I built my first woodstrip Canoe during the summer of 2005. I took a canoe course at Richford Jr-Sr High School. I was a junior at the time and I was very interested. I even went out and bought the same book our instructor used. After a few years I decided to tackle the project by myself. My grandparents were very supportive in purchasing the supplies. The end results are shown below. During the summer the canoe can be found at Lake Carmi.
The canoe is made of Eastern White Ceder. Every strip you see came from a 1" rough cutt board. It was planed to 3/4" thickness, and then cut into 1/4" x 3/4" strips. The strips were sent through a router twice to put a bead and cove edge on them. Then they are ready to go. They are glued and stapled together over the patterns. I spent most of my summer painting, and then coming home to work on my canoe.
Here are some pictures after the sealant coat. All the staples were pulled, and the hull was sanded down. For the sealant coat I used some very fine sawdust and Microlight powder mixed with a little West System Epoxy. A thin coat is spread all over the canoe. It takes about 16 hours to harden, and during that time the epoxy will settle into any small gaps and it will fill the staple holes. Then the canoe was lightly sanded again, and I applied the fiberglass.
The inside of the boat was treated just like the outside. Then I added the gunales, the deck plates, and the yoke. They are all made of Ash. paddles are made of Ash, Mahogany, and Cherry. I'm redoing the paddles though and going to make them even smaller/lighter. I made the seat frames out of ash and caned them myself. You may see some pictures where seats are at different heights. I got some longer hangers and put them as low as they can go. You will see a bearded guy in the pics below. His name is John. He taught Canoe, Physcis, Chemistry, and Biology at Richford Jr-Sr High School. I also painted for him for 2 years. He's now a teacher at CCV.
