Time to strip
At this point we are clear to install bead and cove cedar strips to make up the skin of our boat. The bead and cove strips have a round edge, the bead, and a hollow edge, the cove to allow a tight rotatable joint with adequate surface area for gluing. These strips are 1/4” thick and 1 inch wide, so they are great at conforming to complex curves/twists in all directions.
I went with Northern White Cedar for my strips, which I bought premilled from Newfound Woodworks. I decided I didn’t want to try my hand at milling 1200 or so linear feet of strips for the first time ever only to atone for my milling mistakes later when it came time to build the boat.
So I got roughtly 1200 linear feet of cedar, in lengths of 8 and 6 feet. Ideally you would want 16ft+ lengths of cedar so you could have one strip per layer, but unfortunately, that kind of lumber is hard to come by. (Side note, I did talk to someone later who is building a guideboat out of 1milling 6ft white pine boards that comes out of a milwork shop into strips, which I think is pretty smart, and a great way to save money. After all, these boats are originally made out of white pine, and he was going to fiberglass his boat anyways.)
So, anyways, we are faced with the issue of having to join 6ft and 8ft strips together to make strips to span the length of the boat. You might remember my post about scarfing joints, which joined two shorter lengths of pine together to create my bottom board. Rather than a small 3/8” wide glue joint, the 1:8 scarf joint made the gluing surface over 3 inches long for a much more sound joint.
We’ll do the same thing with the cedar strips, but this time we’ll just scarf the strips with a shooting board. I only mention this because there isn’t much to say about stripping. It’s very boring, and I was only able to glue one layer on a day, and 2 layers towards the end.
So what is a shooting board? It’s basically a specialized jig and plane that allows you to trim a board to an exact angle. Whether that’s exactly 90 degrees, or exactly 45 degrees for a picture frame, it allows you to remove wood a couple thousandths of an inch at a time (if you wanted) to get an exact fit. In our case I used a guide to quickly trim the wood down to a repeatable angle. Does it work? Yes. Is it necessary? Absolutely not.
I’m sure there are better ways, including using a table saw, if you are going to fiberglass the boat you can just butt the 2 90 degree ends together and glue it, as the fiberglass is what will give the boat structure. Point being, this is the equivalent of using the lunar rover as a golf cart: sure it works, but, really?
The pic above shows an edgeband clamp, allowing that little red strap to apply downward pressure to the strips. I would eventually learn that i should have just been wrapping long lengths of bungee cords around the strips to apply even pressure everywhere, and my joints could probably have been tighter as a result… oh well!
The strips are screwed down to every other rib using a 1/2” #3 brass screw. The strips aren’t actually glued to the ribs, allowing for easier repairs should I one day crack a rib or need to repair a section of stripping.
Needless to say, this was a super super long process, and the pull of spring/summer, Teddy duties, bees and yardwork didn’t exactly keep me motivated to complete stripping as quickly as possible… You have to enjoy the nice weather while you can!
But eventually, over a long enough period of time…
And a little horsing around…
We made progress…
Until we finished up one side!
Very roughly at least!
And that will do it for this one. When I first started, I thought stripping would be like 75% of the process. Nope! If anything, sanding is 75% of the process. Until I get to installing the decks and furniture, then that will be 75% of the process….
Stripping is mindless, easy, and one layer can be done in about an hour, then you’re just waiting for things to dry. Now suddenly I’ve wrapped up, and I find myself running in 20 different directions for design/style decisions, whether to paint or varnish, how to fair the boat, does the inside of the boat even look okay???? etc.
I’ve been a bit paralyzed by indecision, but I’m slowly working my way through it. I’ll try to catch this blog up to the current day to write out the decisions I’m trying to make, as it will help me think through things better. Plus, it’s cheaper than therapy.