Final Strip and Parting

The recommended approach to building a kayak is to start with the lower hull and complete that first.  The advantage of this method is that you'll build your skill level, iron out any difficulties, and see how the process works.  Having learnt from your mistakes—or rather, having built some experience—you can then move on to the deck of the kayak.  That's the area you'll view all the time, so naturally, you want it to be perfect.

In my case, this was a very wise move.  Not only did I reject the use of cove and bead strips, but I also perfected the sequence of adding strips so I could add more strips in a day.

Turning the Kayak

To turn a kayak with an internal strongback, one has to remember to knock the hot glue spots away from the forms and strips before you start to cover the deck.  At some point, you will have created a complete shell and you need to remove the strongback and the forms.  The first strip on the deck after turning the kayak to start the deck is not glued to the hull strip, and therefore when you have finished the deck, you can part the two pieces and remove the internal structure.

On the Micro Bootlegger Solo, the inner stem and stern are, during the build process, still in one piece, and the strips are glued to this piece as they terminate at each end.  So to part the kayak, you knock the forms away from the strips on the hull and, using the thinnest blade saw, cut the inner stem and stern into two pieces—hull and deck.

Modifying the Design

Having loosened the forms, they have to be returned to their correct locations and made rigid to take the deck strips in the correct shape.  I had decided early on in the build process that I didn't like Nick Schade's design with the very hard chines between the side deck and the curve of the aft and fore deck, so I had rounded the forms into a shape I thought looked more natural and smooth.

With the section around the cockpit especially—as I had also decided to markedly reduce the size of the solo cockpit—the modifications were compounded, and the natural flow of the foredeck meeting the cockpit side did require some ongoing building of the forms to take the strips.  This is very noticeable along the aft deck.  I had also decided that the aft deck, while having round sides, would look good being quite flat.  It's a feature of this design and has some advantages I'll reveal later in the build.

The Aft Deck Challenge

The aft deck didn't quite go according to plan because as I tried to get the strips to conform to the increased curve from side to deck with it being flat, the side strips started to part from the forms.  I had to use a strap around the whole kayak with wedges to get them back into shape and add some hot glue blobs to keep them together.  A further cause of this issue was that the tape I had used to attach to the forms started to come away from the form along with the hot glue drops.  This wouldn't have occurred if I had used staples.

The result came out OK, but it had me worried for a few hours. I  overcame the rounded chines and then set about filling the flat deck between them—from the central Marbo dark highlight strip out to the side deck.  As you progress outwards parallel to the central strip, the added strips have a more acute angle towards the stern. Finally, you're adding short, narrow-ended strips until you've covered the aft deck right up to the back end of the cockpit.

Take a break and review the process.

The Foredeck

The final stretch of the strip build process is the foredeck.  A beautiful feature of this design is the straight up-and-down bow, the big bold fore section of the kayak, and the round shape of the deck as it expands from the sharp bow out and up to the cockpit. It has all the attributes of a surf ski or seagoing surf kayak but with a sit-in cockpit.

With the high side of the hull completed—these strips extend from bow to stern—it was only a question of stripping in the foredeck.  I had selected a few planks with interesting grain and stripped them, setting them aside for the foredeck.  Again, the ends of the strips, which are set parallel to the highlight strip down the middle, get shorter and sharper as you fill the space.

With every strip you select, you match it to its place, lay it in position, then mark the cut to fit the sharp end.  I use a Fein vibrating saw with a circular blade and very fine teeth.  Having marked the strip, I cut it.  If I concentrate and have a steady hand, I can almost cut a perfect fit for the end of the strip.  It's only a case of a few strokes with the small hand plane or 80-grit sandpaper and the strip fits.  Remember, near enough is not good enough.  So test, test, and then retest until the strip fits all along its entire length.  Apply glue to the correct side and then tap the strip into place after a quick application of hot glue in the correct places on the forms.  Use masking tape to hold against the previous strip and clamps to ensure they stay down and alongside.

I initially tried to use a wooden wedge between the new strip and the outer side strip and found, to my dismay, that a strip end—while dry-fitted perfectly—had gaps at the end when glue was applied.  Only after two attempts did I realise my error: without the wedge, the gap between strip and deck was normal, but with a wedge, it pushed the deck strip away from the centre line and increased the gap of the previously fitted sharp-end strip. Silly me.

The Final Whisky Strip

I finally came to fit the final strip in the kayak—a short strip on the starboard foredeck.  Measured, fitted, tested, retested, dry-fitted, glued, and finally fitted the last strip.

At this point, the shipwrights of old, mostly from North America, would celebrate with a nip of their local brew.  But having many ancestors born and raised in Scotland, I went to the cupboard and got out an Edinburgh Crystal Thistle Whisky Glass Tumbler and toasted the final strip planked on my kayak.

Parting the Hull and Deck

Now came the parting of the two pieces to epoxy the hull and deck and to remove the strongback and work on the interior.

I cut the bow and stern inner pieces and used soft, wide wood wedges to drive the two-part strips apart and separate the hull from the deck.  It started to come away from the hull where I had previously separated the forms from the strips, but the end pieces remained stuck.  A few more wedges and a gentle lift of the bow, and the two pieces came away in my hands.  Success.

I turned the deck over on a set of trestles and removed the form distance separators, then firmly tapped the forms away from the end towards a wider part of the kayak.  Thankfully, the forms came away and I was able to lift the forms and strongback out of the kayak.

In parting the hull, a few strips sprang where the glue had taken to the forms and not been cleanly released.  It was a quick and easy task to apply glue to the gap, push the strip back into place, and apply some masking tape—or in one case, a 10kg piece of lead—to keep it down and in place.

Preparing for the Next Phase

I had kept the excess length of square aluminium tube I'd secured for the strongback and used it to make a second strongback.  I used every second form on the hull section and created two strongbacks for hull and deck.  The kayak now rests on the forms and hopefully won't lose its shape during the final sanding and application of glass cloth and epoxy fibreglass.

I am in Canberra, Australia, where we are entering winter—officially on 1st June—and we have during our winter many nights falling below freezing, but then the day temperature rises to about 15 to 18 degrees C (65°F).

The question now is: will I have a day temperatures long enough to apply the epoxy, and how long will I have to wait for the temperature to rise?

Bottom finished, now to strip the deck

Most boat builders, particularly those building strip canoes, reach a point when they add the last strip of wood in the hull of the vessel.  The North Americans all seem to reach for the "whisky" bottle as they place the last piece into the hull.  Of course, it's not actual Scottish whisky but some look-alike.  With salt in my veins, I reach for the bottle of rum – Australian Bundaberg – and toast the last plank.  BUT with a kayak, one is not finished at this point because you still have to strip plank the deck – both fore and aft deck around the cockpit. So no rum at this stage.  It can age for a few more weeks.

The turning of the hull, especially with an internal strongback, is a major operation – not only because of the weight but also because one needs to have a cradle to place the hull on so you can work on the deck.  I had cut two cradles from the shape of the forms before I put them on the strongback and covered them with foam, so the turning was an easy operation.

While cutting and machining the strips, I had selected a few for the side deck and for the fore and aft deck, so it was just a question of taking them down from the rack in the roof and selecting the strips for the side up from the part line.

The part line is the widest part of the kayak, and the hull strip is not glued to the adjacent deck strip.  This way, when the deck is finished, one can just lift the hull from the deck and the two parts can be worked on individually.  I used the hot glue gun method rather than the staple method to keep the strips attached to the forms and to take on the shape of the hull.  Before starting on the deck, I removed the middle form wedge and knocked the forms off the strips where they were attached to the wooden strips.  You start at the middle and knock the form toward the wide part of the kayak.  It sounds scary that the strips will spring off the kayak and jump out of shape from the forms, but the hot glue drops come away from the masking tape on the forms surprisingly easily.  Work your way from the centre towards the bow and then work your way to the stern.  With all the forms loose, it's time to put the spacers back in place between the forms and to insert the wedges in the middle space – in my case between the two form 8s.

Now the important part: the strip which runs from bow to stern along the part line of the hull was the next task.  Not too difficult.  Do both sides and hot glue onto the forms, but glue to the stem and stern piece.  The second strip is the important one because it is glued to the first and hot glued to the form plus real glue to stem and stern.

As one strips up the side of the deck, the curve on the solo microbootlegger gets greater and greater.  I think Nick Schade originally designed this vessel to be 18 feet long and then reduced the distance between the forms from 12 inches to 10 inches to reduce the length of the kayak.  The twists and turns on this hull's strips are difficult to follow.  I needed to use the heat gun at the bow and stern to get the strips to twist onto the end pieces.  It required lots of clamps and multiple sessions with the glue gun.

I had decided early on in the build that I did not like the hard chines as the hull came up to the deck, so I smoothed the hard corner to a more rounded shape.  This looked good on the forms but added a lot more work in bevelling the edges of the strips to match each other around the curves.  This is not a requirement in cove and bead strip planking.  The rabbet plane I had purchased at an online auction at the start of the year – well sharpened and correctly adjusted – made the task easy but long-winded.  You start at the lower – fixed strip and plane off the edge at the angle of the form to match where the next strip will go.  Then continue planing around a form till each wood shave is full width and at the right angle.  Back and forth between forms with a test strip to check the gap between the two adjacent strips.  Next, move to the next form and continue the correct angle.  On a section of the hull that is reasonably straight, like in the middle, that sounds easy, but wait till you get to the complex curves near the bow and stern when you have the strip curving towards the ends, twisting from vertical to almost horizontal, and you have a real challenge.  Remember, in this project, "near enough is not good enough." Each strip has to match its neighbour without the slightest gap.

At some point, one moves from strip planking the sides of the kayak to covering the deck.  In this design, that is the chine, but as stated above, I had rounded the forms to try to eliminate this transition point as a smooth curve.  I reached that point but noticed as I progressed, the deck part line strips were moving away from the hull part line strip.  This, I understand, is not an unusual occurrence because the hot glue spots of the hull no longer hold these strips to the form.  The solution is quite simple: hot glue a short strip to the top hull strip at right angles to the strip, then glue a further short strip to the bottom strip of the deck. The two match each other but are attached to opposing strips and thus work against each other to keep the two non-glued strips together.

The aft deck seemed like the next step to tackle.  It is relatively flat, and I had selected some good-looking strips to make a feature of this section.  There are many designs that one can use in planking the deck of these kayaks.  Because I have a very plain, ordinary wood – Myrtle – there are no intricate designs I could use, but the layout of the planks has four basic designs.   I chose a highlight central strip and then arranged the planks to be laid parallel to this line as they move out to the side of the side deck. There are some intricate joins as one moves from the stern forward with the strips getting shorter and shorter, but no difficult curves to contend with.

The aft deck planking had to wait as I took a break to return to the coast to do some maintenance on the house.  It was a good break away from construction. I took the time to design the cockpit.  The micro Bootlegger has a large cockpit with wide sides which I did not like.  There is nothing to place your knees against, and the size would make the kayak vulnerable to being swamped.  I took another cockpit design and drew it on a large sheet of paper, but that design was too small.  So I measured the size of my backside and the distance to my knees and the comfortable width, and free-handed the new cockpit design.  On paper, it looked good and a reasonable size. 

Stripping the aft port deck

Next will come the cockpit recess, which is the transition from the deck to the cockpit coaming.  There are many ways to do this, so off to watch a few YouTube videos and Facebook posts to get some ideas. That will have to wait till I finish stripping the deck, although I have now decided the size of the cockpit hole.

More stripping and covering up

Now with the correct router bit and a new table for the router, I was able to rectify the spoiled strips from the broken bit.   I selected three strips and cut the broken coves off them, making them narrower, and then ran them and the equivalent opposite side strips through the new table router.  The chips flew and it sounded great.  Next, the remaining strips. I had decided that I would not use this strip and cove method on the six light coloured strips right next to the keelson, so they remained in the store.

Cutting the cove with new Router bit and table

Off again with hot glue gun and strips along the outside edge of the bottom. I was getting the hang of this form of construction but decided to only do three strips a day so the glue could dry. I turned my attention to making a two-bladed paddle from the wood stored in my timber pile. That is a separate post here.

An opportunity to sail across Bass Strait with a good friend Andrew on Eye Candy came up, so I jumped at that opportunity. It was a dream crossing which I have documented here. Three days to cross and less than 3 hours to fly home. Back to the kayak.https://malua.blogspot.com/2025/03/was-that-dream-or-even-maybe-short.html

While I only did three or four strips a day, the sides of the bottom of the hull soon closed up and I was progressing towards the centre line. Each strip gets shorter as one moves towards the centre, and at some point the curve or outward bend from the ends is quite extreme, so I would dry fit the strip and leave it in position a few hours before proceeding. The Titebond Regular has a pot time of only about 6 minutes, so one has to work fast to secure each strip in position and against its outside neighbour. Rough surface green masking tape is the answer. One pulls the strip outwards, places a small drop of hot glue on the frame, pulls outwards and down for a minute or so, and secures the strip in position with the green tape. I use small clamps to ensure each strip matches horizontally with its neighbour.

Planking the second side

OK, one side completed. Now draw a perfectly straight centre line from bow to stern and then, if using the traditional method, use a Japanese pull saw to cut the excess of the one side strips. I used my traditional Fein vibrating saw I have had for years and was able to cut a perfect straight line using the new round blade from Fein. Adapt with technology.

Cutting the straight Fein line

Now the inside section of the bottom of the hull. I thought I knew what I was doing at this stage, but the initial strips had to be reglued and adjusted before proceeding. Then as one strip at a time was added, I climbed the sides of the hull until I came to the sharp curvature of the hull where I thought the cove and bead would make it easy. Not so. In fact, I found the use of this material easy to put a strip in place, but the mechanics of the curve meant that the adjacent strip exposed the gap, and with the very thin lip of the cove, it tended to either break away or, when sanded, expose the gap between strips. Not happy – in fact I will not use this method for the rest of the kayak.

Again, the strips get shorter, but this time rather than leave them to overlap the centre line, one has to cut them at both ends to fit into the narrowing space. The method used is: cut one side, plane it to fit the sharp pointed space, remembering the strip does not run parallel to the centre line but bends outwards. Fit the piece, then take the strip and place it in its position. It wants to twist and jump out, so a few clamps and plywood U-locks are used. Now confront the other end and mark the section to be cut off. Saw and plane to fit, then snap the strip into place to see that all is well.

Strips get shorter and shorter

Remove strip. Set on its side and apply a thin bead of glue to the correct edge (Don't ask why I highlight this) and then position the strip in place at one end and fit. Move away from this sharp end and secure strip to its in situ neighbour with green tape and a few small clamps, then snap the other end in place. Return to the strip with masking tape and hot gun glue and secure the new strip tight against its neighbour and down against the frame. Move quickly and diligently back to the first sharp point. Check that each strip is aligned against the neighbour and down on the frame. A heat gun can assist if it has popped up as you moved on. With a wet cloth, wipe up the excess glue.

Sit back and admire your work, knowing that in my case I am only about 1/3 the number of strips secured prior to the last. When will I reach the final whisky strip? I need it!

Ready for the Whisky strip

Making a cove and bead strip with questionable quality router bits.

Most of the strip-planked kayaks made in North America use cove and bead strips, either purchased ready-made or cut using professional machines. The cove and bead profile is an edge treatment that consists of a concave hollow shape (cove) and a convex rounded shape (bead). You need one or two router bits to cut the opposite edges of the strip. These are also known as canoe bits, used to make interlocking sealed edge joints.

Keen to use this method in my kayak, I'd selected two router bits from a Chinese manufacturer advertised on AliExpress.  I paid about a fifth of the price of the equivalent American product but had to wait two weeks for delivery. When they arrived, I quickly noticed the shank were not the advertised ¼ inch, so they wouldn't fit into my router without a ¼ inch collar and some super glue. After a few test runs, I cut the short strips for a test panel. All looked good.

While building the second test panel, I found it easy to cover the rounded hull using this method. However, it had a disadvantage: the edges of the cove – or cave shape – are quite thin on the strips I'm using. On one strip, the edge had broken away, leaving an open join.

The skill lies in adjusting the router so the edges of the cove are thin but not so delicate that they get damaged. To test, I use a black marker on the edge of the strip and pass it against the router bit, adjusting it so that two thin black lines appear at the extreme of the cove indentation.

Having proved the concept on the test panel, it was time to cut the cove and bead on the strips above the highlight strip at the acute curve of the chine.  I'd carefully selected strips for colour and length, numbered them on port and starboard sides, and set up the table router to take the long strips. I was ready to cut the 20 or so strips for that part of the hull's bottom.

Cove and bead router bits

With the Chinese ¼ inch shaft in the router and after many test strips, I'd adjusted everything to run smoothly. The first strip cut was smooth as silk – a perfect bead, round at the edges and central. The second strip entered the machine, and the noise and flying wood chips were as expected. But then the number of chips coming off the blade changed. I immediately stopped to investigate. The two tungsten blades looked fine, so I suspected the blade had moved and made some adjustments. But the cut was all over the place.

As I watched the blade slow down after switching off the machine, I immediately noticed the ¼ inch shaft was bent. "Cheap Chinese quality," I muttered – or words to that effect!

I turned to an Australian supplier, ordering via Express Post from Melbourne to Canberra for a replacement bit. This time, I chose a ½ inch shank – something that wouldn't bend, though it cost five times as much. I had to wait and, of course, come up with a solution for my spoiled strips. That was easy: I'd cut them narrower, which would also make rounding the chine easier and give a much smoother finish. I followed the Australian Post tracking notifications almost every hour while waiting for the new bit to arrive.

Three days later, the bead router bit was delivered. I immediately set it into the table router and passed the strips through to cut the round-edged bead.

Table router with strips in background

Next came the cove on the opposite side of the strips. I have two routers – one set in a table that I've used extensively in the fit-out of Malua.  It works like a dream.  I also have a sophisticated Elu hand router with all the table and other attachments that I use for finer work, but it's a hand router. I needed to put that in a table to pass the long strips through and minutely adjust the depth and location of the cove bead.

I picked up a wooden bar stool from the recycle centre at the dump for $5, which became the basis for my table router. I then used Malua's old cockpit table – which I'd already replaced – as the basis for an adjustable table. After a few hours and some extra timber to extend the legs, I had my second table router complete with a fence and featherboards.

Basic table router from bar stool

After some adjustments and test runs, I was satisfied with the setup to pass the diminishing number of strips through the router to cut the cove. The first strip went through like a dream, but the second stuck halfway as the chip count dropped to almost nothing.  Again, the cheap Chinese router bit had let me down – it wouldn't hold in the chuck of the router but risen up, destroying the strip. Expletives followed, predictably.  Back on the phone to Melbourne, I ordered a cove router bit with express delivery.

Strips ready for bottom of hull and to be routed

Wait, wait.  It arrived and I unpacked it but there had been a slip between cup and lip from the technical person who selected the bit and the "sales" person at reception so she sent the incorrect bit.

Back on the phone to get the right bit.  Technical person now states they dont have the correct bit in stock so will have to have none made for me next week just send email.  OK email off immediately.  Wait wait.

Why has it not come.  "You never sent the email." I can only have it machined on Tuesday next week.  "OK go ahead"  Wait Wait.

I received the tracking order on Tuesday at 4:30 pm.  Follow the Australia Post.  Next day at about 10:00 am I get a knock on the door.  Your express parcel from Melbourne has arrived.  Great!

YES, it is the right bit and it fits the router and it cut a perfect cove on my strips.  Now back to building the kayak.

More stripping and a highlight strip.

I had now reached the waterline of the hull and I wanted to add a highlighted strip. What wood should I use?  The Myrtle is quite light and tends to bleach to a mellow-yellow after a few months out in the sun, so a light highlighter strip was not an option.

Highlighter strip finished

I searched my lumber stack for a dark-coloured piece of timber which I could cut into a ¼ by ¼ inch strip to highlight the waterline, but found nothing.  Then began the search of the local timber yards, which are now oriented toward the building industry and not cabinet making or woodworking.  I visited three to search the stacks.  Most of their dark wood was hardwood and not very dark – like spotted gum, Jarrah, or Ash. Most of the planks were also quite short.

Someone suggested AJAA Timbers at Queanbeyan.  I took off in the small Golf and spoke to the son of the owner who directed me to Alex.  It appeared he knew every piece of timber in their extensive yard, but we drew a blank in the main shed, so he sent me off to the distant shed to have a look.  It was full of timber poorly stacked and not quite what I was looking for, but I did find a few one-inch square battens of Merbau that were 7.5 meters long.  I selected two but decided to only take one to test.  I got it for a very reasonable price and then strapped it onto the roof of the Golf with long overhangs fore and aft.

I soon had the batten on the table saw and cut a few suitable-sized strips for the waterline.  They are not quite what I had in mind, but this South East Asian timber, which may have come from the Philippines, is orange-brown in colour but ages to a darker reddish-brown.  It has a tendency to stain if used as an outdoor decking timber, but that will not happen on the kayak.

I quickly prepared the lower strip for this square highlighter, but I made the Merbau strip too thin when I put them through the planer by turning the handle the wrong way!  Back to the yard and the distant shed to select the second-best piece.  Pay for it, tie it to the Golf, and again cut and thickness, but this time get the dimensions correct.  I had both sides glued in place soon after.  I hope it will darken over time.

Stern highlighter strip

Above the waterline strip of the hull, the kayak starts to curve over to the centre line of the keel, commonly known as the chine.  This corner is difficult to strip plank by bevelling the edge of the lower strip because the change in direction is quite large, so it is recommended to switch to a bead and cove system for stripping.  That is the next step in the stripping process, but what a saga.

Setting up the forms and aligning them ready to strip the kayak.

This step is critical to get right because the Myrtle strips are attached to the forms to create the shape of the final product.  If the forms are not aligned or not in the correct place, that will flow through to the final shape of the kayak.

Aligning the forms along part line

I had done the work on setting up the distance between the forms and ensuring that the forms are at right angles to the strongback by making spacers and ensuring they were correctly dimensioned and fitted tightly between each form.  I have documented this.  The forms and components are all well numbered and inscribed, so it was an easy job to push the forms onto the aluminium square tube strongback, slip the spacers between them, and then knock two wedges into the middle section to tighten the whole assembly.

Forms aligned

On this occasion, I had turned the kayak upside down so the bottom hull was uppermost and therefore the end pieces were inverted.  In addition, I attached some small wooden indicators using a hot glue gun at the part line (where one separates the hull from the deck during the build) so the first strip would rest upon them, and I could eye-ball these lines from bow to stern.  This made the alignment easy from bow to stern while sitting in my chair abeam of the kayak.

I checked the forms to see that they butt up against the strips as they touched the whole width of the form.  I had to do some adjustment to refine the angle created by the rotating sander in the previous operation.

The next step is to cover the edges of the forms with high-quality 3M packing tape so the hot glue used to attach the strip to the form sticks but is not permanently glued.  You remove the forms from the finished stripped kayak.  I am using this method rather than staples because I did not like the way staples leave holes in the finished strips for all to see.

The big day arrived, and the first two strips were ready to attach to the forms. Now, I had previously joined an extra 500 mm to the end of my selected strip with Titebond glue to get the final length of 4.2 meters.  As I picked up the long strip, the end fell off because the glue had not adequately set, and I was left with a short strip.

Back to the workbench.  So, I take the two selected pieces of wood, cut a scarf (45-degree cut) on the drop saw at the right angle as per the template. I created a template on the drop saw for the strips to fit into when I need to cut an accurate scarf.  I then move the two pieces to the glue template and place them in it, apply glue.  Now the crunch... Leave to dry for a few hours.

Joining the strips

After that setback, I attached the first strip at the part line using a hot glue gun between strip and form, working from the middle out.  The last station is the strip attached to the inner stem and stern, which requires actual Titebond glue.

That went very well and was easily done to the wooden indicator strips.  Next came the second strip on each side.  Because the side is vertical at this point, there is no requirement to make any adjustment to each strip. But more on that with the next strip.

The second, third and subsequent strips up the side of the kayak starts to curve inwards towards the centre-line along the hull bottom of the kayak, and thus it requires adjustment so it butts up against the strip below without leaving a gap on the outside edge.  Imagine two rectangles, one on top of the other. Then take the top one and lean it over to one side.  There is a gap on the outside while the inside is still touching the strip above.  To address this problem, one has to plane the inside edge of the lower strip to be at the precise angle of the rectangular strip above.

The second strip

Easy, take a block plane and run it along the strip.  Wrong, because firstly, the strip is now attached to the forms, and secondly, the angle varies as it changes from the upright of the bow and stern to the sides and corners of the hull as it turns to form the bottom of the kayak.  So what is the solution? 

Use a "rabbit" plane which was designed to solve this problem.  Knowing the issue when I set out on this journey, I bid and purchased a rabbit plane at an online auction in the USA and received a rusty second-hand Stanley Rabbit Plane No. 79.  I cleaned it up and sharpened both blades.  It turned out to be a gem and just the right tool to take a thin sliver of wood off the top of an attached strip at just the right angle.  What a delight to have the right tool for the job. BUT

Nick Schade of Guillemot Kayaks has designed a special Robo-Bevel based on a miniature shoulder plane made by Veritas.  The plane is ¼" wide, the same as the strips, and it fits into a plywood jig via two strong magnets.  To use it, one runs the plywood jig up against the forms as they curve into the centre-line, and the plane takes a thin wood shaving at the correct angle from the strip below.  It is such a neat solution and ensures that the angle matches the form and the strip above which leaves no gap between strips.  Not wanting to pay the $150 plus shipping, I took the idea and designed a local Australian knock-off of this jig using the Veritas plane.  It works wonders and makes the job of butting the strips an easy job.

Rabbit Plane and 1/4 plane jig

The third strip went on easily, and now I wanted to add a dark highlighted strip at the waterline.  That and the decision to move to a cove and bead stripping routine will come in the next saga.

Three strips in place

Cutting the strips for the Kayak

The forms are ready but I need the space to select the timber to use as the strips to plank the kayak and to cut the strips.  The strongback is disassembled and stored in the roof and the forms are neatly packed away.  Now to select the timber from my stack of Myrtle I used for the fit-out of Malua.  I found the two invoices for the timber purchased from AnaGote in Marrickville in Sydney. The first was for 2 inch and the second was for 1.5 inch of lengths about 3.5 to 3.8 meters long and planks 4 to 8 inch wide.  The total was $5,800 for a total of two cubic meters of timber.  I will sell the remaining 58 pieces back to them for a cut rate of only $8,000 at today's prices.

Strips cut

I selected 12 planks, 5 to 6 inches wide, all about 1 inch thick and longer than 3.5 m. The colour is uniform with two beautiful light brown which I will use on the lower hull and two planks with a very interesting grain for the aft deck.

Selected planks with remaining timber

Next was to put the planks through the thicknesser and get them down to the correct thickness or width for the strips.  I had adjusted the thicknesser and sharpened the blades.  All that was needed was a roll-on table for the feed and a receiving structure for the 3.8 meter long planks to come out the other end. Now that required I build a stand for the thicknesser so the feeds would be at the correct heights.  Back into the timber pile but not the Myrtle but the excess of the infrastructure for Malua like the steps up to the deck while building.  I selected two pieces and set about building a stand for the thicknesser.

Next step is to set up the table saw to cut the ¼ inch strips from the 22mm (1 inch) thick planks. I had used a saw blade my Dad used some years ago because it was sharp, thin and small but found it did not quite come up to the current performance of tungsten tipped saw blades so into my store and out with a 3 mm thick modern blade.  Fit it and the trailing divider and a new base and we were spinning ready to cut.  Because I have to cut about 160 strips (each about 3.8 m long) I used some feather boards (finger boards) I made from high-density polyethylene purchased from the local Reject Shop for less than $15.  I needed to cut them to size and then cut the fingers into the board. The finger touch the wood as it enters the saw blade area.  This worked well and stops the timber jumping up when fed into the saw and jumping back as one feeds the timber against the blade.

Table saw with feather boards

All ready to go.  Step one: take a selected board, put it through the thicknesser on one side, adjust the thickness and turn it over, then do the other side.  Continue until you have a plank that is 22 mm thick. Repeat for all 12 planks.

Step two: adjust table saw to cut a strip off the side of the plank at exactly 7 mm thick for the full length of the plank.  Repeat 10 to 15 times depending on the width of the plank.  Number each strip sequentially to keep the order and then bundle the plank strips in order. Repeat for 12 planks.

Next step is to thickness each strip to be exactly 6.25 mm thick which means take four strips from a plank bundle and put them through the thicknesser as the first pass. Turn them over and adjust the thickness to be exactly 6.25 mm thick.  Repeat for the rest of the strips in the plank.  Maintain the order and re-bundle the strips for each plank. Repeat for all 12 planks.

Strips selected for colour

Number each plank bundle and set out on the bench to select the length and colour for each location on the kayak.  Having done that, one needs to remember that the kayak is 4.2 m long and the majority of the strips needed for the bottom, sides and a bit of the deck will be 4.2 m long, so I will have to join the strips with an extra 0.5 m piece.  Another challenge.

Strips bundled

OK, all done which took a good two days work and I am ready to set up the strongback and the frames.