Category Kayak building class

For a city slicker who understands trees can be bought as planks and not much more, it’s a miracle to plane wood down into the thickness you need for a specific project. Strength to weight ratio is slowly sinking in…

Science has it that a wood joint bigger than 1:12 slowly starts being stronger than wood without a joint. At 1:15 it is clearly stronger but stiffer. So, how do you want your joint? Scarfing is not just about tall…

When your Gunwhales are sawn and you start measuring for ribs and deckbeams, that’s when it feels like the kayak build is starting. Today, the old plunge router gave up and before that, the camera “stand” I used for recording…

Today at 7.05 a trucker walked in to the boatyard and said: -“I can’t deliver down here. The tree canopies scrape my brand new 4,5m high truck. You have to get your goods at the bridge“. -“With what?” I said.…

We be laminatin’. Some paddles already tested. None broken so far. A new technique emerged after a tip from one of the gnarly sea cat boat builders at the club, namely the use of an angle grinder for compound curves.…

I was thinking about how to easily draw and make a jig for a good looking and functioning cockpit coaming and came up with this idea that lends itself to easy drawing with a pencil and a piece of string.…

If it breaks it breaks. Today we bent the wood on the deck beam lamination jig but one inner lamination broke right at the spot of the middle dowel. Clara made a new one in what seemed like under a…

To steam bend kayak ribs is always interesting. Camera Guy uses the “standing video syndrome” to it’s fullest 😉 And here is a time lapse of Speedy Greg’s kayak. There was never any real need for a rib jig before…

It finally arrived. The long longed for table saw arrived and should be easy to set up, was it not for the lack of bushings in the package and the electric switch fastener mounted on backwards from the factory. Ehmmm,…

Next up is making a paddle. You need clamps again 🙂 There are as many ways to laminate a paddle as there are paddle makers! Here is one way if you just care about trying to protect a softer wood…

(Steaming hot featured image by Rickard F)One of the most rewarding tasks in building your Greenland kayak is probably laminating the deck beams. You go from thin strips of wood to a beautiful curved deck beams with something like 10…

I finally got around to try out our Polyurethane on some scrap nylon fabric. Unfortunately I didn’t have a brush handy and there was some unsecurity about the ratios, but everything stuck and penetrated the cloth well. I even overcolored…