OK. The strips are home. After much personal debate, I decided to buy the cedar strips for this project precut. I purchased them in St. Paul. This was a fun trip home in rush hour. The strips are 3/4 inch wide x 1/4 inch x 20 feet long. The bent and flopped all the way home. The guy said that they did this all the time and it would be no problem. What was I thinking? In the end I made it home without any problems.

These are what will become the decks of the canoe. Black walnut, cherry, and white ash done the middle. The sure look nice now. can't wait until they are on the finished canoe.

The steamer works for other stuff too. The plan is to make a portage yoke with many colors of wood. Here is step one of many to come. Black walnut with white ash through the middle.

It is working as planned. Here are the inside and outside stems for the front and back of the the canoe. All of the strips that make up the canoe will attach to the shaped inside stem. and the outside stem will cap everything off. I chose black walnut and cherry. I hope this will create a nice contract from the cedar strips.

We steamed the wood for the stems. This was a two person operation. The wood went into the steamer for one half hour. It came out like a wet noodle. I bent it around the forms and Clare clamped thing up.

It works! The wood goes into the pvc. The steam makes the wood soft and you can shape it anyway you want.

To get this project started I had to create a steamer to bend the wood for the stems. It is very simple. Take one wallpaper steamer and Jerry rig it to PVC pipe.

You would not believe the number of stools it takes to build a canoe from wood. In the foreground are just a few of the clamps that I have had to buy. The stack of wood behind all the clamps are the forms that will make up the shape of the canoe. The will be spaced one foot apart on the strongback.

These are the stems. They will make the shape of the front and the back of the canoe.

This is the strongback. Basically it is a 16 foot beam. This is what the forms which will create the shape of the canoe are attached.

the start

Imagine a pile of wood like this one gliding across a lake in the boundary waters at sunset. Being paddled by two people trying to get to camp before dark falls. Or being formed into the most beautiful canoe and treasured forever. This is my goal: to make a one of a kind cedar strip canoe to use for our family trip to the boundary waters this summer. It may take a lot of hard work and a lot of time and space, but I intend to do it. All by July.