > I need some suggestions on wood for gunwales, stringers, ribs etc which I should > be able to find locally to get me started. Also, should the gunwales come from > green wood or kiln dried lumber? Should it be quarter sawn or flat sawn? I > have conflicting information from various sources. Please help. > > Thanks, > Wes Patterson > > - > Baidarka Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be > reproduced outside Baidarka or Baidarka archives without author's permission > Submissions: baidarka@paddlewise.net > Subscriptions: baidarka-request@paddlewise.net > Searchable archive: http://rtpnet.org/robroy/baidarka >
- Baidarka Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside Baidarka or Baidarka archives without author's permission Submissions: baidarka@paddlewise.net Subscriptions: baidarka-request@paddlewise.net Searchable archive: http://rtpnet.org/robroy/baidarka
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