Progress Day 14

I cut quite a few strips of cedar.

They still have to be sanded, rounded, and joined. But I'm holding off on doing that, pending the arrival of a new rounding plane which should make the job faster and easier.

Meantime I've started cutting the templates from the plans.

NOTE TO SELF: Next time don't use 1/8" hardboard. Too thin and it cracks too much.

Another NOTE TO SELF: Next time don't cut out all the paper first, just rough cut, mount, and cut direct with the jigsaw. The paper was very flimsy and difficult to lie flat. Also hard to get a solid bond with the spray on contact adhesive. I had to keep a small stick of paper glue nearby to keep gluing lifting edges. Also, sandra hated doing the cutting out!

Another NOTE TO SELF: Start with one first, before you mount all of them and see you have a problem.

Anyway, I have spent the last few days cutting them out to the best of my ability.

Cutting out the slots was interesting work. Needed a sharp chisel. Happily I have sharp chisel because...

... this was my new purchase this week, and it is really really nice. It allows me to keep a scary sharp edge on all my chisels and planes, (and other edged tools). Very fast, very easy, very good.

For the first time ever, I can shave the hair off my arm with my chisels. I love this tool.

I also made the mistake of mounting the templates for the brackets on the hardboard.

I only realized after all this was done that it wasn't really required, and I could have simply built it directly, but I will keep these for reference if I ever build the boat again.

So, that's it for now. No more work for a week or so (since I have to go to work myself!).

Look for more updates early next month.

Day 12 or so

So here I am ready to start ripping. My longest piece of cedar runs 12', and my longest guide rail (I don't have a tablesaw like most normal woodworking folk. I use a system of tools by a company called Festool). 

So I have joined to of my rails together to make something long enough. They are held together by a connector that slides in the T-channel underneath. I'm really suppose to have two, but I only have one.

The pieces below are also part of the Festool system. They allow me to make repetitive thin strip cuts. If I didn't have them, cutting all the stringers to exactly the same 1" width would be tough.

Here I am ready to start ripping. Eventually I figured out how to get all of this off the floor, which was a great deal more comfortable.

Finally a shot of two blue kayaks drifting on the late, sometime in November, which for around here is pretty good.

The action is just getting started. Stay tuned.

Day 10 (I think)

Here we are in my basement, ready to start. I have some nice western red cedar that is ready to be ripped into the gunwales, chines, stringers (the long pieces that run down the length of the boat). I'll be ripping them into different widths between 1"-1.5"

Here is a sheet of 1/2" marine plywood. Kinda pricy, but worthwhile to have if the inside of your boat might get wet, which i will. 

Here are some support stands I've built for my strongback (which will hold the boat as I build it). The tape measure is to make sure I have at least 20' available (I do).

Finally, here is a picture of sandra enjoying a fine autumn day on the lake, while I'm busy playing in the shop. Some people have all the fun.

More posts, and pics coming.

I begin.. well actually about 7 days ago

Hi everyone,

No, my real name is not YoYo, and I am not building a Akyak. My name is Jerry and I am building a kayak. The name of this blog will probably be explained at a later date, for those of you who don't know me well.

But first, a picture, since this will be a very visual blog. Here is the lake where I do most of my kayaking. It is called Lac Manitou and it is in the province of Quebec. The person in the photo is my wife, launching her kayak in late September this year.

This is going to be my first attempt to build a kayak. In fact, it is my first attempt to build anything this large. Which makes me a bit nervous. While I have done a little woodworking, most of my projects so far have been things like this:

The kayak I am going to try and build looks like this

Or more like this when it is finished

So, as you can see, I have quite the job ahead of me. I'm nervous but also excited. I have a feeling this project will keep me busy all winter!


By the way, the boat I am building comes from plans I got from a company called Kudzucraft and the type of boat I am building is called a Long Shot (which I hope does not refer to my chances of finishing this project successfully!). The photos above come from their web site, and I haven't asked Jeff's (the owner's) permission, but I am pretty sure he won't mind me using them.


So stayed tuned. Lots of boat building action to come.