Paddling upstream

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-25T06:00:00.001-05:00

Tech Tip Tuesday

2012-01-24T20:32:00.000-05:00

Digging for resources can be a significant amount of my time when I'm working on something. For that reason, I've got a pretty extensive boat-building library here at home that I've posted about before. It's not as extensive as the library at WoodenBoat's office - I really wish that I could get there more often, because it's pretty impressive. Inter-library loan often has some of the books I'm looking for.

Another place that I go looking for information is the Web. The Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) website has excellent canoe-related resources and the WoodenBoat Forum has more general boating-related. Qajaq USA has some neat things related to traditional kayaking - specifically Greenland-style kayaks and accessories.

One of the best places to go is to trade-shows. Vendors of materials, hardware and as well as builders and designers. Other home-builders at these shows are often willing to talk about their craft and some of the lessons that they've learned. I often find that you learn more from the amateurs than you do from the professionals. There is not substitute for getting out and talking to people.

Museum are fantastic repositories of the unique, the rare and the historically important that you'll find nowhere else. Many have both books, documents and artifacts that you can review if you're willing to take the time to make an appointment and go work with an archivist. Places like Mystic Seaport, The Penobscot Marine Museum, the Adirondack Museum, the Antique Boat Museum, the Canadian Canoe Museum, the Peterborough Museum - I could go on and on.

Resources for paddle and oar making are pretty thin, indeed. They are generally treated as an after-thought in books on boat building and usually a chapter in the rear of the book is devoted to the construction of paddles or oars. While anyone can make a paddle, it takes some knowledge to make a great paddle - things like design, and performance issues, wood selection and aesthetics - let along, fitting for the user and the boat.

I know of two books on Greenland Style paddles, one on canoe paddles, and none specifically on oar or double-bladed paddle fabrication. The Greenland style books are available from Brian Nystrom (Greenland Paddles : Step-by-Step) and Qajaq USA in the form of a free PDF written by Chuck Holst - Making a West Greenland Paddle. The two best resources that I've found for what I'm doing are Murat's aptly named blog Paddlemaking (and other Canoe Stuff) and the book, Canoe Paddles : A Complete Guide to Making Your Own. by Graham Warren and David Gidmark. Graham also runs Moosehead Canoes and Paddles in the UK and offers great information there and DVD information on paddle making.

What are some of your sources of information?

Happy Birthday L.L. Bean!

2012-01-22T10:58:00.002-05:00

This year marks L.L. Bean's 100th anniversary. The well known outfitter has been doing business supporting the needs of outdoor people since 1912. While I'm sure L.L. Bean himself would recognize some portions of his company, I think he would find some portions of the modern company unrecognizable. In recognition of this anniversary, they've put the "Bootmobile" (seen above in front of their flagship store in Freeport, Maine) on the road for a tour.

In addition, they have also offered a series of special limited edition offerings for the celebration of this milestone. Included are the following items:

Produced by Shaw & Tenney in Orono, Maine will be a series of paddles that are made from re-claimed "sinker" softwoods recovered from the Penobscot river. It's entirely possible that the wood in the paddles is as old as L.L. Bean!

Another delight that is being produced for L.L. Bean is the limited edition Old Town 16' canoe. I'm not sure exactly what Old Town model that it is and they're not specific. Whisperings indicate that this canoe is produced for Old Town by Jerry Stelmok up at Island Falls Canoe company in Atkinson, Maine. Only 10 of these beauties will be built, so if you want yours, you'd better hurry up and place your order - only $7,500.00 with a $300.00 freight charge. Sadly, I think that these will wind up as collector's items, not canoes to be paddled and enjoyed.

Certainly this company has a well-deserved reputation for excellent product quality and customer service. Here's looking forward to their next 100 years!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-18T06:00:00.001-05:00

Thanks, MoMan!

The New Challenge.

2012-01-16T20:24:00.000-05:00

Well, I've started in on a new challenge. I'm making a change for a semester of teaching from cedar-strip canoe building to paddle making. I'm going to be offering a class in how to build you own single-bladed canoe paddle, double-bladed canoe or kayak paddle, Greenland style "stick" paddle or, for those adventurous sorts, oars. I've built them all before, but haven't taught a class on the subject, so this should be an interesting challenge.

Sign-up for classes was last Saturday morning and I was amazed to not only fill the class, but wind up with two more students for a total of 12.

I've got a bit of teaching material to put together before next weekend, but otherwise I'm prepared.

Here's looking forward to the mayhem and posting on paddles for a bit!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

Tech Tip Tuesday

2012-01-10T21:27:00.001-05:00

Boatbuilders are peculiar creatures. They tend to be very picky about the things they use to build their boats and will go to the ends of the earth to get them. One of these items (obviously) is wood screws. First of all, it should be recognized that there are myriad sizes, types and materials of screws. The choice is really endless. However, for boatbuilders, the list tends to narrow considerably.

We'll work with material first. Typical materials are brass, stainless steel and bronze. Brass tends to be a bit lower on the list because of it's softness and it's zinc erosion in salt water. Brass also tarnishes to a greenish color. Stainless steel is nice for corrosion resistance, is harder than the brass and doesn't tend to discolor. Bronze is very nice because of it's hardness and good corrosion resistance and weathers to a brownish patina.

Screw driving types are next. Allen (hex) drive, tend to be rarely found (except on machine screws and some flat-head screws) and there are those traditionalists who will use Robertson (square drive) screws - mostly on Canadian canoes to keep them "original". Philips screw drive is also found but rarely. The reason these three types tend to lag is that they can fill with finish and then be difficult to remove or replace. Slotted or "straight" drive tends to be the screw drive of preference as they can be cleaned out relatively easily and if not, a piece of hacksaw blade can generate a slot quickly where one didn't exist.

As far as driving screws goes, I like to use a taper-drill bit set. The one below is from Fuller. While they aren't the only supplier of these bits, they are one of the better ones - and made in the USA! With this set you can set up the counter-sink to drive the screws flush with the wood, or counter-bore it so the screw head us beneath the surface. Also in the kit are stop collars to set the depth and tapered plug cutters to make plugs to fit the counter-bores. A very nice kit, indeed.

On the lid of the box is beeswax. I use beeswax to lubricate the screws as they are being driven. I prefer this to soap or other lubricants as the pH of the soap and some other lubes can cause corrosion of the screws - this doesn't seem to be the case with the beeswax. One good tip here is that if I'm driving brass screws I tend to use a steel screw of the same size to create the threads in the wood for the brass screw and remove it. This way, I'm reducing the torque applied to the brass screw to drive it, and reducing the chances of twisting off the screw or stripping the head.

Below the box is one of my favorite driving tools - a reversible, ratcheting screwdriver (with interchangeable tips) I really prefer to drive screws by hand. The feel lets you know if the screw is biting or if you're over-torquing the screw and are about to twist it off. A bit-brace works well, also. I tend to avoid using my electric drill to drive screws (even with the clutch), but I've gotten a nice small Bosch power driver that I'm trying out. So far, it doesn't seem to be over-torquing the screws, but I'm still skeptical and prefer hand-driving to power driving.

There are times, no matter how careful you are, when you will be "screwed". The head will strip, or even snap off and you want to remove the remainder of the screw. There are two good options. The first is a tubular screw extractor like the one below:

They go in a drill and remove a cylindrical piece of wood which you can then plug with a dowel. I've seen home-made versions of these ground from large roll pins using a Dremel tool.

If you've just stripped the head, or think there is enough material, another alternative is the Alden Grabit. The Grabit is a combination of center drill and screw thread made from hardened material. You chuck it in your drill and drive it in reverse to create a pocket with the center drill and then turn the bit around and drive it in reverse to set the screw thread in the pocket and un-screw the damaged hardware. It really has to be tried to be believed. It works really well - better than an Easy-out, in my opinion.

Happy screwing!

Monday again?

2012-01-09T06:00:00.001-05:00

Isn't it great to get that pesky weekend out of the way?

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-04T06:00:00.001-05:00

Tech Tip Tuesday

2012-01-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

While the above video may seem to be a bit out of place for a Tech Tip Tuesday, I assure you that it is not. We all manage to get by with a little help from our friends. This is especially true of boat builders of all kinds - and it makes life a whole lot easier and cheaper.

When building a boat you will require a lot of skills, a lot of materials, and a lot of tools. Generally, unless you've been building boats for quite some time, you will not have accumulated all of these. Reading books only goes so far.

Let's start with skills. Boat building uses a wide variety of skills - chief among them wood working. (because we're talking about wooden boats, here!) Because many people have had at least a little exposure to wood working or know someone who does, finding some of those basic skills is not hard. Working alongside an experienced woodworker or boat builder is a fantastic way to learn if they're willing to share. Even if they may not know much about boatbuilding, they may have networked and can introduce you to someone who does. Alternatively, many classes are available in your community - either via night school classes or a technical school. Last but not least, there are online communities such as the WoodenBoat Forum, the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association, and Yahoo! Groups, just to name a few where you can run into skilled people, make friends, learn and network. Just remember : none of us are as smart as all of us.

Materials can be hard to come by - some are pretty unique. Friends are a good starting point to find vendors for bronze hardware, wood and other marine supplies and hardware. Sometimes, they even have a stash of these items that they are willing to part with for little or no money - that item you're looking for that they were saving for that boat that they were planning to build "sometime". Wood workers who build furniture for a hobby are fairly common (we are - really!) and usually have a handle on good sources for the type of wood that you're looking for or, as I've previously mentioned, they may have a stash of wood.

It also takes a variety of tools to build a boat. Hand tools are relatively easy to find and most people have some of them. Power tools - and in particular, stationary power tools are less common. This is where you find out who your real friends are. They're the ones who will let you use or help you to mill stock with their power tools. They are also the ones who will loan tools to you. When that type of friend comes along, realize that they are a "keeper". They are few and far between. To loan out your tools is putting serious faith in the person that they are being loaned to. Never betray that trust. Always treat those tools like they were your own and return them in a timely manner. You never know when you might need a tool again!

We all do a little bit better with some help from our friends!

Preparation, Preparation, Preparation.

2011-12-31T15:59:00.000-05:00

For Christmas this year, DD, who has been playing the flute in her school band for the past year and a half, received a lovely gift from her grandfather. It is a Shaker-style music stand in cherry with ash pegs and tapered rails for the back of the stand. It is truly an elegant thing, but these pictures don't do it justice. I'll post some more pictures when the stand is complete. I say that because of anything my father hates to do, it is to finish furniture. He loves to build it, but hates to finish it. He often says that he'd rather build two complete pieces of furniture than build and apply finish to one. Why?

Preparation.

To get a good finish requires a good deal of preparation. The music stand as received was in great shape - very little sanding was going to be required. However, there were certain to be some random spots of glue left behind from the assembly process. I had raised the grain with a damp sponge and gone over it with paper when dry before she'd received it, but I knew that I hadn't gotten all of the glue spots. So yesterday, when she wanted to start finishing the piece, I told DD to take and sand it all over with some 320 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper looking for spots of glue and rough areas. I told her to let me know when she thought she was done.

All-in-all, she'd done a good job and I only touched up a few spots that I could feel were still a bit rough when I ran my hands over the piece. We're using Watco's natural oil finish on this as it is more forgiving than a hard finish for DD to work with. She can wipe it on and wipe the excess off with ease. As the first coat went on, she could feel some rough spots that were still there and we found some more glue spots that had been missed. A piece of the 320 grit paper quickly solved those issues and banished any trace of glue.

Here's the head, precariously balanced on a piece of cardboard with the adjustment pegs barely visible to the left.

Here is the base - still waiting for another coat or two of finish.

I try to impress upon the canoe builders in my class that preparation is the key to a good finish as well. The couple building the Prospector Ranger 15 were a bit frustrated by the amount of scraping and sanding that they did before finishing the outside of the hull. They spent about two and a half class sessions doing this work to prepare the surface. They were tired and, "just want to be done". So, after scraping, sanding and inspecting the hull, they brought it up to the dust free area upstairs from the shop and wiped the hull down with denatured alcohol to prepare the surface. As they applied the first coat of spar varnish to the hull, the beauty began to shine through.

While people may think I'm a task-master when I tell them to go back and do a bit more sanding or a bit more scraping, I think they find that it is worth it in the end. There's no substitute for good preparation.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T06:00:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas to all.

Here's hoping that you don't get too many presents with "some assembly required"!

Christmas Eve Approaches...

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

Ho, Ho, Ho!

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

Talk about planning ahead...

2011-12-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

Reuters photo by Stefan Wermuth

6 year-old Leo Park is really planning ahead (and kudos to Jeremy Paxton):

LONDON (Reuters) - A worried letter from six-year old Leo Park sparked a mammoth operation to test what is believed to be the world's first chimney specifically designed to accommodate Santa Claus.

The little boy's parents are having a house custom built and when Leo viewed the plans he was concerned that the chimney wasn't big enough for Father Christmas and his famous belly that shakes when he laughs like a bowl full of jelly.

As he was penning his traditional letter to Santa, Leo decided to also write a heartfelt missive about the chimney design problem to Jeremy Paxton, who owns the estate on which the new house is being built.
In childish scrawl the letter reads: "Dear Mr Paxton, I am worried that my mummy's house does not have a big enough chimney. I think Santa Claus will get stuck. Please can you help. Love Leo Park."
Paxton, founder and owner of luxury holiday home development Lower Mill Estate in the southwestern English region of the Cotswolds decided to commission a special formula to satisfy Leo's concerns.
Obviously size was the key consideration to ensure Santa won't get wedged tight on his way to stuffing the stockings and so Paxton enlisted a mathematician to take on the challenge and save the jolly old elf from turning red for the wrong reasons.

The Santa-friendly formula looked at risk factors of chimney entry, the size of St Nick's girth versus the width of the chimney at its narrowest point.

To test what they said was the perfect chimney, Paxton enlisted the help of a stand-in Santa Claus in full padded outfit, a crane, a harness and winch to put the new chimney through its paces.

Leo was invited to watch as the great experiment got underway.

"Go on Santa" he shouted out as the faux Father Christmas was lifted into the air towards the chimney.
A few seconds later and Santa was successfully lowered into the chimney of the half-built house, re-emerging shortly after to deliver a hearty: "Ho Ho Ho."

"I can guarantee that this chimney is big enough for Santa and all the presents," he told Leo.

An excited Leo gave a thumbs up to the St. Nicholas impersonator and rushed to hug him.

"I'm absolutely delighted not just that Santa fitted into the chimney, but that that little boy, Leo, said to me: 'That was the best day of my life' which made the whole thing worthwhile," said Paxton.
The Park family won't be able to inhabit their new holiday home until next December, just in time to get the milk and biscuits ready for their very special Yuletide visitor.

(Reporting by Georgina Cooper, editing by Paul Casciato)

Now then : will Santa be able to get a canoe down that chimney?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-14T06:00:00.001-05:00

Tech Tip Tuesday

2011-12-13T20:35:00.001-05:00

I'm going to bring up cabinet scrapers again. I've covered their care and feeding in this earlier post. They are really a wonderful tool that many woodworkers and boat-builders ignore at their own peril - particularly for anyone who does any kind of work with epoxy or other hard finishes.

My students who are building the Ranger had some issues when they were rolling on their epoxy to build the coating up to "kill the weave" of the fiberglass cloth. I'm not sure if they pressed too hard with the roller or kept the epoxy in the cup for too long and it was starting to "kick". At any rate, the end result was a surface with a great deal of "orange peel". If you're not familiar with this, it is a texture on a finished surface that has the look of the outside of an orange - the fruit - with all of the requisite divots and contours that go with it.

I'll say this - I'm not a fond fan of letting my students sand on the outside of the hull with power sanders. It raises an immense amount of dust in the shop, the sandpaper clogs relatively quickly because they tend to exert too much pressure on the sander to speed the process up, and they have a tendency to cut into the cloth without noticing. None of these things are good. Usually, the finish is good enough that a little hand-sanding will suffice to prepare the surface for spar varnish or spar urethane, depending on the type of epoxy used.

With the amount of texture on the Ranger's surface, this wasn't going to take a little bit of hand sanding. It was going to take a lot.

Students tend to be a bit reluctant to try the cabinet scrapers as they're unfamiliar things to them. They've been taught about them and watched me use them, but rarely use them on their own. I find that the cabinet scraper does an excellent job of removing runs from the epoxy and leveling badly textured areas quickly. It is nice because it makes curls of epoxy rather than dust which are a bit easier to clean up than the dust and don't settle like fall-out on every level surface in the shop. It is also fairly fast and doesn't clog up the same way that sandpaper does. It is a lot quieter than a power sander on a large, hollow hull, which makes for more pleasant working conditions, too.

I have a method to deal with this reluctance.

I borrowed it from Mark Twain. (Think Tom Sawyer and white-washing the fence.)

Let me explain the method.

First, I give the students some sandpaper and tell them what needs to happen to prepare the surface of the canoe for varnish. I let them sand for about 10-15 minutes which is much more tedious than it sounds.

While they are sanding, I sharpen up a few cabinet scrapers per the instructions in the previous post noted above. I then take one of the scrapers and proceed to do a relatively quick job of preparing a large area of the canoe with the scraper. This usually coincides with the point in time when they are getting fed-up with sanding.

When they see what an "easy" job it is with a cabinet scraper, they ask if I have some more scrapers they could borrow and, oh yeah, could I give them a quick refresher course on how to sharpen the scrapers.

Works every time.

Monday Again?

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

Dang. Somebody either put me out of my misery today or bring me a triple espresso.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

Two-Fer Tuesday

2011-11-29T22:18:00.000-05:00

Yup. I'm pretty sure we do have mice. As winter approaches, the mice migrate into the house looking for a warm, dry place and food to eat. The first tell-tale indications are the sounds of little paws running along the ceiling in inaccessible spaces between the first and second floor and some attic spaces. I've posted before about our local vermin - outside we have woodland voles who live outdoors around the foundation of the house and in the garden beds. Indoors we have woodland jumping mice - your typical bulgy-eyed field mice. They're cute, but they're destructive - and they don't pay rent.

They tend to congregate downstairs in the basement, which is an un-finished space. I've had thoughts about putting in partitions and making a rec-room of sorts down there, but I have visions of this:

DW is concerned about the mice as well because we have a set of pantry shelves in the basement where we store groceries and other dry goods that get purchased in bulk or because the price is good. If anything, the mice get into bags of rice and barley and sometimes will chew on boxes of baking mixes. Actually, I think she's more concerned about sharing her wine supply which we keep on the pantry shelves as well:

Because DS and DD have gerbils, killing traps are frowned upon in our house. The mice are pretty close cousins to the gerbils and the kids don't want to see us flattening mice with the old-fashioned traps. I also find that they don't work that well and I have to finish the mouse off, or discover the the mouse has suffered some long-lasting and horrible fate in the trap. I've found the Have-a-Heart traps to work pretty well, too. Witness today's haul or the reason for the post's title:

We've now caught 11 mice in the last two weeks or so. They get released far down in the woods away from the house to become part of the food chain again. We've been amazed to watch them climb trees high and fast enough to put a squirrel to shame and run down to the edge of the pond, jump in and swim out to small islands of brush and trees. DW is still convinced that we're catching the same mice over and over. Personally, I think the place is just lousy with mice at the moment. Anyway - I caught three in one night last week, so there are at least three of them! Perhaps someone is dropping them off like kittens at a dairy farm!

One.Last.Sheet.

2011-11-26T19:00:00.001-05:00

The picture above is from the kitchen at work. Our office manager is the person who tends to be saddled with changing rolls of paper towels. She was out of the office for a few days before Thanksgiving and on the day after she left, we arrived at the state that is viewed above. One last sheet. I decided to do a little experiment and see what happened - so, I did nothing. It became like a game, played with chess-like precision and cunning. I watched as people came into the kitchen with their own paper towels from somewhere else. I watched people shake their hands and dirty dishes off into the sink when they would normally just grab for a paper towel. It was truly an amazing exercise in psychology, really. It took several days before anyone bothered to replace the roll - and that was me the day before Thanksgiving.

The image below was taken at home and is actually the more threatening situation. It is (was) a roll of toilet paper. Literally one sheet was left on the roll - if that. I'm not sure you could have even dislodged the sheet from the cardboard tube in the middle. Ironically, there is a container in the bathroom next to this toilet which stores spare rolls of toilet paper, so it isn't a big deal to replace the roll, but generally, nobody could be bothered to change the roll. For the longest time, I wondered if anyone in the house actually knew how to remove the little spring-loaded axle from the center of the toilet roll to replace it. A really, really long time. This happens at work as well - a lot - and I often comment that I feel really comfortable at work - it feels just like home.

I must admit, however, that recently I've been finding an even more curious situation in the kitchen and bathrooms at home. Since the bilge-rats (gerbils) arrived, we discovered that they love to play with the toilet and paper towel rolls. They run trough them and chew them to bits, being the viscous beasties that they are. Household members have taken to giving these toilet rolls to the gerbils, and now you don't see the last sheet, you just find the bare naked axle or paper towel stand.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

This one goes out to...

2011-11-14T21:54:00.002-05:00

MoMan.

Mike seemed a bit thirsty today for some reason.

Progress from the Thotful Spot

2011-11-11T21:51:00.002-05:00

One of the things that I was thinking about was how to finish the decks and inwales where they meet the stem ends at bow and stern. There are, frankly, many ways to solve this. However, I'm trying to make this relatively simple and elegant in appearance. I went back and did a bit of research and reading and have decided to use a solution that Jerry Stelmok taught in his class. On cedar and canvas canoes, the inwales are in place, but not attached at the stems. After the canoe is removed from the mold, the decks are installed. The joint where they meet is a mortise and tenon joint. In the image above, the inwales aren't seen to let you see the joint. A notch is made in the underside of the deck (the mortise) and a protrusion (the tenon) is left at the top of the stem. As the inwales are fitted to the deck, they close in the sides of the mortise. In this case, the tenon will be bonded with thickened epoxy.

Simple.

The inwales and outwales will be tapered at the ends to give a more delicate appearance. After the hull has been skinned, the stem ends will be protected with a piece of brass stem-band that will wrap over the top of the deck. The final screw holding the stem-band in place will be located through the deck and into the tenon.

More to come.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

On my Soap-Box : The Holidaze

2011-11-08T18:00:00.002-05:00

Over the past few days, Paddling Upstream has gotten a huge number of hits from a website that I'd not heard about. That website is Pinterest. And here is the image that brought all of this interest:

This image was taken at a mall in Florida by my friend Russell two years ago and he shared it with me on his Facebook page. I've now seen it re-posted on Pinterest and Facebook. To both his pleasure and his chagrin, this image seems to have gone viral this year. He's pleased that its making the rounds, but a little disappointed that his 15 minutes of fame are anonymous.

On to my soap box...

In honor of Andy Rooney's passing, I'm going to get up on my own soap-box to complain. He crystallized everyone's thoughts on the issues of daily life so well. I hope to be able to reflect those things that we've all been thinking of.

As I noted, I've posted before on this subject before, here. At the end of September, I found myself posting a Facebook status update that my worst nightmares had come true:

It has finally come true.

I was in CVS this evening. There were witches, scarecrows, pumpkins, turkeys, and Santa Claus.

Merry Thanksgivoween.

:::rolls eyes:::

*wretch!*

Horrendous, isn't it? I think that both retailers and marketing people should come to realize that the public is getting fed up with the homogenization of holidays during the year. There is going to be a back-lash from consumers one of these years, and I think it has begun. Most of the comments that were attached to the image at the top of this post included things like "Darn straight!", "Right on!" and "Finally, a store that 'gets it'." On a Facebook post with the Nordstrom's image, I saw this comment:

I love this!! I get frustrated with people who complain that stores advertise too early but yet they still go and spend their money at these places. People must learn to vote with their wallets! As long as these companies are making money they do NOT care what the public thinks! Nordstrom just got my business!!

I truly worry that my children will not know which symbols go with which holidays because of what they see in stores, malls and in television and print advertising. I also think that we've diminished the meanings of the holidays - including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza (Or whatever holiday you celebrate, Festivus included!) to candy, food and football and presents. It seems that parents now need to think much more about traditions, celebrations and how we keep them for our children.

While I love the holidays as much as anyone else, can we please just celebrate one holiday at a time?

Pretty please?

Election Day

2011-11-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

It is a Disgrace

2011-11-07T12:41:00.001-05:00

The image above is from Connecticut Light & Power's website this morning. (Click to enlarge) It shows the outages that still have not been resolved after 8 days. It shows that there are over 61,000 customers without power. While other locations in Massachusetts were without power until the weekend, CL&P says that some customers will not see power restored until Wednesday. I know the damage was widespread, but this seems to be taking a very large amount of time.

I guess we should just be thankful that this out(r)age didn't happen in February.

A bit more progress...

2011-11-04T21:45:00.001-04:00

I've made a bit more progress on the frame for the skin-on-frame canoe this evening. I've got the forms mounted on the strongback and started to cut stringers. I think I've discovered my second "boo-boo". The chine stringers were intended to be fairly husky and while they bend well in one axis, they don't bend so well in the other. I think I'll need to lighten up on this excessively beefy piece of stock. I am liking the way the forms sit on the strongback for alignment. It's a great deal more simple than trying to juggle frames in mid-air the way some kayak builders do.

More to come.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-02T21:55:00.000-04:00

Ok, this is a bit belated, but it looks like Halloween will be a bit belated, too - like November 5th.

Why? Well, we had a bit of snow this weekend. As I'm writing, there are still about a million people without power still - 4 days later.

Let me take a step back here. At the end of last week, the weathermen were making dire predictions of a very early season Northeaster. We never have snow of any substance this early in this neck of the woods. At any rate, I kept my eye on the news and made sure that we would be prepared for whatever might come. Having purchased propane for the camp stove and batteries and drinking water in preparation for Hurricane Irene, I felt well prepared.

My canoe-building class was held as usual on Saturday morning and DW and I agreed that I'd clean the garage in the afternoon while she and DS were at a birthday party so we could get a car in the garage. I got home from class and had a bite of lunch and then started in on the cleaning. I had a bunch of things I wanted to put in the basement and moved them to the backyard by the hatchway. I no sooner got ready to head down to the basement to open the hatchway when I noticed some "white" in the air. I no sooner got the last of the things into the basement when the flakes started to grow in size. It was just before 2 o'clock. The flakes were HUGE - like about 2-3" in diameter and falling fast.

I continued cleaning as the snow fell and put out birdfeeders for our feathered friends. With the early snow, I figured food would be hard for them to find. The snow continued to fall like white lead. By about 4:30 in the afternoon we had several inches of heavy, wet snow that were bending branches severely. We had been invited to a Halloween party by friends that was supposed to start at 4:00, but we figured it probably wasn't happening. DW and DS arrived not much later and we started making dinner. We ate and had cleaned up most of the dishes when the power went out. Electric camping lanterns were pulled out and everyone went to bed a bit early. Throughout the night we could hear the sounds of breaking branches.

We awoke to this:

Probably about 10 inches of snow. We later found out that some areas had as much as 32 inches of snow from this storm. Fortunately, the street appeared to have been plowed. The more immediate issue was that the temperature in the house was dropping as we have oil heat which depends on electricity. It was about 62 degrees Fahrenheit, but it wasn't that bad with the sun streaming through the windows.

I cleared the driveway and loaded up my car with the chainsaw and supplies. My father, who lives across town, was likely to need some help with downed limbs and trees. I hadn't even gotten to the main road when I had to pull the chainsaw out of the trunk to clear the road of downed trees with the help of neighbors.

On the drive over, there were branches and trees everywhere and the occasional downed wires along the side of the road. To say it looked like a war zone would not be an understatement. (Even four days later, there are still places where roads have only a single lane that is passable.) There were several cars that had been crushed by fallen limbs or trees and some houses that were obviously damaged by more of the same. On my way, I noticed that our local hardware store was open and I stopped in for a bit of 2-cycle oil. They were doing a cash-only business using flashlights to find the stock in the store. I must say, they were doing a serious community service.

Arriving at my father's house, my expectations were proven right. I spent several hours clearing downed branches and trees for my father and another neighbor until I ran out of fuel for the saw. I could have spent more time, but most of the trees that were left will be fodder for professional arborists in the future. When dealing with chainsaws and fallen trees it's good to know your limitations.

On the way home, I saw this guy:

We skipped over Thanksgiving and melded Halloween and Christmas together. This seemed to be a local theme. I later saw another snowman with a Jack O'Lantern head that was playing a banjo at the side of the road. DW pointed out a "snow-witch", too.

At home, we tried to keep a sense of normalcy going. Halloween cut-outs that we'd made to go into the windows were put in place:

We also worked on our Jack O'Lanterns. DD and DS drew up their own designs. I cut out DS's pumpkin - I think I'm getting good at carrying out the design intent - as well as my own. DD surprised me this year by not only scooping out the pumpkin seeds, but cut the face on her pumpkin as well. Results were quite good - don't you think?

We made a quick dinner and cleaned up before the light faded. The family curled up under blankets with electric lanterns nearby to read some good books for a few hours before bed-time. DS continued to complain that we didn't have electricity. Mostly, he was complaining because he'd gotten a game for the Wii at the library, but couldn't use it! We headed for bed around 8:00 and doubled up the blankets on the bed as the outdoor temperature was supposed to drop into the 20's.

Monday - Halloween - the temperature in the house was about 50 degrees. Bit nippy and still no power. I made a pot of corn chowder for lunch and to share with neighbors who didn't have a way to cook. As the only resource we had for information was a battery-powered radio, we hadn't heard much in the way of news about what was going on in our own town. I went over to check on my father and he wasn't in. While I shoveled some bits of ice off his driveway he drove in. He'd been out to a local supermarket - which had power and was open! Cool! At lunch-time, DW and I decided to go get a few things we were running low on at the supermarket. It would also be a change of pace for the kids and let them see the damage.

Back home, we put the Jack O'Lanterns out and had an early dinner to try to beat the darkness again. The kids were dying to go trick-or-treating, so we lit the candles in the pumpkins to let people know we were home - and I headed out with the kids. It was cold and very dark. While we knew that some of our neighbors had left to try to find places where there was heat and power, we had failed to realize that probably 2/3 or the neighborhood had gone away. At the third house, where we found people, they shared the news that the city had postponed Halloween festivities until the Saturday the 5th of November for safety reasons. Good call - wish we'd heard the news sooner.

The kids are now looking forward to being able to trick-or-treat with their friends in the neighborhood on Saturday - and I'm looking forward to having truly scary pumpkins by then! Hopefully by then, everyone will have the electricity to enjoy Halloween in warmth and comfort!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-02T06:00:00.000-04:00

Baby Steps

2011-10-28T21:33:00.000-04:00

I'm making progress on my prototype skin-on-frame canoe. The canoe in question is 1/2 scale. Why 1/2 scale? Well, marine plywood isn't cheap and this model is as much to establish building methods as the feasibility of the design itself. When I start a design, I usually take the offsets or whatever design I'm working on at the time and create a CAD model. I'm fortunate that I have a copy of the CAD software that I use at work on a machine at home. (The user license allows for this...) Once my design has been created and checked visually on the computer for smooth curves and regular transitions, I usually create a Adobe Acrobat file of the drawing. These files can be taken to your local print shop on a thumb drive - in my case, a local office supplies store - and printed in full scale on their large format printers. It's not that expensive, really. The other thing is that if you're getting multiple patterns from the same drawing, you may want extra copies - they can do that with either by printing more copies or large scale photocopies.

Once the prints have been made, I usually turn them into templates by bonding them to cardboard sheets (NOT corrugated cardboard...) with some spray adhesive. In this case, I had a choice. I could have adhered them directly to the plywood that I'd be cutting out, but opted not to in case I wanted to make changes or notes on the templates.

As you may note from my templates, I've only positively identified the location of the keel and sheer stringers on the canoe and will by seeing where the best location is for additional stringers around the turn of the bilge and on the bottom of the hull frame. Mostly I'm concerned about how the stringers will bend and twist into place at this point. Also missing are the concave cuts between stringer notches in the sections to provide clearance for the covering fabric once water pressure is exerted on the covering.

Tonight I managed to get the plywood sections cut out and ready to put on the strongback. Earlier today, I made a trip to my conveniently located lumberyard and picked up a 2x4 for the strongback and a few pieces of poplar to be stringers, mounting blocks and floor-boards. On the real boat, this will probably be pine or cedar for rot resistance, but for now, that's not an issue on the model After I got the lumber strapped to the car's roof rack, one wag at work commented on how fast and straight the trees grew on my car roof.

More to come...

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

The World's Most Expensive Canoe

2011-10-22T21:45:00.001-04:00

While you probably don't believe me, the canoe below is probably one of the most expensive canoes that I've ever seen:

Until this morning, I hadn't thought about it much. One of my students commented on the thought and I started putting two and two together. (and two more and two more....) It's sort of like the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff. (If you haven't read it, you should - even if you're not 6 years old.) It started out innocently enough - and built upon itself.

Let me tell you a story.

About 2-1/2 years ago, a woman came to the first night of exhibition at the school where I teach. At this exhibition, the students display the work they've been doing in their various classes, including our canoes. This woman saw the canoes and returned with her husband the next day for the second part of the exhibition. She insisted that she and her husband wanted to sign up for up-coming session of the class that would start in the Fall and that they wanted to build a tandem canoe. When I informed her that we did solo double-paddle canoes, she still insisted that it should be a tandem.

As I'd had others interested in building two-seat canoes, I spent time over the summer choosing what I felt would be the best, most versatile design - and one that we could actually get into the shop. The canoe chosen was the Prospector Ranger 15 from the Bear Mountain Boat Shop. After some real thinking about it, I figured out how to lighten both forms and strongback as well as lowering the forms so we could get it into the shop every week.

True to their word, this couple came to sign up for the class - the die was cast!

In the first session, they brought in stock to build the strongback and station molds, along with the Western Red Cedar that would become the strips for the hull. They then proceeded to select one of the more expensive woods we use for accent strips - Peruvian Walnut for use in the feature strip and for all the major trim work but the decks. The decks? Oh, they're just from a piece of Mesquite - custom cut on a friends bandsaw mill, no less. In addition to the materials they've purchased, they've also purchased hand tools necessary to build the canoe including saws, plane, chisels and the like.

We'll fast forward a little bit here... After having two students sign up for a total of 4 semesters (that's tuition for 8 class semesters total at at this point...) we are in the middle of the 4th semester. Glassing of the the hull's interior is nearing completion and seats are being built. At this point, the couple realizes that they need a vehicle that will be able to carry this canoe as they don't feel the small cars they have are appropriate - and one needs replacement anyway. So, they get a new car to carry the canoe. Then something happens to the car - there was an accident under some concerning circumstances. (perhaps the car, not the driver...) They decide they are uncomfortable with this vehicle and get a different, new, vehicle for the canoe. Oh - and the racks to go on the vehicle.

At the end of the semester, a serious blow has been dealt to their plans. The couple live in a condominium that is several flights of stairs up from ground level and don't have a garage. The canoe was going to live in a garage belonging to friends to keep the friends' existing canoe 'company'. However, the friends have purchased two plastic kayaks and now there is no space in the garage for the Prospector. Brains are wracked for solutions, but none come to light.

Until August.

We had a nice summer picnic at the camp belonging to one of the other students to work on the caning of the canoe seats. It is a lovely place on a pond not far from here. The couple building the Prospector had a wonderful day at the camp and was enamored of the idea of a rustic little place on a lake somewhere.

Fast forward to this Fall.

The couple returns to sign up for their last semester of boat-building. We hear the excited news that the couple has purchased a log cabin on a piece of water a bit further away so that the canoe will have a home.

So, to tally:

Materials to build the canoe - Check.

Hand tools for building the canoe - Check.

10 semesters worth of tuition - Check.

Two - count 'em - two new cars to transport canoe - Check.

Log cabin at the lake to store and use the canoe - Check.

While I don't know the actual dollar total, all I can say is that at this point it is a substantial sum of money that has been expended here. I hope they love to paddle!

This morning, the subject of their planned launch party - to take place this June at the log cabin at the lake - came up. Perhaps the last expense of their canoe-building odyssey. I half-jokingly said that if they served no beverage other than champagne at the party (Dom Perignon at that...) that the party wouldn't be the most expensive part of the whole building process!

Well, we'll see...

2011-10-21T22:03:00.001-04:00

I always tend to describe myself as being like a 40 watt bulb - I'm not necessarily the brightest, but I won't burn out prematurely like one of those fancy extra-bright halogen ones... So, being the Bear of Little Brain, I have been in my Thotful Spot again.

While I love teaching my cedar-strip canoe building class, there are some concerns. Chief among them is the cost and duration of the class - it is about $600-700 for materials and takes at least four, 14 week class sessions (time and $$$ both being a factor here...) for most students to complete a boat. This makes the class too expensive, and quite a commitment in terms of time. Also, it requires a bit of woodworking experience up-front or more build time to learn those woodworking skills. It's not that they are particularly difficult to learn, it's just that the skills need to be acquired - and that takes more time.

I'm looking to do something different.

I have several goals. I want to be building boats that will be...

small and lightweight
inexpensive
quick to build
less demanding of builder's skills

To that end, I've been working on some Thomas Yost style skin-on-frame kayaks to gain more experience with this sort of building style. Another person who has taken this idea and run with it is Dave Gentry. He's got a variety of nicely done skin-on-frame canoes and kayaks and has done both reproductions of classic craft as well as some of his own designs. I could definitely see doing some of his designs in a class like this.

After building the Yost-style kayaks, I've learned some things that I don't like about Yost's building method. It's difficult to get the patterns square and perpendicular. I did, however come up with a solution to this issue and would be comfortable to be building a boat like this in class. Still, I'm a canoe guy - I like kayaks, but prefer to paddle canoes. So, I've been working to develop a design of my own.

The image below shows the germ of the idea. It is still missing some critical features, but the majority of it is there. These are plywood stations for a non-traditional solo skin-on-frame canoe.

They can easily be copied by a relatively inexperienced woodworker from master patterns using a router and a pattern bit. It's a 13' long asymmetrical solo double-paddle canoe. It's about 28" wide, has slight rocker, a little tumble-home to the sides and a shallow arch for a bottom. The thing that I feel makes my design a bit different is that I'm using the stations themselves as the fixturing to assure that they are square and perpendicular to the main axis of the canoe. After the stringers have been installed, the 'frame' part of the stations will be cut free from the 'fixturing' part of the stations to release the boat for finishing and skinning. I'm even toying with the idea of integrating grab handles into the last two stations for carrying the boat (by two people...). I'm concerned that even with the light weight of the canoe, a bit more or wider material would be desirable for comfort.

I have some more design work to validate the shape's stability and am working on a 1/2 scale model to figure out the construction details. I think this is going to be interesting!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

Safety First!

2011-10-15T22:26:00.001-04:00

Last year the school where I teach replaced an older Delta contractor's model saw with the nice table saw shown above. It is a SawStop brand table saw. Before we go any further with this post, I wish to mention that I have no financial interest with anything to do with this product. We chose the SawStop saw for several reasons. First, it was a high-quality product and was we felt it was a good value. Second, it's price was very competitive with similar saws in it's class for size and power. Third, it has the SawStop's patented safety feature.

What is this special feature?

It has a safety device built inside that detects conductivity through the blade. If something conductive - metal, wet wood, or the operator - is detected, the SawStop's safety device engages. If you do actually wish to use the saw to cut something conductive, you can determine if what you are going to cut is conductive (before making the cut) and you can dis-able the safety feature if you so desire to make the cut. (With a key - using instructions provided in the manual.) When the safety device engages, a perforated aluminum shoe which is part of an expendable cartridge is pushed up into the bottom of the spinning blade by a spring, stopping the blade's rotation and causing the arbor assembly to drop the blade below the surface of the table. This takes place in literally thousandths of a second. Check out the time lapse video below:

We've had the saw for over a year now and it has been used without incident by students with a wide variety of experience. Until last Wednesday.

I received a call at about 8:30 in the evening on Wednesday from a fellow instructor to let me know that there had been an incident in his class and that the SawStop safety feature engaged. A student was making a cross-cut on the saw using the miter gage. We're not entirely certain of what happened, but we suspect that the piece of stock that she was cutting was a bit short and not well supported by the miter gage - it should have been backed up with a longer piece of sacrificial stock screwed to the miter gage. At any rate, we believe that the stock pivoted around the corner of the miter gage causing the piece to jam and kick back, taking the piece the student was cutting and her hand into the rotating blade.

A loud "BANG!" was heard by the class (...and likely everyone else in the building!) and the stunned student was standing at the saw trying to figure out what had just happened. The piece the student was cutting was damaged and a small nick was in one fingernail - no blood was drawn. The saw had performed as advertised and likely saved this student a serious injury. The student was shaken, but unhurt and (wisely) chose to head home for the rest of the evening. The cartridge and blade were changed on the saw and after some refresher information about safety in the shop from the instructor, the class continued.

We are all very pleased and relieved that this student was saved from what could have been a debilitating and life-altering injury. Plain and simple.

There is apparently legislation being introduced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to require a device which functions similarly to the SawStop on all table saws. I think the time has come.

There has been quite a bit of discussion by both amateurs and professionals of late about these saws that was spurred by a lawsuit that was filed against Ryobi (I'm not picking on Ryobi - I'm sure there are other lawsuits against other manufacturers, but this one has been quite prominent in the news.) People who are complaining about the judgement and the FTC requirement say that they are concerned that these safety devices will make people complacent about proper, safe use of these saws. I've not found that to be the case, personally - when the blade spins up, it's still a 'gut-check' for me. Students that I've watched working with these saws still treat them with the respect that they deserve.

I strongly urge you to go look at this previous post. Everything in this post bears repeating and there are probably things that should be added, too. There is an image in the post which is a bit difficult to look at, but I think it is a good reminder of why you need to be safe in your shop and why these safety features on table saws are important.

Riding the "T"

2011-10-12T19:57:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is another run into Boston on some personal business. Seems I have been in the Boston area quite a bit of late - for work as well as personal stuff. DW has been down that way more often than I have of late, but I think she can sympathize with my sentiments here. When we go into Boston, we try to avoid driving in to town. Why? Boston traffic is, uh (I'm being kind here...) difficult. Particularly at rush hours. Also, Boston parking is either scarce, inconvenient or expensive.

When heading into Boston of late, we prefer to take the MBTA, or the "T". It's much easier to park in their long-term lots and grab a subway train into town so you don't have to worry about getting lost, stuck in traffic or not finding adequate parking. We've been there often enough that we got Charlie Cards:

The Charlie Card is a convenient way to ride the 'T' as we can load up a bunch of fare money on the card and not have to worry about trashing a paper ticket. The other thing is that you pay an extra surcharge to get a paper ticket! It's actually $0.30 cheaper per ride with the Charlie Card than the paer ticket. The story behind Charlie and the naming of the Charlie card is a long one - too long to relate here, but I'll give you this link to the back-story over at BostonTeen.

Along with this goes the fabulous version of the song performed by the Kingston Trio:

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-12T06:00:00.001-04:00

A return to the Swedish Behemoth.

2011-10-10T21:41:00.001-04:00

DW was recently listening to NPR and discovered, much to her horror, that IKEA was going to be revising their iconic Billy shelving system. The were planning to increase the depth of the shelves by two, count them, two, inches. The cause of this reaction was the fact that we had been planning to remake the kid's playroom into a study when they'd outgrown the playroom. We just hadn't planned on doing it quite this soon - maybe later next year or the year after...

This was not to be.

We had a carefully laid plan for the room after a previous trip to the Behemoth. We started by turning a corner of the playroom into DD's study area. Her bedroom is really too small to add a desk, so we put a desk, chair, rolling file cabinet and a wall shelf in the playroom. It's quite a nice workspace, really. I tricked it out with some LED lights attached to the bottom of the shelf, a nice leather desk pad and matching trash can and a molded insert for the upper drawer of the filing cabinet for things like pencils, pens and the like. I'm actually a bit jealous, as DW and DD both have a good dedicated workspace, and I'm usually left with the dining room or kitchen table.

At any rate, we'd planned to add a set of Billy shelves for books and things as well as some comfortable chairs for reading. That was the plan at any rate. There was some concern that the additional depth would take up more room than we'd like in the future study. We decided that we wanted the 'now' version of the shelves.

I figured that I would kill two birds with one stone - I would get the book shelves and some items for DW's Christmas present at the same time. (No, I'm not telling what it is!) I created a list and carefully monitored the stock at the IKEA store that we normally visit with the idea of picking it up on a Friday evening after work.

On the appointed day, with the stock levels looking good, I left work a little early and hopped in the car to head down to IKEA.

Thank heavens for good instructions...

After a less than ideal commute down to the IKEA store - nearly a 2-1/4 hour ride through some nasty rush-hour traffic, I arrived at the store and headed in with my list. I knew exactly what I wanted, so I started with the small items in the "market" and worked my way into the warehouse to pick up the shelves, some doors and some glass shelves. By the time I had loaded the cart, I figure I must have had 500 pounds or more on the cart - and it was unwieldy to say the least. As I approached the check out, maneuvering carefully, to see that there were only two registers open that weren't self check-out. As I approached the register, the cashier switched off her light, but told me that I'd be her last customer. (WHEW!) I thanked her when I finally got to the register and she put on a flawless Swedish accent and said something to the effect of, "We strive to provide the best customer service!"

After checking out, I went into the parking lot to load the purchases into DW's RAV4 which I had brought specifically for the trip. I had folded down the rear seat before going into the store and slid in the smaller boxes without any problem. I then tried to load in the taller bookshelves. First of all they were very, very heavy - I just managed to get them out of the rack and onto the cart myself.

They didn't fit. I took the passenger front seat and slid it all the way forward and managed to just barely fit the package with the tall shelves in. Then came the doors - I knew they were longer boxes and couldn't see how I was going to fit them in. Ultimately, I was able to slide them in between the front seats on edge. I barely had enough room.

At this point, I hadn't had any dinner and it was approaching 7:30 PM. Being that IKEA has a decent and inexpensive cafe, I went in to get some dinner:

Yes, that is what I had for dinner. The food is one of the few things that doesn't seem to come with instructions.

As I returned to the car for the ride home, I hopped in and turned the key. The passenger seat was pressed forward in such a way that the sensor thought that the seat was occupied and proceeded to chime at me that the seatbelt wasn't latched for the passenger. It did this twice and finally gave up. However, on the trip home, every time I slowed down for traffic or a stop, these heavy boxes would shift forward again, setting off the seat sensor again. Only after I got home did it dawn on me that it might have been possible to pull the seatbelt across and put it in the latch to let the car think that the seatbelt was engaged for the passenger, but with all the stuff in the way, I doubt that I could have done it easily.

That weekend, I decided that I'd better put them together to see that I had all the parts and that I didn't need to return anything to the store. I proceeded to assemble it all in an afternoon.

DW helped me bring it all into the playroom/study and I got it mounted to the walls and wired up. After all the hassle, I think it looks nice:

Approaching Completion

2011-10-09T21:43:00.000-04:00

We're having a last semester of strip construction before we move on to something else. The 'something else' will be a new build method that will be quicker and less expensive for students. More about that later, 'tho. The decked canoe above is a hybrid - unusual for the class - with a cedar strip hull and a marine ply deck. We're wrapping up the trim on this boat with a coaming, rub rails and some bow and stern details.

We also glassed the inside of the canoe above. Truly a good glassing job. Trim is the only thing left.

The student who started on the Wavy Gravy finished stripping last weekend so we were able to pull all the fasteners and start fairing the hull - but not before we got the plane irons razor sharp. The fairing goes pretty quickly and is a pleasant process, really. The better you can do fairing, the nicer the hull turns out and the less longboarding time will be required later. I'm told there are people who love sanding, but...

The cane below is so close to being ready, I'm surprised the builder can't taste it! Fortunately she wasn't in class this week. I say 'fortunately' because she was in New York with her son and daughter-in-law welcoming a new grandchild! Congratulations!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T20:19:00.003-04:00

Better late than never...

2011-09-29T22:47:00.000-04:00

AP photo by Rick Bowmer

The Corps of Discovery (AKA the Lewis and Clark Expedition...) Overwintered in a fort they built near the mouth of the Columbia River from December of 1805 though March of 1806. The fort was named Fort Clatsop after the local Clatsop Tribe of the Chinook Nation. During the winter, the explorers traded with the local native Americans for supplies and information that helped keep them alive. In the spring when they were ready to leave, however, the Corps of Discovery did their hosts a great wrong.

As they prepared to leave, they discovered that they were short one canoe needed to head home - so they stole one from a local tribe. This was a significant ethical departure for the expedition, because they had agreed not to steal from the native American peoples. This was also a significant insult to their hosts as the canoes were considered a sacred part of their culture as well as being a valuable mode of transportation.

Now, over 200 years later, the decendants of William Clark have decided to set things right. They commissioned the building of a 36 foot replica canoe named "Klmin" which translates as "moon".

Seventh generations later, decendants of Clark including Lotsie Clark Holton and others travelled to Oregon to give the canoe to the Chinook People. It was celebrated with a 5 hour ceremony that included the exchange of gifts, blessing of the canoe and its launching.

AP Photo

Ray Gardner, chairman of the Chinook Nation's tribal council, says the gesture is a “good place to begin healing.”

AP Photo

OK, a little late, but a fantastic gesture!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

Covers.

2011-09-22T06:00:00.001-04:00

This is one of those posts that I figure a lot of people will identify with. As the weather is getting colder, We've started to think a little more about the bedding at home. My DW and I share a queen-sized bed and we have a fitted sheet on the mattress and a down comforter in a cover on top of it. In the summer time, we usually forgo the comforter and just use the cover. To say that DW and I have different thermostats is an understatement. In the summer time, she seems to shed heat while in the winter, her fingers and toes can be, well, downright icy. While I'm sure that she'd disagree, I tend to be too hot in the summer and comfortably warm in the winter. She likes to take advantage of the fact that I'm warm by heating her freezing toes on the backs of my calves.

While I am often accused of hogging the comforter, this seems to go both ways. Sometimes I am responsible and sometimes she is. I think it all boils down to who is tossing and turning more. It really shouldn't matter as we use a king-size comforter on a queen-sized bed, so there should be plenty of the comforter for both of us to share.

I have considered trying this:

...but figure that I'd wind up like this:

Then again, this post could get me the extended stay at the Fido Hotel...

One bad habit that DW and I both share is reading or working on a computer/iPad/iPod in bed. In the winter the thermostat is set to a lower temperature fairly early in the evening, so we tend to retreat to the bed to stay warmer in the evening. Still, we haven't resorted to this (yet) :

Sweet dreams!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-21T20:45:00.000-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-14T06:00:00.002-04:00

Lest We Forget

2011-09-11T06:00:00.001-04:00

Those who are lost.

Those who serve.

Who we are as a people.

That there should be peace.

If at first you don't succeed...

2011-09-08T20:51:00.001-04:00

I'm trying to decide if the appropriate term to use here is "determined", "stubborn" or just plain crazy. As you may recall if you are a regular reader here, we've been working on some skin-on-frame kayaks. They're based on a Tom Yost design, but we've altered some of the design to suit our needs. One of the things I don't care for about Tom's boats is the use of stacked plywood laminations to create cockpit rims. The solution that I came up with was a laminated hardwood rim and hatch cover arrangement. Oh yeah, and I also wanted them to have a little swallow-tail detail like on a Shaker box lid. (As and engineer, I can attest to the fact that "anal-retentive" IS spelled with a hyphen...)

The learning curve started last fall and was steep. First, I used plywood forms which were much too narrow to support the wide (1-1/4") strips that I was laminating - they warped across the width of the strip. Second, I used strips that were too thin - about 1/8". They required many layers and didn't laminate nicely. Third, I learned that I couldn't just soak the strips of cherry and mahogany that I was bending in hot water and expect them to take the curve - I had to steam them. (Major Detour - time to create a steam generator and steam box set-up...) Fourth - clamp the pieces you are laminating OFF the forms you used after steaming if dimensions are not critical - you will get fewer gaps between the strips. As I've noted - a lot to learn here. While it seems crazy to go to this much work, it isn't we were always trying new methods.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- Albert Einstein

The first few laminations that I made for the cockpit and hatch cover were OK. I probably could have filled the gaps that were in a few spots with dookie shmutz and moved on. However, I am a bit of a perfectionist. (If you can't tell from the scrap pile at the top.

So, last weekend, I did another steaming session with some new cherry. I'm pretty pleased with the results. Below is the cockpit rim - three layers of 1/4" thick by 1-1/4" wide cherry. There are three pieces in the rim and they're scarfed together at the ends of the strips. I'm pretty pleased with the results. When the glue sets (probably by tomorrow night) I will clean them up, steam and form the narrower rim strips to hold a spray skirt in place. Once this cools and dries, I'll glue it up, clean and varnish. (Note the LAREpile of clamps on the floor - this had a clamp every 3-4" around the rim keeping it in place as it set!)

While you can't see the nice wood (it's covered with tape) - the inner rim for the hatch cover came out rather nicely. The tape is holding a thick piece of scrap that is bent around to act as a spacer so that when I bend the hatch cover's outer rim, it will be spaced so that it will fit over the inner rim without interference. The thicker laminations really show a good result on this part - it is nowhere near as wavy as my first pieces were and it, like the cockpit rim, are a good deal stronger than my previous attempts.

I'm certainly hoping that my patience and what I've learned here have paid off. From what I'm seeing, I think it has.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-07T06:00:00.001-04:00

Tech Tip Tuesday

2011-09-06T21:00:00.000-04:00

Today's Tech Tip Tuesday is about sharpening your own skills by helping others. You never know what you might learn...

I always try to do my best to help out other boat builders. Sometimes they're students in my class, sometimes they're people building their own boat who have a question. It truly varies. As a teacher, one of the things that I've learned is that students all come from a different backgrounds with different experiences. As such, they all seem to look at the building process and questions that they encounter from different points of view. As I've mentioned before, I often think that I learn more from my students than some of the woodworking instructors that I've had.

I got a call from a man who lives nearby and is building a Chesapeake Light Craft hybrid kayak kit - a Shearwater 16, I believe. He'd done a great job on the tack-and-tape hull and was just getting ready to start stripping the deck. Having never done any strip construction before, he had some questions about the process. While CLC makes some decent manuals and offers a good technical support line, sometimes there isn't a substitute for a bit of face-to-face discussion over the parts and tools. At any rate, I offered to meet him at his shop - a space in a local mill building to see if there was any support that I could offer.

At any rate, we went over some of the questions that he had and deciphered the intentions that the folks at CLC had when they wrote the manual. It was a very pleasant visit and as usual, I heard new questions and the same questions expressed different ways. It gives me a bit of practice and be better prepared for understanding a question that a student might pose to me.

Go out and sharpen your own skills and do a good deed all at the same time!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-31T21:58:00.002-04:00

Good Night Irene.

2011-08-29T21:33:00.000-04:00

Irene has come and gone. I've got some mixed feelings on the visit. On one hand, I'm glad that we got some rain - we've been needing some for a while and, frankly, we needed some to paddle on. There has been a watering restriction in place for about two months. On the other hand, we've seen some spectacular scenes of destruction in nearby areas and more significantly in Southern Vermont. While wind was a minor component, the amount of rain beggars the imagination.

We probably received about 6" of rain here in about 12-14 hours while areas in Vermont received as much as 15" of rain this past weekend. One nearby reservoir added 87 feet - yes feet - of water. According to a local news report, they were filling the reservoir at a rate of 29,000 cubic feet per second!

A local stream had an all-time high for both gage height and flow, beating the previous height by about a foot and flow by several hundred cubic feet per second. That is only truly impressive when you realize that the previous flow rate for the stream in the days before the storm were about 28-50 cubic feet per second and the peak flow was almost 7,000 cubic feet per second. In some places, larger rivers will probably continue to rise for days.

There are roads and bridges out in the vicinity and will probably be for some time making travel difficult. Wilmington, Vermont was cut off from support due to flooding and washed out roads and bridges.

Power remains out in some places as is phone and internet service.

We were fairly fortunate here. Not to make light of the situation, but this is the damage we had:

A wayward grill cover - returned to the neighbor three doors down.

One dislodged birdhouse. Returned to the upright position.

One damaged tree and a few sticks. Sadly, the tree was a total loss.

We consider ourselves very lucky. We were inconvenienced and our plans for the next few days have some minor changes. However, we're all in one piece and we truly suffered no significant damages. After last week's earthquake, I guess I shouldn't have tempted fate by asking, "What's next?"

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-24T06:00:00.001-04:00

Wait a minute...

2011-08-23T21:20:00.004-04:00

Sitting at work today at my computer, my peaceful afternoon was disrupted when the room started to shake. At first I chalked it up to heavy equipment moving around at the business next door. Then it continued... and continued... and continued... The USB cable attached to the side of one of my monitors was swinging back and forth quite a bit. After about 20 seconds or so, the motion subsided. Was that an earthquake? Hmmm... Then my cell phone rang. DW was on the phone - "Did you feel that?"

I later found out that it was an earthquake in Virginia that registered 5.8 on the Richter Scale. As an engineer, that is truly an impressive amount of energy that must have been released for us to feel it here and people as far north as Toronto to also feel it!

MINERAL, Va. (AP) — For a few minutes from Georgia to Maine, the question rang out: What was that? The answer — a rare East Coast earthquake, magnitude 5.8 — was far down on the list for most not used to the earth shaking beneath them.

In Washington and New York, their nerves still raw, thoughts instantly turned to terrorism. In small towns and rural areas near the epicenter and elsewhere, guesses ran the gamut: A truck crash or train derailment. A plane breaking the sound barrier. Worse, a nuclear reactor exploding.

There ended up being no known deaths or serious injuries from Tuesday's quake, but cracks appeared in the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral, which had three capstones break off its tower. Windows shattered and grocery stores were wrecked in Virginia, where the quake was centered. The White House and Capitol were evacuated.

A day later, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the quake serves as a reminder for residents to be prepared.

"We talk about hurricanes this time of year, but we forget that A: earthquakes don't have a season and B: they are not just a western hazard," FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America.

Paddling upstream

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Happy Birthday L.L. Bean!

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The New Challenge.

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Monday again?

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Preparation, Preparation, Preparation.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Approaches...

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Talk about planning ahead...

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Monday Again?

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Two-Fer Tuesday

One.Last.Sheet.

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This one goes out to...

Progress from the Thotful Spot

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On my Soap-Box : The Holidaze

It has finally come true.I was in CVS this evening. There were witches, scarecrows, pumpkins, turkeys, and Santa Claus.Merry Thanksgivoween. :::rolls eyes:::*wretch!*

Election Day

It is a Disgrace

A bit more progress...

Happy Halloween

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Baby Steps

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The World's Most Expensive Canoe

Well, we'll see...

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Safety First!

Riding the "T"

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A return to the Swedish Behemoth.

Approaching Completion

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Better late than never...

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Covers.

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Lest We Forget

If at first you don't succeed...

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Tech Tip Tuesday

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Good Night Irene.

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Wait a minute...

It has finally come true.

I was in CVS this evening. There were witches, scarecrows, pumpkins, turkeys, and Santa Claus.

Merry Thanksgivoween.

:::rolls eyes:::

wretch!