greybeard canoes & kayaks

I’ve completed the first round of sanding, but left the ends unsanded ahead of installing the external stems. Because I’m not equipped to steam wood, I thickness planed the strips of ash until I could bend them without fear of breaking the strips.

The next step was to notch the hull where the stem starts. Then it was a matter of applying thickened epoxy (epoxy and wood dust) to the hull and between individual strips. The sandwiched strips are then fastened to the hull using drywall screws. I’ll remove these later, expand the holes, and fill the holes with pieces of dowel.

Next steps are to shape the stems, more hull sanding, filling gaps with thickened epoxy, and then on to fiberglassing.