: I am up to my 4th strip and I think, by Nick's book, I need a cheater strip.
: Any tips?

I don't need cheater strips on my kayaks but often use them on my canoes. When you have sharply turned up stems they're useful.

Definately confine your gap for each cheater strip to less than a strip width at the widest point out at the stem joints.

I tack my cheater piece on top of the strip above the gap and use a compass to scribe the bottom edge shape of the gap onto the cheater strip for trimming.

The fitting process can be a little slow if you what a perfect fit. Fit the rough trimmed cheater into the gap and mark the contact points remove, plane and do it over again until you like the fit.

I often have very fine slivers of wood at the end of the cheater, trying to fill the gap perfectly. In order to work with this fine end without breaking it off, I hold a scrap strip under the fine end to support it and plane or sand it down to a wisker.

Once you like the fit mark the cheater and adjacent strips with a couple pencil slash marks so you'll be sure to get the same alignment once you apply the glue.

If you can fit into fine cracks don't add filler but use slivers of wood and glue.

All the best,

Rob Macks
Laughing Loon CC&K
www.LaughingLoon.com