The Will to Bend

Preparing the strip to do the unthinkable - bend!

The earnestness of cedar planking begins into the will to bend - or not to bend - as the case may be.

Honestly, if I knew then what I know now, I would have settled on a much simpler design - at least for a first attempt at cedar stripping the challenging deck of  this model.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the design a lot BUT - the 3-D reality of the Night Heron deck is d-d-daunting.

Since my design requires a number of shorter, bendy, warpy and twisted strips, I am finding myself resorting to

Preparing to bend

sneaky tricks...

Blowing Steam

blowing steam...

and brute clamping force...

...each of which can be quite persuasive when deployed judiciously.

One word of praise for the invention of the Quick-Grip clamps which can be tightened with one hand alone while holding the strip to be clamped in place with the other.

I would not want to do this job without these neat tools - unless, of course, I had a second pair of hands to assist.

This thin curved strip needed hot steam - a lot.

I broke five strips on one particularly challenging section before I got one piece that agreed to submit to the required twist and curvature.

I admit to contemplating a fresh start.

It was a bit discouraging. Alas, in the end persistence, keeping cool and a touch of ingenuity overcame inflexibility.

Clamping a short whiskey plank

I basically made up two types of clamps which were necessitated by the  fact that none of the standard clamps could be applied to exert pressure on the part in question.

One quasi "clamp" is a fairly small triangular piece of softish cedar (left over from my Greenland paddle) which I essentially tied around the hull and deck using a small purchase system allowing to apply substantial pressure.


The other clamp of sorts consists of two 4' long 1x4's standing on either side of the kayak. They  are held in position on the floor with a simple adjustable rope. They reach well above the kayak deck line where they are tied with another type of purchase to allow strong pressure on the sheer of the boat. I found this type of clamp necessary since many of the bend cedar strips tend to continue to press outward on the sheer.

Unfortunately, the manual as well as Nick Schade's two otherwise very helpful books do not delve much into the dirty detail of working with unusual designs and shorter strips or extreme curves.

In addition to the forms around which you construct the strips, I hot-glued some stringers at strategic locations in order to ensure that the deck curves were maintained where there were no forms to hold on to.

Capping off the dark wood with a thin strip has been a challenging task.

 Necessity is the mother of invention. And so it goes and I plug along.

I guess this is what builds experience - eventually.

One thing has become quite obvious to me - I don't have it yet. But in the meantime, I am learning every day new aspects of how wood does not like to behave.

Okay, I do not have the fancy power tools either. I could definitely use a table saw... but then, I really don't mind learning how to saw a thin strip length-wise into two halves. I've actually gotten quite good at that.

I am making progress but still concerned about the ultimate outcome.

If it is not going to look wonderful in the end, why bother, right?!

Time will tell.