One way, two strips.

The method of creating a feature strip that I'm going to present is nice because it can be used for building a canoe with either cove-and-bead strips or beveled strips. This method also makes two strips from one assembly. The example that I'm going to show is a very simple strip, but you could do something more complex by making up the strips from short sections with square or beveled ends. You will want to try to stagger the joints in your strip to avoid making a weak spot. The images that I'll show are for the cove-and-bead version, but I'll explain the difference for beveled strips. For simplicity, this feature strip is being made for a boat that will be stripped with 1/4" thick strips.

Here's my build up of the feature strip "sandwich":


The image above shows three strips that have been glued together with carpenter's glue. The top and bottom strip are Spanish Cedar and the center strip is Basswood. My goal is to get two 3/8" tall strips of the Spanish Cedar and a 5/8 " tall strip of Basswood. All three strips are 7/8" wide and as long as I need for the boat I'm building. The bottom Cedar strip is 3/8 tall, but the top one is 1/2" wide. This is because I'm planning to cut a cove in the bottom and a bead on the top. When I cut the bead, I'll lose 1/8" of the face, so I have to make that strip a 1/8" taller. If I was making this for beveled construction, I'd make both Cedar strips 3/8" tall. That's the only difference.

At this point, I want a good surface to run against my table saw's fence. I'll plane or joint the face to the right so it is smooth and square with the bottom.

Now that I have a good edge, I'll set the table saw so that I'm cutting a 1/4" width between the blade and the fence. I'll have the teeth of the blade just protruding through the top of the strip. I'll also have featherboards to hold the sandwich in to the fence and down to the table. Below is a picture of that operation. Virtual featherboards and virtual guards have been virtually removed...


Now that I've cut my sandwich, I've got a strip that is 1/4" wide, 1-1/8" tall with square corners.


I'll repeat this operation so that I have two of the strips shown above. If I was making strips for a boat being built with beveled strips, I would be done at this point.

However, I'm making a cove-and-bead strip, so I'll need to use my router table to put the cove on the bottom and the bead on the top. Just a quick tip here: I'll use a scrap of wood that is the same width and thickness as my feature strip to set up the router table. I do this so that I don't ruin my carefully made feature strips.

You can see from the picture below that the Spanish Cedar strip at the top and bottom will be the same width on the exterior of the hull. At this point, I've got two feature strips that are ready to mount on the forms.


At this point, I've got two feature strips that are ready to mount on the forms.

Easy.

A bit later, I'll show how to make feature strips from strips that are already molded with cove-and-bead.