Thread: to cove and bead?

G'day Dennis
I am 80% of the way through building a laugingloon double kayak Twin Star tandem baidarka design wood strip sea kayak by Laughing Loon I used western red ceder on the sides of the hull paulowina on the bottom of the hull and californian redwood on the deck. Didn't use cove and bead rather fitted each strip by hand using a block plane. The technique is described on the website, Hand Beveling wood strips for wood kayak canoe tablesaw set-up safety.
I found fitting the strips OK but there is a lot of work in building one of these. While I dont consider my self a perfectionist I am a prety darn goodist!
If you decide to go down the hand fitting rather than bead and cove send me a message and I can give you a more detailed descritpion of the process and pitfalls that I found. May do a summary of the build on this site when I'm finished (hopefully this summer)
Tony

I hope Allan Newhouse comes into this thread discussion. He has built at least 5 kayaks with mostly Paulownia and does not use B & C. His crafts are a pieces of art but equally functional.

Whitewood

The cove and bead method can eliminate a lot of fiddly bit of fitting planks, but isn't without some trimming to get bright finish fits. If shaping the strips by hand you can get just as nice a job, if a bit more effort. In reality, they both are about the same if you want a bright finish. If on the other hand you will paint it, then hand fitting without bevels will do just fine, filling with thickened epoxy afterward, then fairing her smooth. Ultimately it depends on what you want. If you want a bright finish, the fits have to be tight. Cove and bead can help in this regard, but you'll feel bad about the amount of wood left over after you made the beads and coves. On an average canoe build, 1/5th maybe even as much as 1/4th the strip material is shavings on the floor after beading and coving the strips. With hand planed strips, you'll have much less waste. If it's a painted build, then you can compensate for terrible fits with thickened goo and paint.

It will be a bright finish as I love the look of the timber kayaks and canoes I've seen . I thought it would be a quicker and easier process for a first time build not having to plane the majority of the edges to a tight fit
thanks for the replies more questions will be forthcoming

hooroo dennis

if you go with hand planing, a pair of edge trimming planes might prove very useful
Veritas Edge trimming plane
and
Bronze Edge Planes
from the Veritas blurb ...

The fence is drilled to allow blocks to be added or to affix a wooden wedge for cutting controlled bevels, such as in boatbuilding.

the Lie Nielsen's also have drilled fences

I found the standard block plane to be fine. The angle of bevel changes a bit along the length of the craft due to the changing shape of the hull. Less on the flatter sections and more on the curves areas. The bow of my craft has a bit of reverse curve which required reverse bevel and tapering ends on some of the strips. I think B&C would have been difficult in this section I milled the strips for the hull with a 3 degree bevel on one edge and this was a good start. Hand plane for the fine adjustment there after. I routered a 6 mm wide slot 12 mm deep in a 4 m length of 50 by 200 pine and could sit a strip in the slot if I needed to plane the whole length.
Tony

Par has made a point about the loss of timber during the B & C process. If you are buying your strips with B & C it will cost you about 50cents extra per L/M and you will have to buy more metres of timber to cover the same hull. Allan Newhouse finishes his bright from the regular strips of 6 x 20 mm.

Whitewood

I can cove and bead and I will be cutting my own strips so not too worried about the waste just really wanting too know if its demonstrably better system . The wife has expressed an interest so looks like it will be a canoe build.
Now regarding timber I have access to some rather nice tight grain douglas fir its at the moment would that be suitable for canoe buiding?

Originally Posted by fubar

I can cove and bead and I will be cutting my own strips so not too worried about the waste just really wanting too know if its demonstrably better system . The wife has expressed an interest so looks like it will be a canoe build.
Now regarding timber I have access to some rather nice tight grain douglas fir its at the moment would that be suitable for canoe buiding?

It seems to be accepted that the lighter the craft the easier / quicker it is to paddle. Many of the strip planked kayaks /canoes are made out of Paulownia or WRC or a mixture of both if your going for appearances as well. You can source your Paulownia on the net or just contact Port Phillip Plantation Shutters at Mordiallic. (Not connected)

Whitewood

Thanks whitewood I have read your previous posts and will be in touch with plantation shutters regarding the paulownia but
why is lighter better? portage ? speed ? does it make a difference at the end of the day paddling a 20 or 40 kilo canoe?
Its been 30 odd years since I last paddled and that was in plastic always down river.
lots of beer and red wine consumed since then so really cant remember.
again thanks for replies

Originally Posted by fubar

why is lighter better? portage ? speed ? does it make a difference at the end of the day paddling a 20 or 40 kilo canoe?

all other things -- length, beam and hull profile -- being equal, a 40kg vessel (+ you) will sit deeper in the water than a 20kg vessel
resiatance to paddeling is a function of wetted area -- ie the area of the boat's hull sitting in the water -- the greater the wetted area the greater the paddeling effort -- so the higher out of the water (= lighter) is better

to add to Ian's reply...
Every boat-length you travel, you displace a weight of water equal to the total boat & passenger weight
an average of about 6" to the side, and move it back again behind you.
You do this with the sweat of your brow & the blisters on your own two hands.
If the boat weighs an extra 20kg & is 5M long, for every km you paddle, you manually
move 20kg x 200 boat-lengths (4 Tonnes) of water 6" to the side, & 6" back again.
For ever and ever, amen.
Then there's the carrying it from the car roof to the water.
The cool thing about a canoe is you don't have to park right next to your put-in point.
200M away is ok. Unless your canoe is 20kg over-weight...

Hence Pawlonia & western red cedar being the preferred timbers for strip planking.
best regards
Alan J

thanks for the replies looks like it will be paulownia with small amount of other species used for highlights
again thanks for the sharing of knowledge

I typed an answer 3 times yesterday only to find they did not transfer to the forum when I submitted the reply. Don't know if it was my new windows 7 or the new forum. In the end you have had 2 responses from persons who explained the theory. All I remembered was a post by a naval architect, (MIK I think) who explained the theory. I didn't remember the reasons just the response as I was selling Paulownia at the time and it was the best response to further sales of my timber. All I'll add is sailing and rowing place a lot of importance on light weight hulls so it must make a significant difference to performance.
Good luck with your build. If you visit Allan Newhouse's posts you may get some ideas on design and appearances of kayaks. If not send me an email and I'll reply with some photos of his craft.

Whitewood