The Yoke

I am still in the process of glueing on all of the pieces I made for the Gunwales. It is a long process because it takes so many clamps on each little piece. So I can only do 1 or 2 pieces at a time. While I was waiting around last night for the glue to dry - not much fun I cut out the Yoke and the thwart and some pieces to make the seats out of. I used Cherry because..... that is what I had. And because the sun will really make the cherry look good. I was going to use some white wood but I just did not have any.
Today I hope to glue on the last couple of gunwale pieces and route the edges of the thwart and yoke.
I need to find out what dimensions to use for the seats and I can put them together and finish them
Besides that I need to construct the front and back compartments.

This thing may actually hit the water one day

Inwales or Inwhales?

Not sure what they are really called.

I think I may be one of the least knowledgeable canoe builders there is. I know how to do woodworking but I can’t get the Canoe/Boat lingo down.

 

I have taken pictures on several occasions and they have come out blurry so this is the first time in a while I have had pictures.

I am in the process of gluing in the inwales with epoxy.  It requires so many clamps that I can’t do more than one piece at a time.

I decided to get creative at the ends of the boat and use relief cuts rather than steaming the wood to bend it.  I am not worried about strength with the relief cuts because I will have a triangle of wood in the point of the boat where that relief cuts are to give added support.  Besides that the relief cuts get filled with epoxy and essentially create a solid piece.  I also opted to cut 2 strips of wood for the inwales and glue them in separately. Once they are in you should not be able to tell that it is 2 strips of wood and there will be less stress on the wood than if it one large strip was being bent.  In case what I am saying is not clear.  Instead of using one piece of 15 x 35mm wood for the inwale I used 2   15x17mm strips.  I am gluing in the top piece first and then the bottom piece will be butted right up against the top piece. After sanding it will look 1 piece.  This also makes it easier to fit the cross pieces in.  I have no idea what they are called. 

I ended up using Mahogany for the gunwales.  I had some pieces that somebody had given me that use to be trim in their house so it worked out well.

 

I will start on the seats soon and probably use cherry.  I really should get on the stick and get the seats done so I can get this thing in the water soon. It is the perfect time to be using the canoe right now. 

 

If you have any tips for painting the outside of the boat please let me know what kind of paint you used or any tricks for applying it