Hi Mike,

Now that I've made one kayak (just completed one a couple weeks ago) maybe now I can offer some info (What'd ya know!!).

Mike, its a good choice to make your own strips (lot cheaper that way). If you can get 2 other people to help you cut the strips that would be great. I cut enough for almost 2 kayaks in no more than 3 hours.

I did not use bead and cove. Mainly because I didn't want to spend money for a router and bits. I started out with basically no tools and consequently, I had to buy a cheap table saw, blades, planes, clamps, etc. The thought of buying more tools than I absolutely needed didn't appeal to me. By the way, if you cut your own strips, I would highly recommend the Freud 7/1/4" diablo blade for your 10 inch table saw. It works outstanding on the cedar boards. It cost under $10.

I built a 17' Guillemot kayak from cedar boards purchased from various home centers like Menards, Home Depot, and Lowes (took many hours of searching through piles of wood to find clean boards). The boards I chose are 1 inch thick (milled at about 3/4 inch +). I cut the strips 1/4 inch thick and used them as they were.

I used a Stanley hobby plane (3 inches long, I used it a lot!!). I feel this is much easier to control than a standard block plan when creating both a bevel and angling the ends of a cedar strip - I do have a standard Stanley block plane. After some practise, it really doesn't take that long to create a rolling bevel but I could only lay a couple strips at a time (because I used no staples) so it didn't seem quite so bad. I might add, I used simple butt joints when I did not have full length strips. With the cedar strips covered with fiberglass and epoxy, I believe this simple type of joint is plenty good. I tried angling my joints like Nick's book suggested but found it very difficult to match the ends with this method.

One thing I did find out later, however, is that I had cut too great a bevel angle in some areas. What ended up happening is that from the outside everything looked fine (no gaps between strips). However, if I would have watched more carefully, I would have seen from the inside that there were a few places where gaps formed. So, when I went to sand, you guessed it, I uncovered tiny gaps that I would need to fill.

If I had to do it over again, yes I would like to have bead and cove around the curvaceous areas of the kayak. However, I would not want or need them on the flat parts (on the bottom of the hull and probably on the top of the deck). Optimally, I would use the bead and cove strips on the curves and rectangular strips on the flat parts.

The question is is it worth taking the time and money (router/table/bits) to fashion the strips with a bead and cove (I'm asking myself this question). You'll definitely save a little time when you lay strips that have a bead and cove.

Hope this helps!!

Rich

: I'm preparing my materials gathering for my first project, and have a
: question about wood. It seems like the best way to save money is by buying
: lumber locally, rather than getting precut strips (from places like
: Newfound). My question is for the people who cut their own strips... do
: you also cut cove and beads (that's the term.. right?)? How many people
: out there just use the rectangular strips in their kayaks? It looks a lot
: easier (always a plus on the first boat) using the curved boards.

: One more question... how thick do you get your wood from lumber yards? 1/4
: inch? Thanks.