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Bloggers still purchase the online building course, but receive their plans for free. In exchange, every time they build, they post some photos and comments about their progress, along with an initial paddling impression and another one 6 months later.

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Skin on Frame Canoe Build Time Lapse 4. . When wor

Skin on Frame Canoe Build Time Lapse 4.
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When working with my rib length formula, it’s always a good idea to do a set of test ribs to double check the shape and also to get comfortable with the steam bending process before committing to the entire boat. Inspired by @tuftsandbatson I’m using much fuller rib shapes this time. This is one of two approaches that I’m currently experimenting with for adding more volume to the center of the canoe. I’ll do this one this way and the next canoe a different way and make a final decision on which one I think works better. (For my students this is global increase of the R/b vs just adding progressing length increase towards the center).
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By the end of this day I like to have everything prepped for ribbing the boat the following day. Sometime around now I also like to coat the outwales, that way they will be ready in a few days when I need to skin the boat. In this case I’m using Rubio Monocoat on cherry. If I was using varnish I would have started a day earlier so I could build up enough coats.
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Weirdly, in my 25 years of being a woodworker I’ve never done anything with cherry before. I really like it so far! A nice medium density hardwood that seems to be split resistant and machines and carves beautifully. Depending on how this boat turns out I might start using it more often.
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Build time in minutes:
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30 planing bending wood
45 making the measuring stick
85 cutting and bending test ribs
90 measuring and cutting ribs
25 making lashing spools
20 coating the outwales
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Total task time: 4 hrs 55 min
Total build time so far: 15 hrs 45 min
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#boatbuilding #timelapse #boatbuilder #process #steambending #bendingwood #shaping #canoe #canoebuilding #skinonframecanoe #woodworkingproject #woodenboat

Skin on Frame Canoe time lapse 3. (FYI, there’s

Skin on Frame Canoe time lapse 3. (FYI, there’s music)
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This canoe is one of a two nesting canoe set. It’s going to be 15 feet long, and 30 inches wide, and 12 1/4 inches deep. On my last build I went for a symmetrical plan view and sheer line. This time I’m swinging in the other direction and going more asymmetrical than I’ve gone yet, and bumping the bow sheer up about an inch higher than the stern.
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Build times in minutes:
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10 checking for symmetry
25 pegging and trimming the ends
40 drill, countersink, and sand outwales
20 initial stem layout and cutting
25 setting keel rocker and temporarily attaching the stems
10 checking the rocker
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(End of day 3)
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Task time: 2hrs 35min
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Total build time so far: 10 hrs 50 min
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#woodworking #timelapse #canoe #canoebuild #boatbuilding #skinonframe #buildaboat #diyproject #paddleyourowncanoe

Finally found a song I like for this project so I’m re-uploading the first couple days of the skin on frame canoe time lapse.
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As I mentioned yesterday for this build I’m recording the actual time spent on each task. If you’re taking my canoe building class doubling these numbers should give you plenty of time to watch the video and complete each step.
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Build time in minutes:
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25 setting up for mortising
35 mortising 2 sets of gunwales
35 taking measurements
45 filling in worksheets
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(End of day 2)
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45 installing spreader forms
30 kerfing and tying the gunwale tips
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Task time: 3hrs 35min
Total task time so far: 8hrs 15min
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#timelapse #woodworking #boatbuilding #canoe #canoebuild #skinonframe #mortise #woodworkingproject #buildityourself #buildaboat #woodenboat #diy

Finally found a song a like for this project so I’m re-uploading the first few days of the skin on frame canoe time lapse.
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For this week’s solo canoe build I’m doing something a bit different. Instead of going day by day, I am recording the actual time spent on each task along with the total working time at the end of each day. This way we can see exactly how long the woodworking takes and also how much time is lost to inefficiency and mistakes. (Of which there is much and many).
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If you’re building one of my boats or you’re thinking about building one this will give you a good sense of the workflow and time involved. My actual working time is about 25% longer than the listed task time (lunch, errors, etc.). If you are building one of my canoes doubling these times should give you more than enough time to watch the video and complete the task.
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I’m building one canoe this time, but I’m doing prep work for two canoes because it’s a lot more efficient to do multiples while the tools are set up. Here’s the numbers in minutes:
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30 planing the wood
30 layout
20 taking measurements
15 setting up for laminating
45 laminating the gunwales
65 cutting stringers, keel, outwales
35 rounding the stringers.
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(end of day 1).
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20 cleaning up the lamination
20 cutting the gunwales
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Total task time 4 hours 40 minutes.
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#woodworking #planer #prepwork #canoe #canoebuild #boatbuilding #lamination #glueup #buildaboat #diyproject #buildyourown #woodworkingproject #buildityourself

Check out this sweet little canoe and paddle set b

95% of the time someone has a problem building any

95% of the time someone has a problem building any of my boats it’s because they tried to cheap out on bending wood. With my kayaks and sometimes the smaller pack canoes you can make certain kiln dried woods work at the cost of some additional frustration and kindling production, but for our larger canoes, freshly sawn, clear, straight grained white oak is the ticket to success.
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The reason we use white oak is because it has a closed pore structure, which resists the fungal infiltration that causes red oak to die a rapid death in marine applications. The most commonly available white oak species is Quercus Alba, which @jwswanandsons in Wisconsin cuts by the literal boatload.
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Our local white oak species here in Oregon is Quercus Garryana which we buy from @zenaforestproducts. There’s very little Oregon white oak of this quality left so I’m very grateful to have access to it.
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Overseas in England my builders have had success with Quercus Robur, a species of English Oak, and others in Europe have used ash. Supposedly black locust makes a decent bending wood but I’ve never had access to freshly sawn high-quality quality stock to do a side-by-side comparison.
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Whatever the species the important thing is getting it as green as possible with minimal run out, no knots, and straight grain.
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At around 10 bucks a board foot, the price of good bending stock might seem steep, but the only thing more expensive than buying good bending stock to begin with is finally giving up after battling bad bending wood and then having to buy the good bending wood anyway. Not to mention the lost time!
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#whiteoak #bendingoak #clearwood #bendingwood #oregonwhiteoak #boatbuildingwood #nicewood

Lighted glamour shots are always a fun part of ski

This is last year‘s canoe of very similar size t

This is last year‘s canoe of very similar size to the one I just finished. Very helpful to be able to take them both out at the same time. Dimensions here are mostly the same as what I described in the previous couple posts. The big difference is that this is 3/4 of an inch deeper, and asymmetrical with a fuller section aft. I honestly can’t tell how much of a difference that makes but I think I like this one a little better. Hard to say really. Both canoes are a touch short for what I like in a dedicated solo boat, but as a quick toss it in the back of your pick up paddle a few miles and catch a few fish kind of boat, it’s a darn convenient size. Probably not a bad ultralight tripper either. 28lbs (31 fully rigged with floats and sail) is a nice weight. I find that anything over 30 on the bare hull weight starts to influence my decision of whether or not to go paddling.
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#skinonframecanoe #sailingcanoe #canoe #canoeing #paddling #getonthewater #buildyourownboat #handbuilt #sail #smallboat #woodenboat #gopaddling

I’m pretty excited about the new drone, not just

I’m pretty excited about the new drone, not just for the media potential but also because it lets me see the boat in new ways which is helpful from a design perspective. There is no perfect drone for this sort of work but after much deliberation we decided on the @skydiohq for it’s simplicity and impressive follow features. Also, it’s blue. I really like blue.
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Continuing from yesterday‘s post, it’s always hard for me to judge the speed of a canoe because as a lifelong kayaker every canoe feels sluggish to me. My canoe stroke is also total crap, so I can only rely on feedback from my more experienced soloist students to judge the quickness.
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Maneuverability and tracking seem about right. It wags just a little with the stroke (again, I suck at canoeing) and I can spin it with just a little over two sweep strokes, which is about the same tracking maneuverability balance that I look for in a kayak. Canoe trim and rocker is a subject that I’m still trying to get a handle on.
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I pushed a bunch of extra volume into my standard rib formula on this boat just to see what would happen and the boat ended up pretty flat in the middle and more stable than I want it to be. It’s good to know that is possible but I’m going to be backing off on that next time.
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I really like the 26lb empty weight (30 with seat, flotation and sail). There’s just something about a boat that weighs 30 pounds instead of 40 pounds that makes it a lot more likely you’re going to toss it on the car really quick for an afternoon paddle.
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Speaking of the car, this is the very first time I’ve had two non-nesting canoes up top and I hated it. It took twice as long to load and unload and the windage felt like it was going to rip the roof rack off of my car. I was going to build non-nesting boats this year but I’m seriously rethinking that.
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Overall I got pretty close to what I was aiming for with this boat. To build it again I would go asymmetrical, 28 inches wide and 10 inches deep, and that would probably shave a pound. Using my shallower pack canoe dimensions with an over/under mountable fixed canoe seat opens new possibilities for saving weight when extra freeboard isn’t needed.

This 13’9” x 28.5” canoe (brown) is roughly

This 13’9” x 28.5” canoe (brown) is roughly the same dimension as the smallest canoe in my triple nesting set from last year (gold). I built this mostly just as a teaching tool to re-film the canoe building course on our website, but also as a “throwaway boat” so I could blast through a bunch of experiments before getting more serious about larger solo canoes this year.
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The shape is symmetrical and it felt just a little bit slower than the asymmetrical canoe I built last year, although that could be because it also has a slightly flatter bottom shape, the variation in the wind, or my imagination. It’s more stable than I need it to be.
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Being 3/4 of an inch shallower it weighs a pound and a half less and I actually really noticed that carrying it.
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At 10 1/2 inches deep it gives me the option to mount a flat canoe seat below and above the gunwales, which is awesome because I no longer have to choose between the perfect kneeling thwart height and the perfect sitting height. If used in protected waterways I don’t see any downside in going this shallow. Because it’s symmetrical I glued a second set of mounting blocks forward so I can move the seat to that position for a convenient little table or a handhold when I sit on the floor sailing in high winds.
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I put some little sheer blocks on top of the gunwales towards the end because I really liked how that looked on my re-curving stems. The effect isn’t as compelling on an angled stem but it gives me a bow geometry that allows me to use the same sail mast for a kayak as well. So in the future I will put this in the bow of these smaller Canoes but not in the Stern.
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For me at 5’8” 165 lbs, 13’9” is a bit short for a dedicated solo single blade canoe, and at 28.5” wide x 10.5” deep it’s a bit bulky for me to sit on the bottom and use a kayak paddle in that position, but as a lightweight, toss it in the back of your truck and go fish for a few hours canoe, or as something you could use on a backpacking style canoe trip with long portages, it’s a decent little boat.
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Out of space to type here, more details in tomorrow’s post, along with drone footage!
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#canoeing #skinonframe #boatbuilder #canoe #sailingcanoe

First side-by-side canoe comparison of 2021. Both

First side-by-side canoe comparison of 2021. Both canoes share almost the same dimensions but somewhat different shaping. I like and dislike things about each one. I’ll go into detail about this in the next post once I edit the video we shot. For now I just thought I’d throw up a few pretty pictures!
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Who wants to place bets on how long until the new drone becomes a submarine?!
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#canoe #canoeing #skinonframecanoe #sailingcanoe #skinonframe #boattest #maidenvoyage #canoebuilder #handcrafted #builtbyhand #prototype #66canoe

Finally got the new canoe outfitted and ready for

Finally got the new canoe outfitted and ready for action. After the briefest of test paddles a couple days ago I decided that it was just a squeak outside of the size that I would like to use sitting low with a kayak paddle so I decided to set this up as a solo single blade instead.
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I didn’t have any of the curved, webbed seats I usually use here, so I dredged up this old flat cane seat, which led to a whole creative storm of realizing that I could set this up above or below the gunwales at this size, because it’s such a shallow canoe. Then I thought to myself because it’s a symmetrical canoe I could put a second set of blocks forward and then when I’m sitting on the bottom sailing the boat I could have the canoe seat in front of me as a convenient little table.
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Ordinarily I thread the bolts down through the gunnels and straight into T nuts mounted in the seat but because this is going to be an over under set up I’m experimenting with star knobs instead. More than anything I just like to make things really easy to take apart so I can switch the configuration on the water.
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The 4 inch solid pool noodle flotation is just kind of my standard set up with a ridge rest pad on the bottom for comfort and to protect the ribs. This makes the canoe self dumping if you swamp it which makes rescues a little bit easier.
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I added two different types of Delrin rub strips to either end, mostly just because I needed to teach it both ways during the course re-filming push. In keeping with my full-time job as a professional mistake maker I learned a couple things not to do with the Delrin. Instructions for that are now in the course along with using HDPE and brass.
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The sail was scavenged off of a much larger canoe I built last year so that should be exciting. I love the weight of the carbon fiber mast even if the price is a bit hard to swallow.
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Total weight for everything you see here is 32 pounds. Launch soon.
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#canoe #canoebuilding #boatbuilder #woodencanoe #outfitting #woodworkingproject #buildaboat

My favorite build right now is by @eckhardtadam in

My favorite build right now is by @eckhardtadam in Michigan who is building a triple set of nesting canoes for his family. This is just one of a whole series of time lapse videos that he just put up on his Instagram feed and also on his page on our Cape Falcon Student Builds blog. Definitely worth checking those out if you’re not following them already. Another honorable mention here is @buroak who is also getting after it right now on a solo and is posting time lapse videos as well. Ted just posted a coating video. Enjoy!
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#timelapse #skinonframe #skinonframecanoe #66canoe #nestingcanoes #woodencanoe #boatbuilding #inprogress #woodworkingproject #familyproject #paddleyourowncanoe
Video: @eckhardtadam

Does anyone here have experience using Acetal/Delr

Does anyone here have experience using Acetal/Delrin as small boat wear strips? I recently bought some and made some strips for my newest canoe and as far as I can tell from everything I’m reading and how it feels to work with I think this could be a really great option. It’s tougher than brass or HDPE (The things I’m currently using) I can put it on thin and it doesn’t have the somewhat nerve-wracking machining characteristics of UHMW or the huge thermal expansion problem.
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If this is a good option I don’t want to wait three years to see how these wear strips wear down before I can recommend it to my students. So I thought I would see if anybody out there has a new real world experience or if there’s any big downsides that I’m not thinking of here.
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Please only responses from people with actual experience using it. Thank you!!
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#boatbuilding #skinonframe #delrin #canoebuilding

First canoe of 2021. 14’ long, 28.5” wide, 10.

First canoe of 2021. 14’ long, 28.5” wide, 10.5” deep. 26lbs with no outfitting. Symmetrical. Gunwales, stringers, and stems are western red cedar. Ribs are Oregon white oak from @zenaforestproducts. Keel is port orford cedar. Rub rails are Ash. Skin is 840 xtra tuff nylon with 3 coats of 2 part polyurethane. For my students: I’ll have full details on this boat in the canoe examples section within a week.
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The goals for this canoe were to explore the effects of adding more volume to my rib length formula, to re-shoot the entire Canoe Building Course, to explore the aesthetic of adding riser blocks with angled stems, to explore symmetrical (fore/aft) hulls, and finally to see if I could build a canoe that perfectly straddled the line between double paddle canoe and single blade canoe for my body size.
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The rib length adjustments went really well and the shape is actually flatter than I even need or want it to be. At this size I would probably leave the riser blocks out next time. It doesn’t really make the boat look any better with angled stems (they look great with recurve stems though). Although on a smaller pack Canoe I might keep the one in the bow just as a little bit of insurance against the occasional taller wave.
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I’m going to spend today outfitting the various bits and pieces and then I’ll let you know how it paddles.
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#canoe #skinonframecanoe #66canoe #boatbuilder #woodenboat #woodencanoe #builtbyhand #handcrafted #buildyourownboat #paddleyourowncanoe #craftsmanship #woodworking

We finished re-shooting the coating section of the

We finished re-shooting the coating section of the skin on frame canoe building course yesterday, completing a month long work push to reshoot the entire course. I’m looking forward to getting back to the more creative side of things in the coming months!
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The coating I’m using here is the two-part polyurethane sold by Corey Freedman at skinboats.com.
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This stuff has developed a reputation over the years as being hard to work with, but in my opinion when you consider the total cost, effort, and toxicity compared to any other coating system I think it’s actually easier.
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We apply 3-5 coats, wet on wet, it takes about four hours, and then you’re DONE for the life of the skin which is generally about five years or 5000 paddling miles.
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Most of the horror stories involving this stuff just have to do with people using it wrong. The mixture needs to be precisely one part A to two parts B, with just a tiny bit of extra part A. That’s pretty simple to understand but do you have to be aware of the effect of the residues left over in measuring cups and how to compensate for it. And then there’s a whole list of unlikely disasters that only happen once in a while like someone grabbing the part B instead of the part A from a half batch they ordered because it comes in the same size and shape container as the larger size Part A. Or not checking your measuring cups with water to make sure that they were manufactured with accurate measurements.
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As far as the application goes, really it’s all about working as fast as possible so once you roll it out it has time to self level before the next coat. This can be challenging for people who are used to being very meticulous. Less is definitely more here. Roll it fast, roll it hard, and then STOP, chill, and just wait.
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Of course there’s ways to deal with problems if you got a little OCD with the roller, and there’s even a way to rescue a sticky boat if you didn’t mix correctly as long as the ratios weren’t too bad. But it’s always better to just get it right the first time!
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#skinonframe #boatbuilding #timelapse #canoe #canoebuilding #skinboat #woodenboat #buildyourownboat #paddleyourowncanoe #diyproject #buildityourself

We are thrilled to have a new source for some of t

We are thrilled to have a new source for some of the best quality Bending Oak I’ve ever seen at a ridiculously fair price!
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Quality bending oak can be hard to find which is why I was blown away when a student sent me a picture of some White Oak they purchased from @jwswanandsons, a local sawyer/boatbuilder in northern Wisconsin.
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Josh Swan is a true jack of all trades. He builds and teaches new wooden boat building construction, wooden boat restoration, custom mills a wide variety of marine timber, and donates a percentage of profits to conservation funds.
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In addition to his incredible quality Bending Oak lumber Josh has also partnered with us to offer pre-cut kayak and canoe ribs at a price that I could never match. For roughly 65 bucks you can get a set of pre-milled Kayak ribs sent to your doorstep, or about double that for a mid size canoe. Cut ribs are more expensive than raw lumber but you save a ton of money on shipping, and you also don’t have to murder your planer or tablesaw with this super tough highly acidic wood.
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This is a game changer for us because sourcing high quality Bending Oak is typically the biggest hurdle that most people have for building my boats, and the quality is never certain until you get it. Until now @zenaforestproducts was our only source for guaranteed perfect bending Oak. Now we can add @jwswanandsons to that short list.
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If you’ve watched any of my bending videos and wondered how I get those shapes without using any forms or jigs? This is exactly how that’s done. It’s not magic, skill or experience. Just really good bending oak. Check out JW Swan and Sons Boatbuilding, or Zena Forest Products if you need some.
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#bendingwood #bendingoak #whiteoak #bendingstock #boatbuilding #freshlysawn #steambending #straightgrain #boatbuildingwood #nicewood

First canoe frame of 2021! The progress on this bo

First canoe frame of 2021! The progress on this boat is agonizingly slow because we are using it to reshoot the video course.
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For those of you who aren’t familiar with our canoe building system, 3 years ago a friend bugged me about building a pack canoe until I finally relented and because I’m too lazy to build a strong back I thought I would try to apply my formula-based free-bent kayak rib systems instead.
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It took about five boats and a half a trillion test ribs but eventually I came up with a system to predetermine all of the rib lengths and slowly refined it over 15 prototypes that summer. While I was doing this work it dawned on me that I could make the canoes fit perfectly into each other like Russian dolls just by scaling the system. And then came the sails, and the catamaran boards, and at the end of the year I had designed a halfway decent pack canoe.
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That winter I was flooded with emails from people asking if the system would work for a full-size Canoe. I was skeptical that a free bent hull would stay fair at larger sizes and even more skeptical that I could design anything resembling a real canoe, but I gave it a try and 4 boats I made actually turned out OK. Not great, but not terrible. So the next year I made 5 more which turned out a little bit better, and that brings us to this years builds.
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The formula-based shaping system is amazing because it gives me the power to build a huge range of canoe sizes and shapes without a strongback, but also overwhelming because each new size and shape needs to be verified with a prototype.
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My students have been hugely helpful with their feedback from the beta version of the course, but I always prefer to take any big design risks myself. On the menu this year is pushing more fullness into the center section of the shaping formula. I went farther than ever on this little hybrid double-paddle/single blade canoe and it didn’t create any problems, which gives me a lot of hope for chasing the holy grail on the next boat: A narrow full size solo single blade with some tumblehome.
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#boatbuilding #boatbuilder #boatdesign #canoebuilding #canoe #skinonframecanoe #buildyourown #woodworkingproject #diyproject

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

4935 NE 11th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97211
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