While I HAVE been working steadily on the kayak, I have also found it difficult to find time to update the blog. Sorry its been a while, but see below for progress photos and descriptions that bring the build process up to the beginning of July.

Many years ago as a child I was introduced to high end all wood boats with high performance Rolls Royce or other equally powerful engines cruising around at full throttle in freshwater lakes in New Hampshire. The lasting impression is that I will have to build one of these masterpieces one day, and equip it with an equally ridiculous motor (diesel).

It is my intent to layout the deck of my kayak with a color and stripe pattern to replicate the traditional pattern used on these old wood boats from the 1930's. Obviously with such drastically different proportions i'll have to get a little creative.

I started by determining how much of the deck I could cover with the parallel strips without losing the balance of the curved strips that started at the shear line. I installed a few short strips to infill the narrow gap at the bow and stern where the full length strips diverged.

These little guys are all oversize as they will get cut on a curve later.

Next I folded a piece of paper in half and cut a smooth flowing curve. I unfolded it and traced the line onto the deck. Carefully, I used a little Japanese saw to cut the curve, staying off my pencil line for now.

I used sandpaper wrapped around a bottle to sand away the remaining bits of wood to the pencil line.

Now on to making strips out of the same curly maple. Cutting them will prove to be the easy part of this!

I marked the end of the board before I cut it so I could keep track of grain orientation once the strips get tiny

When I first started this project I bought a piece of curly maple about 5 feet long. I cut the bow and stern pieces out of that board, and now i'll use the remaining chunk to generate all the strips necessary for the entire deck decorative stripping pattern.

I cut the entire board into paint stirrer size pieces - 3/16" thick. I laid all the pieces out together and was blown away by the grain!!!

Next, i'll modify my table saw set up just a little so I can turn these into 3/16" x 3/16" strips. I used a series of guide blocks and feather boards so I could keep my fingers safely far away from the blade, and eliminate any flex in each piece as it passes the blade.

The cedar strip had to be readjusted after each rip. I used hot melt glue to hold it in place.

After an evening of cutting I ended up with this small bundle of noodles.

You can see why I marked the ends when I did - since the pieces are square there would have been no way to tell orientation once they got mixed up.

So now all I needed to do was bend one of these little noodles into the curve in the deck to define the outter edge of my decorative strips. No big deal right? Boy was I wrong!!

I tried heat bending with a heat gun in the same manner I've been bending all the cedar strips. Fail

I tried soaking in boiling water, and over night. Fail

I tried steam bending. Fail

Finally I came to the conclusion that curly maple is basically the worst wood to try to bend ever. The grain is all crazy, and there are no oils or resins in the wood to heat up and soften it. I decided to try making some thinner strips and testing until I found a thickness that would take the curve naturally, without any heat or bending.

Finally I got the strips down to about 1/16" wide. This worked. I held the strip in place with my finger tips, with super glue on one side (yes I have glued myself to the kayak on several occasions now) and sprayed in the super glue instant cure spray. It worked!

It looks a little rough, but it'll clean up nice!

I completed the second side and started laying out the first cedar strip.

To extend the visual impact of this detailed deck area, i'm using some cedar from my last kayak that is much darker in color. This should set it apart from the rest of the boat, and create a more dramatic contrast against the nearly white color maple

More strips...

And more strips...

Clamping starts to get challenging - I use scraps laying around to make weges pushing the new strip into place. I've got to be careful here to not dent the cedar, as the pressure to clamp it will also cause an indentation. I always protect the edge with a wider piece to distribute the force or a harder piece of maple.

Finally with the last strips in place I did a quick rough sanding to get the excess glue off and expose the grain of the maple. Very pleased with how this came out!

A little water makes the colors pop out!

I am super happy with how this turned out!!!

Really Really pleased with how this looks. I really cant wait to see it with fiberglass!

Now on to do the same thing on the forward deck, but that'll have to be another post.

Thanks for reading!