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Author: Brian

Hi, I'm Brian, I've been building skin-on-frame kayaks for 17 years. I'm a (formerly) avid kayaker living in Portland, OR. I hope you enjoy the post!

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CAPE FALCON STUDENT BUILDS

Blog your build is a way to share your build, get connected with other Cape Falcon Kayak owners and builders, and save some money at the same time.

Bloggers post some photos and comments about their progress each time they work on their boats, along with an initial paddling impression and another one 6 months later. In exchange, they receive a partial refund on their plans or building course.

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Turn the sound on! Just another slow mo clip of t

Turn the sound on! Just another slow mo clip of the 1942 direct drive parks planer chowing down on an $80 western red cedar 1x6x16 which is actually the lowest price I’ve seen on this stuff in a while! Ouch. Normally, this is just a dedicated planter for bending oak, but sometimes we feed it lighter meals.
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#vintagetools #woodworking #antiquetools #boatbuilding

Thank you to Abby of The Bainbridge Barn for sendi

Thank you to Abby of The Bainbridge Barn for sending me this video of one of my students steam bending the ribs in his canoe. I really like it sharing photos and videos of student builds because it helps people to see that you can get the same results without being an ‘expert’. If you have photos or videos of your build, please share them with us!
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Here Giovanni is steam bending ribs for his full size tandem canoe, using wood from @jwswanandsons . Notice the symmetry he is able to achieve despite not using molds or forms. Any remaining wobbles will be smooth out by attaching the stringers.
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The extremely nice wood shop is part of a maker space on Bainbridge Island across from Seattle, Washington called The Bainbridge Barn. This is their woodworking studio, but they actually have nine other studios focused on different aspects of craft and technology. It’s a pretty incredible resource if you happen to live in the area! Check them out at @bainbridge_barn
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#woodworking #steambending #skinonframecanoe #maker

Tom demonstrates proper safe pencil sharpening tec

Tom demonstrates proper safe pencil sharpening technique. Inspired by @shipwrightskills who was inspired by @jimmydiresta . #youllputyoureyeoutkid #woodworking #carpentry #precisionwoodworking

Building the steam bent keyhole cockpit coaming is

Tom builds all the coamings for our skin-on-frame

Tom builds all the coamings for our skin-on-frame kayak building kits. Here he shows his technique for solo steam-bending the double-lip that gives us sufficient depth for rock solid sprayskirt attachment. He normally does this at his shop, so this is my first time watching his process and I actually learned a few things! Bending wood is from @jwswanandsons .
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#steambending #skinonframekayak #skinonframe #kayakbuilding #woodworking

Here’s an excellent example of a tandem canoe in

This seems like a weird thing to share but for all

This seems like a weird thing to share but for all the builders in my feed I just wanna let you know about these nitrile gloves that I picked up at Napa. I’ve been under the mistaken impression that all nitrile gloves were the same for the last 20 years. Normally I use them once, maybe twice, and then toss them. But lately I’ve been working on my car and I was out of gloves, so I picked up this box when I was at Napa instead of at the normal hardware store. Same price as the other gloves but they last five times as long! They are way tougher, and my hands don’t get sticky and sweaty in them, which makes them easy to take off and reuse.
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So that’s my tool tip of the day. If you buy a box and try them, send me a message and let me know if you feel the same way?
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#tooltips #woodworkingtips #boatbuilding #finishing

Falcon Sails rigged! Really looking forward to co

Falcon Sails rigged! Really looking forward to comparing these to my own much simpler designs. I’m seriously impressed with the quality of this kit.
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#kayaksailing #seakayak

Back to the kayak sailing madness, today I’m doi

Back to the kayak sailing madness, today I’m doing an Falcon Kayak Sail install. (similar name, but not the same company as us).
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#kayaksailing #kayakcatamaran #skinonframe #kayaking

Before I take the XJ to the doctor for a full re-g

Before I take the XJ to the doctor for a full re-gear and some upgrades, I thought I would take a moment to pop the front differential cover and check out the carnage for myself.
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I still not sure I fully understand what happened here, but my best guess is that the new pinion seal disturbed the pinion gear fit with the ring gear and they locked together (at 60 miles an hour on the freeway) instantly transferring all of the rotational force onto the spider gears? Sounded like a gunshot underneath my rig when it happened.
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The lesson here is that if you have leaking pinion seals It’s important to figure out why they are leaking instead of just putting a Band-Aid on the problem.
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#jeepcherokee #jeepxj #jeeplife #gears

Just posted a new video on our YouTube channel tal

Here’s some edge turning footage that didn’t m

Here’s some edge turning footage that didn’t make the cut for the new LPB design video I’m working on. Seemed a shame to never let it see the light of day!
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As a surf boater, and a Whitewater kayaker, the lack of maneuverability in sea kayaks normally infuriates me so I try to build the maximum amount of turning performance that I can into my own designs. This does not affect straight tracking and actually helps the kayak avoid weathercocking.
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This is my first “turn your phone sideways” video here. What do you think about posting Instagram videos in this format? Normally I just stick with the square, but sometimes things need room to breathe.
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#seakayak #skinonframekayak #kayakskills

Yesterday’s project was building a new solar pan

Yesterday’s project was building a new solar panel set up for the jeep. Normally I have two 100W panels on the roof which gives us just enough power to run all computers, video equipment, and the satellite dish while we’re on the road, (see third photo) but because we’re bringing boats up top this time, I had to change things up.
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Various companies do make a folding solar suitcase that isn’t any more expensive than what I just built but my problem with it is that it’s heavy, and it folds with the glass to the outside which makes it prone to getting broken even with a case. There are also very light weight folding options but they sit very low to the ground and it would be difficult to keep them configured in high winds. Also, you don’t always have the option to run them in series which is a must for me to reduce voltage drop when using extension cords.
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So I decided to get two of the newer flexible Renogy panels, and mount them on some quarter inch marine ply I had sitting around. Various spacers are glued on for the hinges and fastening, and the whole thing is set up so it can fold onto itself without the electrical connections, damaging the opposite panel. With the plywood on the outside and the panels in flexible, this should be tough enough for months of desert camping. I’ll be using a small MC4 extension to connect the panels in series on the backside.
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A couple star knobs, threaded into T nuts lets me mount simple legs for optimum sun angle, and the eye screws create tie down and stake down points which is 100% necessary in places where the wind can reach 50 miles an hour.
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The extra wide spacer blocks on the outside allow this to bridge across my roof underneath the racks for transport, and also they’re super convenient for catching the edge of a folding step stool or even the roof rack if we don’t have boats up top.
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I’m hoping for a sunny day before we leave so I can verify that these have the same output as my rigid panels.
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#offgridliving #overland #solarsystem #mobileoffice

At risk of revealing myself to be the insane perso

At risk of revealing myself to be the insane person that I actually am, I’m having a bit of an ethical dilemma:
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Should I keep feeding Spencer?
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Spencer is the jumping spider in this video. He took a liking to my workshop in the middle of the summer, roaming around, looking for bugs, I would constantly see him hanging out when I was working on stuff and he started to seem like a little buddy.
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Fast forward to the winter time I hadn’t seen Spencer for quite a while, and then one day I saw him emaciated, slowly crawling across the floor. Obviously, he hasn’t been finding much to eat lately. So I headed outside and looked for some bugs and was surprised at how hard it was to find them. I guess I’ve never gone looking for bugs in the winter before.
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Most of what I could find were tiny centipedes and beetles which he wasn’t interested in, but then I found a little spider and brought it in. Spencer immediately perked up, took a moment to dial-in distance and trajectory, and then took it down like a tiny missile. (jumping about five times farther than you see in this video).
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Since then, the weirdest thing has happened. Every few weeks when I’m working on my computer, Spencer will show up next to me on the couch. This has to be coincidence but it seems like he’s asking for food. So I’ve been going out in the yard like a totally crazy person flipping over stumps and flower pots and bringing him more little spiders which is all I can find that he will eat.
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but now I’m starting to feel like I’m committing a tiny ethical crime because at this rate, I would’ve killed about 15 spiders by the end of the winter to keep my little buddy alive.
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What do you think? Should I let Spencer starve or should I keep supporting his cannibalistic behavior? Also, if you’re some kind of spider scientist, feel free to let me know if this isn’t a male spider.
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#jumpingspider #spider #nature #arachnid

Here’s a Christmas present for everyone looking

Some thing that has always confused me is how Euro

Some thing that has always confused me is how European explorers continually reported the Inuit to be among the happiest people that they had ever encountered, despite living in the most difficult conditions on the planet.
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But after a couple days of this recent ice storm, the answer finally dawned on me:
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Only the most mentally resilient people CAN survive in those conditions, and everyone like me probably just threw themselves into the ocean halfway through the first hard winter, leaving only happy people left!
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(this is a joke, I have no idea what the real reason is). Keep warm!
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#qajaq #icestorm #kayaking

I was going to post a time lapse of me, changing t

I was going to post a time lapse of me, changing the fuel injectors on the jeep, but I imagine that nobody but me I would watch it. So instead I dug into the archives from our last adventure in 2020 and grabbed some clips. Turn the sound on, it’s entertaining. Enjoy!
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#utahdesert #jeepxj #overland #rattlesnake #adventure

XJ, the saga continues…. Fair warning: for the n

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Contact

Brian Schulz
brian@capefalconkayaks.com
Call or text: 503 354 4939

4935 NE 11th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97211
Hours by appointment only

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