Tech Tip Tuesday

In the better interests of time and the sanity of both students' and the instructor's fragile faculties, I decided to forgo the sewing of the skins that was used to build the kayaks last year was not the best option for skinning the hulls in this class.

So, you ask - how are we doing this?

Staples. 

The sewing class that was going on upstairs was interested to see how we were sewing the skins on the kayak and were somewhat bewildered and disappointed to find us stapling the fabric to the hull.  This isn't that odd, really.  When canvasing a canoe, folks use either canoe tacks or staples to fasten the canvas to the hull.  We're doing pretty much the same.

Note that we're not using just any staples - we're using stainless steel staples 3/8" long.  The fabric for the skinning is 8oz polyester from Dyson Baidarka & Company in Bellingham, Washington.  I like the way this fabric works, frankly.

The procedure is pretty straightforward.  With the boat upside down (or right-side-up if you're doing a deck...) we draped the hull with fabric and get it centered and aligned before we tack it in place at the sheer with thumb tacks.  We then take the staple gun and start to make a closely spaced row of staples through the fabric about 1/8" away from the top edge of the sheer in the middle of the hull about a foot long, pulling towards bow and stern to keep fabric taut.  We then pull the fabric taut around the boat and staple at 1/8" away from the sheer at the other side.  By closely spaced, I'm talking about an inch apart - sometimes less.

When we get near the ends, we cut down the middle of the fabric from the end of the fabric toward the stem, aligned with the keel.  I then seal the cut ends with a small butane torch - a very quick pass is all that is required.  We'll give you an object lesson why later...  The fabric is then pulled around the stem, stapling from the keel towards the sheer.  Excess fabric is cut away at the far edge of the stem and sealed.  The process is repeated with the other side of the fabric at the stem and then repeated at the other end of the boat. 

When the sheer and the stems have been trimmed and sealed with the torch to prevent fraying, we put a little bit of thickened epoxy over the stems to help seal them and to smooth out any bumps and edges.  When done, the boat looks like this:

 

Stems look like this:

 

Because this boat is a kayak, we'll put the deck skin on at the next class.  We'll then steam-iron out any wrinkles in the fabric before draining the water and setting the sole temperature to 450°F (with a digital meat thermometer) to shrink it a bit.  At this point, the skinning would be done for a canoe and the boat ready for paint.  In this case, it is a kayak and will get a deck skin, too.

Oh - I mentioned that I'd talk about why a quick pass with the torch is all you need.  The torch is VERY hot and I usually just sort of wave it past the cut edge of the fabric to keep it from fraying.  The student was doing this and may have had a momentary distraction or bit of inattention.  He got a surprise:

The surprise was a pretty large hole over the sheer clamp.  As you can see, we added a few staples at the sheer and the edge of the hole and put a bit of the thickened epoxy on it.  Fortunately it is in an area that will be covered by a rub rail, so it won't be seen and is high enough so that water will not be an issue.  WHEW!

More on the deck skinning in a bit.

 

Full House...

This is what I like to see...  Lots of work going on.

Makes you smile a bit, no?

 

Slow, but steady progress.

Preparation is half of boat building.   The students in my class have been working diligently preparing materials to assemble into skin-on-frame boats.  We started with a half sheet of marine grade plywood and some western red cedar and pine lumber. Using a set of master patterns  (the light colored parts on the table), they traced the outlines of the shapes onto the ply.

 

Then,  they rough cut the outlines using jigsaws and bandsaws and cut the notches for the stringers.  

 

Once the outlines were rough cut, we used carpet tape to bond the master patterns to the rough cut frame.  We then used a pattern bit in the router table to make the pieces that the students were making exactly the same as the patterns.

 

After the frames have been cut, a finish fit is made for the stringers with a fine rasp.

 

Once the notches have been fitted, a test piece should fit smoothly into the notches.

The stringers were cut on the table saw.  We used full length pieces, but shorter pieces could have been scarfed together to make stringers of the appropriate length.  Once the stringers were cut, we used a router to round over the corners where appropriate.  This is for two reasons - to put a better finish on the stringers (finish thins out on sharp corners) and to put a rounded edge to protect the fabric that will be stretched over the frame.

 

 

Finally, we've assembled the strongbacks to build the boats on.  (Note the sawhorses from the previous posts.)  We've built a few new strongbacks, will try to re-use some old ones and 2x4's that are recommended for this build method.

Frames go together quickly once the material is prepped.  I expect to be able to show some mostly finished frames after next week's class.

Wordless Wednesday

Tech Tip Tuesday

 
To quote Steven Stills, "Well there's things I am and there are things I'm not..."  I don't think of myself as generally being good with a needle and thread.  Boat tailor?   I guess that's now a "thing that I am".  Let me just say, there is a lot of needle and thread work in the boat on the right.

First, I have to say, the process of skinning the kayak was not difficult once we had things all figured out.  It is time consuming and what information that I found was somewhat poorly illustrated or explained.  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it's something that you really need to see.

 In our case, the process started out with the frame.  For finish on the frame, we opted for a polyurethane finish as opposed to an oiled finish as some people choose to do.  We then applied wax to the frame (I refer you to my previous bout with Murphy...) and polished it.  The reason for waxing the frame is so the fabric not to stick to the frame when coated after skinning.  At any rate, we started with the frame upside down:

We then used a piece of 8 oz Dacron cloth to cover the boat.  The Dacron was selected over Nylon  because it will shrink a bit when heated which lets you get wrinkles out at the end of the process - more about that later. We simply folded it in half length-wise and laid it over the hull to center it.  We then used some thumbtacks to keep things in position.   We then pulled down a bit and tacked at the sheer clamp on both sides - on the bottom in the image below.   We then basted the cloth together at both the stem and stern to make a small, temporary pocket at either end while the cloth was being pulled tight from stem to stern.  (FYI : This cloth is available from George Dyson at Dyson, Baidarka & Company in Bellingham, Washington.  Mr. Dyson does most of his business by phone and is easily found with a web search.  He does have a Facebook page with contact info, but not a web site.  )

We then rolled the boat right side up.  For the next step, there are no pictures because our hands were full.   I can probably explain it better, anyway.  We took a long thin strip of wood - 1-1/4" wide and 1/8" thick and as long as the boat.  This was temporarily lashed to the top of the frame and carefully centered.  We then pulled the fabric from one half of the boat over the strip and cut the fabric along the far edge of the strip from one end of the boat to the other.  This meant that I wound up with a piece of fabric that was half the width of the boat plus 3/4 of an inch.  We then used a small butane torch to melt the edge of the fabric so that it would not fray.  We then repeated the process for the other side of the boat.  Note that whenever you cut the fabric you should always seal the edges.

At this point, I was concerned that the amount that we would not get the fabric tight enough.  I was also concerned about avoiding excessive pulls in the weave as it is a fairly loose weave.  We'd seen some pulling around the thumb tacks if we tried to stretch the fabric too hard or un-evenly from side to side.  To avoid pulling too many large holes, we opted for a method that many others have used.  They sew a piece of nylon line into the edges so they can pull on the nylon line, not the fabric.  This distributes the tension and gives a neat, finished appearance to the deck seam.

To do this, we cut two pieces of braided 1/8" nylon line that were just longer than the boat.  Using small brads, we tacked them at the very tip of the bow, centered, but about 3/8" apart.  Pulling tightly, we then tacked them  - again, centered, but 3/8" apart at the stern.  I then used hemostats (locking clamps picked up at a local "bargain store") to spread the lines at the front and rear of the cockpit opening to about 5/8" wide.  This resulted in the line spacing being "tapered" from center to ends.  The logic here is that we will fold the cloth over the top of the line so that we wind up with a deliberate gap.  As we stitch the two halves together, the cloth is pulled tight, closing the gap at the same time.

The cloth is wrapped over the line and basted with a running stitch using a straight needle.  Because we didn't want the stitches to show, we used white Dacron thread.  The stitches are about 1/4" long and very tight to the line.  This was done on both sides from the edge of the cockpit opening to the bow and from the cockpit opening to the stern.  Note the gap between the two sides here.

To stitch the deck together I opted to get waxed artificial sinew.  It's available from leather working and craft shops.  It is a synthetic thread with high strength and is available in a variety of colors.  I bought "natural" which is a yellowy-tan.

The deck stitching is accomplished with curved needles.  I think it would be either nearly impossible, or simply very difficult with straight ones.  Be sure to get needles with a large eye as the waxed sinew is challenging to thread through the needle.

Starting about 1/2" back from the bow,  I took a single length of the sinew with a needle at each end and came up from the bottom of the fabric just passing through the outside edge of the nylon line. on both sides.  This hid the start under the fabric.  You then start stitching diagonally across the gap, staying just on the outside of the nylon line (so the needle touches it!)  You repeat with the other needle and you get a crossed pattern like this:

The stitches are about 3/8" long.  You can see at the top of the picture how it pulls the fabric together.  You can also just make out the turned under edge of the cloth on both sides of the seam.  This cross stitching stops about 1/4" inside the cockpit rim (when put in place)  You pull the gap up tight as you're stitching.  The final stitches should go through the nylon line to hold things in place.  This prevents the fabric from sliding along the nylon line.  This process was repeated from the stern to the back of the hatch rim. 

Ahh...  The hatch rim and coaming.  We drilled a series of small holes - big enough to pass the needle and thread - about 1" apart all the way around both the hatch rim and the coaming 3/8" up from the bottom.  We located the rim and the coaming at the edges of the cross hatch and noted that there would be a small - maybe 4" section of center seam between the coaming and the hatch.  We stitched it so it just came 3/8" into both the hatch opening and the coaming opening, stitching through the nylon line at either end.  To re-cap here, we've got three sections of the deck seam completed so they end 3/8" inside the frames for the hatch and coaming.

We then cut the fabric at the stem and stern leaving 1/2" extra fabric.  The brads holding the nylong line and the basting stitches were removed and the edges were tucked inside the hull along the sides of the stem and stern being careful to keep a straight edge along the stem forms about 3/8" apart.  Starting where the cross-stitching ended at the tip of the deck, I cross-stitched the folded edges of the fabric together until I reached the end of the cut.  The bow is shown below:

 

The problem here is that this seam is now exposed and is a weak area that will get abuse from grounding.  This area was reinforced with a piece of the Dacron fabric with a simple hemmed edge on both sides,  yielding a 3/4" wide tape.  Starting on the deck about 3" behind the bow, this tape was whip-stitched to the fabric all around the edge.  When the bow was reached, a 4" long loop was incorporated and then the strip was stitched to about 4" past the end of the seam below.  The end result looks like this:

 

Contrast is a bit difficult, but you can just make out the seam around the edge.

Putting in the hatch and coaming rims is the hardest part of the process.  You carefully put the frame in place centering and aligning it on the boat.  It is then clamped in place with ratcheting strap (like for your roof-rack) around the hull, pulling it downwards to the frame.  You cut the nylon lines in the middle of the opening.  You then pull the fabric up along the inside edge of the rim, clamping the fabric to the rim as you go.  At this point, ti may be necessary to cut the fabric to allow you to pull it up at the edges.  To do this, cut radially from the center outwards in several places making sure not to cut closer than 1-1/2" to the rim.   It helps to work symmetrically from side to side cutting and clamping to avoid causing the rim to move.  Once you're happy with the result (minimal tension and wrinkles) you use the artificial sinew and a straight needle to sew the fabric to the rim with a running stitch through the holes.  I then cut the edge of the fabric leaving an inch or so above the basted line and sealed the edge.   The ends of the nylon line are also trimmed right where the deck seam ends. It looks like this:

 

Taking a small section of the nylon line, the extra flap of fabric is folded over the top of the line and basted in place like with the deck fabric.   It now looks like this:

Now, I go around the cockpit rim at least twice.  Stitching around the rope supported edge of the fabric as I go using a straight needle, pulling the edge up as I go.  Sometimes you need to use the needle as a lever to pull the edge up.  The final result is this:

 

Once this is completed for both the cockpit rim and the hatch rim - that is if you're installing a hatch -  it's time to shrink the fabric.  For this step a household steam iron and a meat thermometer were used.  The thermometer was to tell the temperature of the iron's sole.  The iron was filled with water and turned to a setting that yielded a sole temperature of 250°F.  Running the iron over the fabric and dispensing steam, the wrinkles were taken out of the fabric.  Once most of the wrinkles were gone (there were a few stubborn ones at the coaming edge...) the iron was re-set to a sole temperature of 350°F to shrink the fabric.  Starting with the bottom, we ran the dry iron over the fabric.  I kept hitting the fabric to listen to changes in the tension.  I didn't want to over-tighten the fabric and cause holes to open in the stitching.  I just wanted the fabric to be tight on the frame.

At this point, the fabric will be sealed with oil-based polyurethane and deck fittings installed.  It won't be long before they are ready to paddle.  

I should point out here that the skinning process was not instantaneous.  It took two people several two and three hour evenings of work to complete.  Just be patient and keep at it!

Caning Party

After our last, rather pleasant session caning on the front porch here at the Chateau D'Zaster, one of my students and her sister (another student...) kindly offered to host the next cane-weaving session at her camp on a local pond.  This is actually the same pond where we've celebrated the 4th of July with some other friends who also have a camp there.  As you can see for the panorama above, the location is fabulous and it turned out to be a wonderful day, weather-wise.

The plan for the day was for everyone to arrive around 1:00 PM and we'd spend time working on our caning and share a pot-luck dinner that evening when we were done.

People gradually trickled in and settled themselves, and we started in with some good, honest work and instruction.  Some had not caned in a while and there was a bit of repair and checking on some of the pieces before more work could continue.

  

You can almost feel the intensity of focus in the picture below:

 

There were also some snacks and drinks to keep up the spirits of the participants as the afternoon wore on.  The variety seemed to rotate as the afternoon wore on.  The ladies who were our hosts, had held a recent party and had lots of small bottles of soda from a boutique soda maker in the area along with iced tea, lemonade and water.  A bottle of beer or glass of wine made the occasional appearance as well...

 

As I said before - the location was really very beautiful and the gardens were beautiful...

 

This particular group of students spans several years of classes.  Along with students were several spouses as well as some other family and friends who were kindly invited to join us for the afternoon.  There is a builder who completed his kayak (The Phoenix...) and there are 4 students who really don't have much more to complete their canoes other than the seat caning.  So, they were hard at work...

 

BUT.

"All work and no play will make Jack a dull boy."

 

There was also some fun to be had as well.  Some of us went for a bit of a sail - my first time of anything like sailing with some great instruction - I need to do some more!  (Do I see a 50/50 sailing canoe in my future?)

There were also several canoes and kayaks and I'd brought my Wee Lassie to give people who are building the boat the opportunity to take it for a spin to get a feel for it.   Here's the builder out for a spin in the Phoenix.  I got my first paddle in this boat on Sunday and it is a very sweet and fast kayak - a pleasure to handle.

 

The water was also too inviting not to get in an afternoon swim after working up a sweat with nimble fingers.  I won't say the water was too warm, but it was almost too easy to just settle into the water and float back into the pond.  People worked their way back and forth from the water to the task at hand until it was time to start the grills.

Dinner was an impressive event and the groaning board was so full that we had to take the desserts out to the kitchen!  There were hamburgers and hot-dogs along with sausages of various kinds, grilled vegetables, potato salad,  fresh fruit, beans and rice as well as baked beans, salads and all the trimmings.  If you walked away hungry it was your own fault!  Blueberry cobbler and brownies rounded out the meal for those who could find space.    I must say, that when we tend to have sessions that include food, there is always an abundance of truly fantastic things to eat - and I like to cook and eat about as much as I love to build and paddle boats!

One of the more interesting things that happened was the arrival of a woman as we were cleaning things up who was looking for some jumper cables for her dead battery.  Fortunately, I have DW carry a a set of them, so she was able to loan them to this woman. (DW's commute is a bit remote...)  On this woman's return with the cables, we started to talk about the boats - I could swear I recognized her, but couldn't place her at first.  It was Lynne Padu.  Lynne is a boatbuilder and educator who has also taught cedar-strip canoe making.  Her work was brought to my attention by a co-worker who is an Appalachian Mountain Club member a number of years ago when he brought in a copy of an article in the AMC's  Outdoors magazine featuring Lynne and her work.  It was truly a pleasure to get to talk with her and I hope that our paths will cross again in the future.

Still, all good things must come to an end and so, with a gorgeous pink and orange sunset, we bid our hosts a fond farewell and headed for home.

Addendum : This afternoon, I received an email that was copied to the group by the wife of the couple building the tandem canoe in the class.  They had such a wonderful time yesterday it has got them thinking of a camp of their own at the pond!

One of my Favorite Posts of the Year.

Time for our annual exhibition of student work again! As per usual, they got a big tent for the front lawn for us to put our boats under/around and uncharacteristically, we had two days of wonderfully cool, dry weather after a week of hot and oppressive weather. Just enough of a breeze to be pleasant and comfortable. I took the pictures that you see here before we opened the exhibition on the morning of the second day. If I tried to do it with people around, it would be nearly impossible to get pictures!


We even had some unique boat stands (as seen above and below) which were student built!


My student who had nearly finished his Osprey sea kayak from Newfound Woodworks at last year's exhibition brought the finished article back for exhibition this year. For a boat which has really only been recently finished it has quite a bit of history already. The kayak is named Phoenix as we considered it to rise from the ashes of a tragedy - the student, a professional cabinetmaker, lost his workshop to a fire while taking the class. The same fire claimed the unfinished Wee Lassie of another student who was doing work in the shop on his canoe outside of class. In addition, the hatch with the inlay of the osprey was lost in an accident last year and had to be re-created. I think he did an excellent job recreating the hatch and matching species, color and grain to the existing kayak:


I am, however, a little disappointed in the bow. I was expecting a small hand-carved figurehead of a woman's face with flowing hair trailing down the sides of the bow. (Just kidding here, folks...) It's a simple detail, but I think a nice one.


Next to the Phoenix is a Charlotte based on the Tom Hill design. While this is not a boat built in the class, we've been displaying this canoe to try to gauge the interest of the public in offering another boat-building method. My father and I built this one and I've got another one I really need to get cracking on in the basement. This is probably DD's favorite canoe... While I enjoy strip construction, I'm considering a change that will allow for quicker and less expensive boats to be built so that more students will be able to take the class and enjoy their boats.


Pretty, no?


The students are always comparing details on each other's boats... This is the Root Beer Float - so named because it is a Sassafrass Wee Lassie canoe. It HAS to be one of the longest builds in my class, but then again, this student took a break to build a second decked canoe.


Took a while, but she's finally getting her "bling":


The next canoe is a Wee Lassie II called the Wavy Gravy. The canoe was named for the sinuous feature strip down the side and has been the product of one of my more meticulous students. I can't wait to see the finished product. It was a very popular canoe when visitors started showing up. One of the things that this student got to experience for the first time was answering the questions of visitors about how we do what we do as we build canoes. Most of my students are both critical of their own boats and dismissive of what they've learned until they hear the "oohs" and "aahs" of those people who come to see the canoes. I also believe that answering questions for visitors crystallizes what the students have learned in the process of building their canoe.


The canoe below is a Wee Lassie called the Cedar Ghost. The canoe was so-named as during the construction, the builder was sanding the hull in the parking lot and was covered in cedar dust. With the low contrast, it looked like he had turned into a ghost. The Cedar Ghost is another canoe that has been a while in coming. The builder took a very demanding job and installed a new kitchen in his home between the start and end of the build. This canoe is an exercise in following the spirit of the Wee Lassie - materials were selected for their light weight and simplicity. While the most unique feature is the hand-sculpted thwart/backrest, the boat has class by virtue of elegance.


This canoe also holds an interesting tale. She's a Wee Lassie II called Patience and is the product of a boat-builder who started in the class by coming to help her sister fair and sand her own Wee Lassie. Since that time, she has worked diligently and patiently to build this canoe and to continue helping her sister with her canoe.

To the left of Patience is our router table that we use to mold cove-and-bead features on the strips. In the foreground, you will see a set of forms that Odyssey came off of only recently. We try to share not only the finished (or nearly finished) products, but also try to show how we accomplish some of the tasks in the class. While Odyssey isn't pictured here, she is a beautiful Wee Lassie with strips of the same color located symmetrically that is being built by an amazingly dedicated student who would travel nearly a total of 400 miles every time he came to class. Consider that he's been coming to class for two years - that's 56 classes for a total of over 22,000 miles - if that's not an odyssey, I don't know what is!


Below is the Tesseract; a Wee Lassie with curved Mahogany decks that is being built by the sister of the builder of Patience. As I mentioned before, this student came to sign up to attend one of the furniture making classes because she wanted to build a table. Finding the class full, she signed up for the canoe-building class instead!


The curved decks came from a fairly thick piece of stock, but they have been back-thinned to keep them light. A coaming will be installed to hide this and the transition from the curved deck to the flat gunwales.


Last but not least is a picture of the happy builders of the first tandem canoe built in the class. It is a Peterborough Ranger 15' design from Steve Killing that was purchased from Bear Mountain Boats. This is a LARGE canoe to move in and out of the shop every week and has been quite a challenge for that reason. The canoe has beautiful accent stripes and trim in Peruvian Walnut and Basswood with Mesquite decks. This is a boat I'm dying to paddle, actually.


While the theme this year seems to have been the "nearly finished", it was still an awe inspiring display of the students' creativity, patience and talent!