Day 3, gluing

Untill now everything has been simple. But here things can go wrong. The planks must be glued together in the right angle. I chosed to trust my intuition and look along the planks to see that they didn´t have any sudden changes instead of just gluing them together in the right angles that were left after cutting out the planks. I first glued I side of planks together using wooden epoxy glue. And when it was finished, I layed the planks for the other side above the first ones in order to get the exact same shape for both sides.

Total time day 3, 4 hours.

Day 3 Scarfjoints

I decided to join the planks using scarf joints. The reasons are that, if well done, they are stronger and also that I find them more attractive han butt or glassfibre joints. I hope to finish the canoe without any glassfibre in the inside (except the center joint) I´m also used to doing scarf joints. All the guitars that I build have 1 scarfjoint in the neck.
In order to do a good scarf joint, its important to have a good plane, but even more important that its very sharp and that you know how to use it. Planing in 45 degrees help a lot on plywood. Its a good idea to "glue" the two parts together with double stick tape. It helps controling a lot.
If you use a orbital sander in the end, use one which is well balanced. If not, you´ll end up with round joints.

cutting planks

Day 2,
5 hours

Just some photos. I´m tired. Lots of cutting. Lots of dust. Especially when I aligned the planks with the belt sander. I´m happy with the result

Day one

First building day. a couple of hours.



Today I´ve been drawing. I like to draw. Especially tech stuff. I think I have drawn at least 100 sailing boats when I was a kid. I showed them all to may dad. Some times he was interested and sometimes he didn´t really care. I mean thats ok. No hard feelings dad. Having to see more than 100 tecnical drawings can be a little bit boring.
So now I´´ve bought my first set of boat drawings (I have some 5 or 6 guitar building plans) Its a plywood canoe. And its going to be my first homemade vessel.
I´ve had 2 very beautiful sailboats. The first was a Utzon spidsgatter and the next was a Nordisk Folkebaad. (Typical Danish sailing boats) Both traditional wooden sailing yachts, so when I started thinking about a canoe, It was obvious that it had to be a wooden canoe and not some kind of plastic thing. besides I´m a professional guitarbuilder, so wood is something I know and like to work.

The canoe is going to be a Selway-Fisher design (www.makeacanoe.com) A shortened and lowered version of their Prospector 15,8" (more about that later)

So, I´ve been drawing, transfereing the little numbers on the plan to a 2500 x 1220 x 5mm okume marine plywood board.























I found a nice way of making the lines. Using one of these plastic things you use for hiding cables, a couple of nails, 2 old metal planes and a can of varnish. The plastic channel makes smooth curves, and the nails and the planes does that you dont need a helping hand to hold everything in place.







































this I´ve been doing "downstairs" In my workshop. The building itself of the canoe will be "upstairs" In the large second floor of our house: