: I've almost finished stripping my first, also a Guillemot. I have
: *just* enough strips. I started with two planks of the following
: dimensions:
: 1 x 4.2m long x 50mm thick x 200mm wide (about 14' x 2" x
: 8") chocolate colour
: 1 x 3.4m long x 50mm thick x 150mm wide (about 11' x 2" x
: 6") blonde colour

: I was planning to use a 1.6mm (1/16") kerf blade, but then a
: friend offered a professional table saw with 3mm kerf. So I
: carefully calculated whether I would have enough! Was a bit
: worried but has just been ok.

: Each plank was bandsawn into two planks, each about 21mm thick
: after dressing. Each of those was then ripped into 1/4"
: strips. From memory I got 20-21 strips from each of the 200mm
: planks, and I think 14 from the 150mm planks. So all up a total
: of 41 x 14' + 28 x 11' = 574 + 308 = 882' of strips. Less than I
: would have liked but as it turned out just enough.

: Some things to keep in mind:
: * Allow some (lost) space to create a straight edge on the plank.
: e.g. I got 21 strips from one of the 8" planks, and 20 from
: the other. 21 x 3/8" = 7.875" so I was pretty happy
: with that. I only got 20 from the other due to a wonky edge (a
: mistake). (In fact each plank was slightly less than 3/8"
: since the kerf was 3mm which is a little less than 1/8")
: * Allow for some screwy strips. It's frighteningly easy to let the
: plank drift while cutting a strip, and then you have wasted most
: of that strip AND the next one (since you'll have to create a
: new straight edge). My mate is pretty experienced at ripping
: timber and we only lost one this way.
: * Likewise cutting the bead and cove. I set this up pretty
: carefully and fortunately didn't screw up many strips.
: * You don't need 18' strips. I found the mixture of 14' and 11'
: strips quite workable, and it's nice having two distinct tones
: of wood.

: The link is to my post about milling the strips:
: http://ianjohnsonz.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/milling-the-strips/

: Cheers, Ian

Just my .02 (and about what it's worth), but I think the scarfed joint is less noticeable, gives a nicer cosmetic result. I'd like to hear from the folk here who actually know.