Choosing Wood For Skin-on-Frame Kayak Building

[matt-lx]

I just found your channel and I see myself building a skin on frame canoe in the near future.

[Nomadboatbuilding]

Super solid advice Brian, especially on the safety recommendations. I’m a fan of the red cedar paddle myself.

[johnks]

Fantastic content Brian. Your videos are always very clear and informative.

[mattdjmorris]

Love the detail and flow of this video. Great basic points that point us in the right direction.

[ifell]

Great information here, I know when i went to a timber yard and was pricing up and looking for availability here in the uk, their faces was classic. Any chances of a plywood version hahahahaha

[stephenjanssen]

wow! You know your stuff and helped me understand why i can never bend my kilm dried ribs without problems. Thanks

[yquzkmf]

Great site to learn the fundamentals of Kayak building. Brian what will be the common wood to be used for the kayak project in Western Australia, considering the: specific weight ( Tasmanian oak, Jarrah etc.), available materials (local hardware stores) and the climatic conditions (arid desert, versus high salinity of Indian ocean)

[scottrobinson]

Another solution to finding bending wood. Just go grab a piece of oak firewood or cut a piece of hardwood from back yard and rip it up on the table saw (screw a piece of 2x4 to the side and run it along the fence to get a relatively straight cut) . It doesn't have to be that long of a piece.

[wadepatton]

Western red cedar I'm quite sure you're referring to. Might confuse some folks from down here, where red-cedar is a juniper and knotty all the time.

[johnhess]

what about using ammonia to soften lignin in kiln dried wood to steam bend it? I am building Zimmerly's 22ft East Greenland and abandoned the kiln dried white oak ribs that just would not bend in spite of steaming. I remade the ribs with lumberyard spruce and kerfs for the curves and am preparing to install.

[coralnerd]

Hi Brian. I live in Tasmania. We have a few very highly regarded (and expensive) native boat building timbers here, but it's very hard to find the north American species that you're talking about in this video. I believe you taught a SOF building course down here a few years back. From your experience here can you recommend suitable timbers that would be a reasonable compromise between cost and building properties? I'd love to have a kayak built from huon and king Billy pine, but it would probably cost a couple of thousand dollars.

[MrPanchoak]

For those who have trouble finding good bending wood, a good solution may possibly be heat flattened PVC pipe. It should last forever.

[Huntgary]

Wanting to build a LPB when I return home, want to run all 700 miles of the Cumberland river and do it in a kayak verse a canoe, being an experienced woodworker, building my own kayak is a bonus, currently in MX for a couple more months, want to get as much figured out while I'm down here, , the white oak for the ribs is easy, very plentiful in TN, even if I have to go cut a tree down myself and take a log to a sawmill, question is, can the western red cedar and Ash be kiln dried or no, Ash won't be to hard to find at a sawmill but Western Red Cedar for me would be impossible to get in its green state locally, and eastern red cedar doesn't have the long limbless trunks or the size so no clean long boards. And would poplar be a substitute for the red cedar, its very rot resistant not sure of its weight thanks

[paulbriggs]

Red oak can be easily pressure treated and some day, someone should do that for commercial sale. It would sell for decks as a superior lumber. Boat builders of all kinds would use it. Its common, and equal to white oak in strength.

[JohnCooperWilliam]

Have you ever used osage orange for bending? It's extremely hard, rot resistant, and great for steam bending. I've built recurve bows and can get some pretty aggressive curves. I haven't built a kayak yet, but I'm thinking that it would work well.

[russelltangren]

I'm in nor cal, how would redwood fair for the softwood portions?

[TIGA]

Struggling to design a lightweight 16 foot LOA, SOF sailing & rowing canoe (possibly single paddle- at a push, conditions) that is mega-stable, can carry 2 people + gear (600 lbs. +), and has reasonable upwind capability under sail (possibly main+mizzen), max., draft of 4-5 inches (600 lbs. load +) with a min freeboard of 16 inches, optimal tracking and turning, in wind speeds of up to 25 mph. Form follows function is the rule I follow so aesthetics take second place while I like my eyes to be pleased. Not too concerned with speed but a 'reasonable' (45 degrees off the wind, upwind ability is essential). Worst sailing conditions: 4 foot waves, 8 feet crest to crest, wind speed 25 mph. Is there any such thing in the SOF canoe range that can take a battering? I'm thinking of olde-style, partially decked sea canoes with beams of 44 inchesto 50 inches or more. Some folks seem to be too preoccupied with max. speed rather than optimal abilities in reasonable wind and wave conditions. Tuning designs for one or two un-challenging conditions out of many doesn't produce optimal design. Lovin' the practical designs and methods...so far BUT see above.

[LukePighetti]

Anyone have recommendations for species to use from Maine? We have white ash, Atlantic white cedar, eastern spruce, and white pine. Problem is most of our woods it’s tough to get long sections without knots.

[kmonnier]

1/2 scale models makes you look 2x huge

[adamhulu]

If all you have is cedar but you need it to be strong like ash, cant you just increase the scantlings by 10-15%? On second thought, wouldnt this be as good and as light?