> I have been having a hell of a time trying to find a source of
> wood for my kayak. One place I tried could get me clear WRC in 10'
> lengths for around $4/bf...Canadian! Only problem is, he needs a minimum
> order of a few hundred bf (or the place he's ordering from wants at
> least this much).

> I am getting so deliriously
> desperate that I've even had thoughts of cutting that blue or pink
> foam insulation into strips to wrap those naked forms! Is this nuts or what? . . . The
> core material would be _a lot_ cheaper, and I suspect the finished
> product would be significantly lighter even with extra glass. How
> much more glass would one need? Has anybody tried this? I'm sorry
> if I've offended anyone out there, especially you Nick (helluva thing
> to do to any Guillemot), but I am dead set on getting out on the water
> some time THIS summer. I feel really guilty for having such thoughts!
> Comments/ideas anyone? George, you're composites competent, what do
> you think?

A couple of problems here, so you'll need a couple of solutions.

First is finding wood, second is using foam instead of wood for a stripper. Let hit the wood problems first. It would help if we knew something about where you live. From your e-mail address i gather it is in Canada, but are you east coast. west coast or central? North? South? Give us a vaguely general idea of your location so we can suggest reasonably close sources. (Don't post your home address unless you want to invite all of us over, and have enough to feed us.)

If you are in the middle of nowhere, consider having a tree felled just for you. If you are not near a forest, call a local tree removal firm. For a fee, you could probably specify the variety, and have them it cut into 20 foot sections so that you could get 20 foot strips from it. Do you have any neighbors with landscaping that needs some major pruning? It could be next week's lumber.

You are looking for -- clear -- Western Red Cedar. Maybe you should just look for WRC in another grade, common or #2 for instance. Pick the best boards, after they are ripped into strips a lot of the problems disappear, while others are magnified. Buy a bit more than you think you'll need and dump the worst.

You may find it easier to find cedar that has been tongue-and-groove-milled for use as siding, or you may find some that is shorter than 10 feet. Scarf the shorter pieces to make onger ones, and cut off the tongues and the grooves. Yup, it is a waste, but the price may be competitive, and the material may be available.

Find another lumber dealer. If there are no more around. check your local phone book for carpenters and call a couple. Tell them what you want to do, and ask to pick their brains for suggestions on suppliers. Many will be happy to help in this fashion. You may hit an occasional jerk, but just call someone else, the odds are in your favor, carpenters tend to be good people.

I mention calling carpenters, because the local carpenters who have seen my boat are downright envious. They don't do this kind of work, but dream that they might.

Consider other woods. If WESTERN cedar is not available, see if EASTERN cedar is. Pine or S-P-F (a term for whatever white wood is available, be it spruce, pine or fir) is perfectly suitable. A friend of mine says he has built over 20 canoes from pine and polyester resin over the past 20 years. I saw his first boat when he refinished it last year, this time using epoxy. Twenty years old and looking fine. It is made from 3/16 inch pine and weighs less than my canoe made from 1/4 inch cedar.

White cedar used to be the wood of choice years ago. Over the years, many magazines have promoted using redwood strips. Mix and match if you like, using strips from darker varieties as accents.

Really desperate? Go to the local lumber yard and get whatever wood is available. Your boat will look great.

If you are tempted to ignore that last sentence and use foam:

Sure it can work. They make lots of foam-cored fiberglass items, including surfboards. a lot of these foam sheets are styrene plastics, and dissolve in polyester resin, so plan on using epoxy.

Try sawing that foam panel into strips. You will probably get lots of fuzzy pieces. The way to cut it is with a hot wire cutter, which you can get through an arts and crafts store. Mount that cutter to a piece of plywood, nail on a fence to guide things, and rip away. You won't have any sawdust to contend with, but the fumes may be nasty. use a respirator.

Or, buy 1/4 thick foam sheets. You can cut this into strips an inch wide, or wider, by using a utility knife and a straightedge. The quarter-inch-thick foam they sell around me is in pieces 8 feet long, but they fold them every two feet, so when it gets stretched out to full length it has creases in it. Not the greatest, but it can work.

You can use a heat gun to warm the foam sheets and get it to bend around curves if necessary, so wide strips, or even panels are possible. Use tape to hole strips together while the glued seams set up. A solvent based glue can be both a mess, and a rapid way to assemble things. Craft stores have glues for foam, and some white glues can work, or you can use dabs of tape to hold things from the inside until you glass the outside. The stuff is so light, and bends so easily that staples seem like overkill.

Fit edges on the strips by overlapping two pieces, and trimming through both at the same time. Use a sharp utility knife. Should make a perfect fit in seconds.

Don't even think about bead and cove.

I have no idea how you would fair or sand such a thing, but I'm guessing fine sandpaper and a light touch.

I saw in Clark Craft's catalog that they offered a book on making foam cored boats, and they had plans for a canoe made from fiberglass covered foam.

The specs on that canoe gave me the impression that it was heavier than the wood canoes of equal length. I don't know if this is because the foam soaks up resin, or because it may need more layers of cloth (and resin) to make it stiff enough.

Given the materials and time I would try a variation on applying fiberglass to this type of construction. I think I might do a section and then cover it with a small patches of fiberglass cloth ( maybe 1 to 3 square feet) as I went. The overlap of these pieces, would make the first layer look like I used papier mache, but it would give me a tougher layer that I could sand, fill, fair and shape.

The blue foam I could live with, but pink is not for me. If I went this route I would definitely get some cool pigment for my resin so I could hide the color and the seams.

Why use 1/4 inch strips? The material comes 1/2 and 1 inch thick, too. Why not use these thicker materials?

If you use thin foam, you will have to beef up the cockpit area, or the coaming will collapse the first time you put your weight on it as you enter the boat, and numerous bulkheads will probably be needed to support the foam strips, but Yes, it IS possible. (For that matter, it is possible to make a kayak out of cardboard, just ask Mark K.)

Are you sure you are really this desperate?

Back to wood: The lumber department of the local Home Depot store has 5.2 mm (nominal 1/4 inch) 4 x 8 foot Lauan panels for under $8 each. I was looking at them with the thought of building a stitch and glue kayak when the though came to me that after I had scarfed them into 16 or 18 foot panels, I could cut some gorgeous strips from them. They would be smooth and nearly perfectly even in thickness without using a surface planer, so sanding would be a snap. I could cut strips as wide as I wanted: 2 inches wide, or 1/2 inch wide if I wanted. The deck could be 2 or 4 panels, just like a stitch and glue, and it would match the strip-constructed hull. Almost any other 1/4 inch panel with 2 good sides could work, too.

I think I'd build a skin on frame kayak if I couldn`t find wood for strips.

Finally, if strips are the only way for you to go, remember, you can buy ready-to-use strips mailorder. Call Nick at work and place an order. (I wonder if Nick gets a commission on sales generated through this board. I think he should!)

Lots of suggestions here. Hope a few of them can help you. Best of luck on this. Paul Jacobson