: Anyone have any suggestions for hiding staple holes? I'm using white cedar on
: this one of a kind olympic sprint kayak.

Try using a clothes iron (set for cotton) and a damp cloth.

Place the cloth over the collection of staple holes and press it long enough to steam a bit. Keep moving the iron, going up and down the line of staple holes for a few inches.

the steam that is generated just might cause the wood fibers that were bent and crushed by the staple to straighten out a bit, thus closing the holes a bit and making them less noticeable.

In an ideal situation the hole swells shut.

In a "good" situation you get some reduction in size from the staple holes, making them less noticeable.

In a "bad" situation you get called away to the phone and leave the iron resting on the boat, and get a scorch mark, or the glue melts out and the strips come apart. Avoid the "bad" situation, keep the iron moving.

You will need to redampen the cloth as you go. you jsut want it damp, not completely wet. A spritzer bottle works fine, so does a kid's squirt gun, and a sponge in a bucket of water. Get the sponge wet and just dab it on the press cloth.

to save time you might want to do this before you get into too heavy of sanding. The steam action will cause some swelling of the wood fibers, and may cause the grain of the wood to rise slightly. Light sanding after this will take care of things.

Hope this helps.

PGJ