Cedar Strip Canoe

“Anyone ever build a cedar strip canoe? I was thinking of it as a winter project, and a way to get a nice canoe for cheap. What am I getting into here? Anyone have any advice based on experience?”

“No first hand info here. But an interesting tidbit. In one of Mi's northern towns the High School shop class builds em as a project. Pretty cool. Good luck finding info.”

“IB, the instructional media guy at our college and two pals each built a strip sea kayak at the same time. They turned out so beautiful, they were put in our art gallery with a display on how they were made. Sweet, but I'm not handy enough to try it myself. Good luck. There's plenty of stuff on the web about this.”

“IB, take a look at the following website: www.canoebuilding.com/

Looks like it will answer a lot of your FAQs.”

“Idaho Bob,
I've not built a canoe yet but I am in the process of building a 20 ft. sailboat. So far it has been pretty easy. Finding time to work on it is the hardest part. There are tons of websites on boatbuilding.”

“Cheap you say? What are you going to do cut down and mill your own strips? Weave your fibreglass matt yourself. One thing I learned when I built my 16' stripper that it was any thing but cheap. It was labor intensive (easy labor but mostly by hand). Expensive to buy the ceder and it always seemed to need more.


Now all that aside just as soon as I can (that is the honey-do list is done). I will be makeing another one slightly smaller because certain woods are only availible in 16 ft lenghts and trimming out a 16' canoe needs about 17' lenghts. Make sure your work shop can be heated to about 75 deg and with out the use of an kerosine or oil burner heater as these will put oils on your canoe that will ruin the finish. Other that that just go ahead and be prepared to spend about $2000 to $2500 on this when you are done. The cedar is not the only thing you need to buy. Please feel free to e-mail me about your project with any questions and good luck.

Two years later people still stop and stare at it when I go by and they can't belive that I take it out on rivers and class 2 white water. I figure that I built it I can fix it.

dpicciotto@att.net”

“$2000?? Wow, why did it cost so much? I was going to cut my own strips, since I have a friend with a high quality table saw, band saw and planer. I thought I'd buy the thwarts and seats premade, but I have seen kits that purport to sell all the materials for $800 or so. Where does the extra expense come in?”

“The $800 is for small canoe kits. My canoe is the Chestnut prospector which is a wide 16' canoe. Also the kits do not allow for any opps on your part. If you mix too big of a batch of resin and it cooks off in the pot you just toss it away and buy some more. The thwart was the easiest part that I made but machined ones are only 20 to 30 bucks. You must include the cost to keep warm when working because fibreglassing must be done when temps are in the 70's less than that and it will not set right. The cost of sandpaper which I went tru alot is not included. Nor is the cost of any tools that you don't have included in the $800 but is in my est. Don't be discourged my belt sander and palm sander will be with me for many years. Of course the first palm sander
died within two weeks.”

“Do you have an estimate on how many hours it takes to build it? How long in days (months) did it take you to built it? If you are building a 16 foot canoe, how much room do you need, 20 feet?”

“It tok about 15 months to build with many days of not working on it. I have heard from others that it can be done in about 3 to 4 weeks working every night and both weekend days but when would you go backpacking? As for room I manage to build it in a shed(haha) that was about 18 ft long it was real fun trying not to poke a hole in the plastic curtin that I used as a end wall when putting the longer strips on. If you can get 20 or more it just makes it easier. The reason that I used such a tight space was, I am without a garage and my shed is only 12 ft. The basement was out because it is finished. So under my deck with only 5'8" of clearance under the rafters it went. I to cut my own strips from 1 x 4 cedar boards up to 20 ft if you plan on getting
16 strips from each board forget it you get about 8 maybe 9 and a small less than 1/4 in strip. Then I routed each one to make a cove and bead so the strips would interlock with to next one. I made my own jig to hold a Demerl tool and it was slow but it worked. However I don't recommend that you follow that example get a real router or buy the strips already done. As for why it took so long I did not work on it in the winter because I could not afford to heat the shed
and the only work I did on it was when the sun was out on the weekends for about 3 hours.”