BUILDING THE NORM HARRTS CANOF The Norm Harris canoe is an original design with attractive Lines and an unusually high degree of performance. It was designed for ver work, particularly white water, but does an outstanding job on lakes as well. A good friend of mine, who outfits canoe parties in Ontario has said that the... "Norm Harris canoe is the number one Boundary Water canoe in the world, with nobody in second place". the canoe is sixteen feet long, three feet wide at the yoke and twelve inches deep. It is amazingly strong, due to what engineers call “stressed skin" construction. Tts weight typically ranges from fifty to fifty-five pounds, depending upon the density of the wood used. Western Red Cedar is the planking wood and all trim is Philippine mahogany. The cance is full toward the ends to assure quick recovery when smashing into standing waves in a rapids, yet is has enough inversion to make it faster than most conventional canoes I have tested, and it holds its course in lakes beautifully. The fullness gives it the cargo carrying ability of most eighteen footers. There is no keel, nor does it need one. Because the wood grain shows clearly through the coating of resin and fiberglass on the outside and inside, the canoe can range from very attractive to downright beautiful, depending upon the particular wood grain involved. The sheer line and stem and stern profiles are con- servative, along "classic" lines. ‘there is a slight "rocker" in the keel and there is no flat across the bottom, yet the canoe is re- assuringly stable, while extremely maneuverable. The total result is beauty combined with function. Planking is cut 1 1/8 inches wide and this is important if you intend to “ollew c'pections closely. T!ve worked with planks all the way from 3/4 inch wide up to 1 5/8 inch. 1 1/8 inch is optimum for this canoe. Incidentally, don't be confused by anything you hear from any- ene who has built another cance, Each design has unique features in construction and T'm only talking about the Norm Harris canoe. These incimnat done StH) enable you vs matuh me work and f!ve had sous high from experts on all aspeeta of the job. praia T use 3/16 inch thick planks for a light portage canoe and find it strong enough for anything I have encountered ye! 1/4 inch thickness will give you a considerably "stiffer" and stronger canoe, but also heavier. Planks need to be roughly sixteen and # half feet Long, which is a size they do not sell. You'll probably find you must bu n footers, since few lumber yards offer seventeen, If you cannot rip the planks yourself, try to find a cabinetmaker or someone else who will do it on a thin-bladed saw. Lumber vards commonlyuse a 1/4 inch carbide-tipped blade, so they throw away one plank in a form of sawdust for every one they give you. A hollow-ground blade 1/16 inch thick does the best job. You need approximately 50-52 planks. You want vertical grain in the planks of the canoe. That is, when you look at the grain of a plank that is lying flat, it will run vertically across the end of the plank, across the small dimension. If the grain in the mother plank runs in the wrong direction to get this naturally, you can still do it with a liltle waste. This is hard to explain but easy to see when you are looking at the wood. You'll need between Fifty and fifty-five planks for the canoe. Flat grain in a canoe plank gives much the same effect as plywood and I don't think you'll like it any better than I do. ‘The templates should be cut as directed on the plans and the spacing should be as close to the plans as possible, bearing in mind that the face of the template nearest the stem or stern is the one you measure to. The stem and stern are identical in contours so it doesn't matter which is which. Tf one end has prettier grain than the other, you'll likely decide to make it the stem, or Mbow!. Your first plank goes on flush with the edge of the gunnel (gunwale) on the middle template, There is a mark on the stem profile to show where the gunnel edge of that first plank should come on the stem and stern. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble if you pay attention to the mark. The strongback is made from straight 2" X 10" planks put together in the form of a "T" with the crosspiece at the bottom. Coated nails do a good job of holding it together, The vertical "fin",. which the templates will straddle, can be straightened with a turnbuckle at each end if there ix a twist, or "drift" in it. Mark center lines on all parts and line them up carefully. Study the plans thoroughly before you start work, because all of the answers are there. When you cut out your stem and stern templates, they need only contact the first and last cross-templates for a few inches near the keel. Relieve the resi of that edge and it will be lots easier to disassemble the forms when you are finished planking. BE SURE YOU CAN GEY AT ALL FASTENINGS FROM THE INSIDE OF THE CANOB WHEN THE TIME COMES TO TAKE THE FORMS APART!!! When all the forms are on, sit on the floor at each end and sight along the under edges of the templates for any lack of alignment. Here's where you may learn that you need the turnbuckles to straighten the plank. Use a square to check all angles as you assemble. All the effort you put into accuracy here will pay off later.It'S a wood idea to gel a partner inte the act, so you can split thw cost of the strongback and forms. However, it may present problems to work together on two canoes with the idea of flipping a coin at the end to see who gets which. One will be becter than the other. Probably better to work alone. The second one should be better than the first. I've built a dozen off my forms and wouldn't trade back onc canoe. The notches in the templates at the stronghack are important to the shape of the canoe, so use © with them, Support your strongback at the one-quarter and three-quarter points to avoid any tendency to sag in the middle or at the ends. About wood...Western Red Cedar is the best for a combination of lightness, looks and strength. Sitka Spruce is slightly heavier, equally strong, but about as plain as a strawberry box when the cance is finished...there are ae many grades of redwood T hesitate to recommend it, Redwood will usually give you a heavier eanoe and some grades offer unreliable adhesion with the glass and resin laminate. Mahogany makes a beautiful canoe, but heavy. It is the best for trim, thwart and seat members. Redwood is cheap and readily available in canoe lengths, so make your decision. I recommend Western Red Cedar- Planking tools are simple but should be very sharp. A good knife, a sharp No. 2 pencil (you've got to be able to see those lines,) a block plane, a saw and a chisel do most of the work. Got a small, very light hammer, like my smallest machinists hanmor, and a staple gun. Do not use the big, heavy-duty staplers. They are rough on the wood. I've had good results with a Swing- line #101 Tacker and 4/16" staples. If I could conveniently get the 3/16" staples, I'd use them. No point in making alL those Little light holes through the hull if you can avoid it. Now, some glue and you are about ready. Oh yes, you will need wire naila. One inch by about 18 gauge work fine. Drive them through small squares of hard cardboard to facilitate getting hold of the heads for removal. Elmer's Glue is fine. it's aot water-proof but water is not going to be a factor in the future of these glue lines. Lay as fine a bead of glue as you can along the edge of the "old" plank, when the "new" plank is ready to go on. Try to keep it no larger than the lead in a fine-lead pencil, automatic, that is. If the glue squeezes out onto the surface, you are using too much and will pay for the mistake dearly at sanding time.When you install the first plank on the gunnel and gunnel marks, you only have to glue at the two ends and nail at the station. Don't stretch it tightly between stations, but don't let it be a nloppy fil either. When the plank ds right, it will look right. Use your fine-loothed saw (about 24 tecth to the inch) to make a series of saw slots in your installed willow stem pieces. Make the cuts to the center line and about every 1/4 inch, in line with the direction the plank runs, and remove the deadwood with your sharp chisel, Place glue on thia newly exposed surface and put the first plank in place. Check that it is flush with the gunnel at the middle station and in line with the mark on the stems. The next two will also go on easily, Nail at each station and use staples every few inches, as glue clamps to hold the edges together while the glue dries. From here on, things are different. Please pay close attention for the next few sentences and do not try to improve on the technique deseribed. After three planks, on my forms, you are going to have to taper two. One young man here in town discovered that he was a better canoe maker than I am and was able to get nine planks on cach side without tapering one. I didn't go up to the other end of town to sce it but his father came down to observe the canoe T have in the works and left for home with the intention of ripping off all bul the first three planks and starting with the tapers then. The canoe burned out fine, in fact, T've paddled in it and it's a first-rate job by a young man who had never undertaken anything as ambitious before. After all, the canoe is roughly sixty inches from gunnel to gunnel at the middle station and only about forty at the end stations and thirty-odd at the stem and stern. That wood has to go someplace. IE you never tapered one, you'd be able to get it ten fect deep without starting in toward the keel. Planks as wide as 1.1/8" will strongly resist edge bending, which is good. Don't try to edge bend them. The guys who use 3/4" planks do so deliberately so they can edge bend and, in the process, they lose the chance to get any inversion in their hulls at the ends. This gives them the shape of the typical aluminum canoe. The canoe pushes water and is not as faxt ax it should be, and they actually do not save any work. The tapering of planks is very simple. You start when you first notice that a plank does aot want to hug the forms closely. Inciden— tally, when you get cach plank that needs tapering into position for marking it, make a small pencil mark across its edge into the one it adjoins that ia already in place. That, way you'll know where to put it when it is tapered and ready to go back on into fresh glue. Also, make a small line across the plank already in place at the point where the glue line ends, because the tapered plank goes no farther. No point in going all the way down the plank with glue, then coming back and wiping it off where there is no new plank.Clamp the new plank at he center station, in position against the previous plank. Make your little pencil line and find where your overlap should start. You'll recognize it when you see it. IU's the point where an overlap is needed to bring it parallel with the form, allowing for the thickness of the plank underneath. Check back to see that the overlap starts at a place that seems "comfortable" to it and fasten the end of the overlapped plank with a light spring-type clamp, such as a large battery clamp. Try for a snug fit between plank faces. Now, take your sharp pencil and, holding the new plank Cirmly in against the carier one, Scribe a good firm pencil line along the cdyc of (he latter. Do the same at both ends and remember to make your end-of-glue-line mark. The ends of the new plank and its mate across the hull should come in at the same spots, fore and aft. Now, remove the plank and take your sharp knife and cut as close to the pencil Line as you feel you safely can. Then cut right down vo the line with your block plane (watch your fingernails on the holding hand). After you've done a few of these for confidence , you'll find you can go right to the glue, without further fitting. On the cance now in the works, the next two planks after the first easy three, tapered in at almost the same point, between the first Frames and the stem pieces. Try to match planks for color from side to side. The results will be much prettier. Don't fight the wood. Put it where it wants Lo be and you'll have a stronger, prettier canoe with less work. Take your time and be sure each plank is comfortable" before you start to cut it for a fit. I have two clamps that are as handy as extra hands for planking. They are shown in a sketch at the end. Tf you do nol have access to welding, Uhe small angles can be affixed with epoxy resin. You'll discover right away, that on all planks which extend past the end, you'll have to cut the extension off to allow the matching plank to be fitted. This is a place where fine teeth on the saw eliminate a lot of abuse. The planks themselves will tell you what to do as you come up onto the bottom of the canoe. Your last plank in will be shaped like a very skinny willow lea‘. When finished planking, take a pair of pliers with a slender but sturdy nose and file a small groove across each gripping surface, as near to the end as you can get it. This is your tool for the tedious but necessary work of removing staples and nails . Okay, you are Finished with planking, except for filling in the ends, up to the sheerline. Attach scraps of plank to your templates with glue and staples, so they come down and provide the Light support these fillers need. The filler planks are made trom picces cut off length planks you started with, As you plank, try to get surplus on each plank on one end. to make the scrans as the ove all theAfter you get all the staples and nails out, step back and see what you created. This is the first time it starts to shape up. The next step is planing and sanding...much more of the former than the latter, The hull need not be glass-smooth, because the glass cloth has a texture of its own and you want some "tooth" for good adhesion. Eliminate any lumps, though. You are going around a curve with flat planks, so you end up with a lot of small ridge lines, The plane is the ideal tool Cor climinating these. About sanders...the medium-duty orbital is about right. Don't use a disc sander on the hull. There is no way you can avoid gouging. ‘he dise is good for trimming your end profiles, if you have a good eye and steady hands. A very sharp knife will also do that job. A belt sander is fine, if you have one and know how to use it. I wouldn't use any paper finer than fifty grit, because the fifty gets the surface smooth enough in a lot less time. Specify "production" grade paper. Tt costs more but is more than worth it. Leave about a sixteenth of an inch of the willow showing at the ends. This will show that you are ‘on your lines". A metal strip covers this when you finish the job. Your willow will have minor wiggles, but if you hew to your center lines (they are based on the flat surface of the forms, not the willow itself) you will have eliminated all of these when the job is done. One thing more... don't fret over a boo-boo of a quarter or eigth of an inch in a sixteen foot boat. Nobody, including you, can ever find it when the job is done. Now, you have all the planks on, the ends trimmed aid the hull smoothed. Everything looks great, except for those junky short pieces rising to the sheer like stair steps. Just be patient with them until you get the outside glassed. Bear in mind that nothing is holding the hull together but those thin lines of glue, and you probably would not bet your pay check on some of them. This is a good time to improve the appearance of things by scribing in your sheerline. Draw it good and black with a nylon tipped pen. Here's how it's done. Make a batten a little over sixteen feet long. It should be of clear wood with good grain and should be square in section. Half- inch square is about right. Mow you need a fecler gauge (see sketch) made of a piece of scrap plank. Use it to find the gunnel edge of each template and make a mark on the outside at each point. Be sure you are right on the template and are not being held up by a lump of zlue or a staple.When you have all the points marked, clamp your batten at the middle station. Continue along, clamping at each station. When all the clamps are on, squint at everything from every angle and you'll find you may have to move a few clamps slightly. Trust your batten, Tt will give you what is called a "fair" curve and there's nothing prettier. This canoe does not need a keel. I built two with "shoe" keels before T realized T could always add one later and tried one with- out. Tt performed better without the keel...much better...so I've neyer used one since. The "pitch" stroke I use in paddling may be a factor, but this canoe will quarter into wind and waves like it is on rails, Yet you can spin and slip it around a rock in the rapids when you have to. Don't let anyone talk you into spoiling it by adding a keel. On that score, there are several sources for information on building canoes somewhat like mine. One that got national distribution is a real dog. If someone tries to lead you into improvements and changes on this canoe, don't let them. ‘there is no other canoe quite like this and I know from hard-gained exper- ience that my methods of building work well, and the more closely you follow them, the prouder you'll be when show-and-toll-time rolls around. F IBERGLASSING The surface of the canoe need not be glass-smooth to apply fiber- glass, but be sure you get rid of all the dust. Use the resin solvent on a rag to finish the job. Whatever you do, don't use paint thinner, as a friend of mine did. Be extremely careful in handling the glass and insist that your supplier do likewise. Every wrinkle you get into the glass cloth will become a permanent defect in your canoc. Tt's lots easier to avoid them than to climinate them. Try to have the cloth taken from the roll onto another roller. Have someone help you roll it off the roller onto the canoe. Don't simply lay it on the canoe and unroll it. You'll build up little waves ahead of the roll and then erush thoi into permanent wrinkles. Leave enough cloth at each end to finish your overlap. ‘This will usually be about a foot more than you'd expect. Start with 28-inch wide cloth to roughly the waterline of the canoe. 1 usually introduce a 'feature'strip at this point during the con- struction of the canoe. This is a light plank if the canoe is essentially dark and a dark one if the canoe is light. Either way, it gives you a good line to trim to. The resin turns the glass water-clear as it is applied. so it is easv to fallow the line.Depending upon how high your 28" cloth comes on the ends, you may or may not have to trim it by cutting and allowing for an overlap, I'll get back to that later, along with actual, details of applying the resin. fiberglass goes through a rubbery phase during the cure cycle and that is the best time for trimming. Use a sharp knife and be careful not to raise the part. that stays with the boat. When this first layer of cloth has fully hardened, taper the edge slightly with sandpaper. Be sure that everything is ready for it and lay on the sixty inch cloth, which will extend from gunnel to gunnel. Work out all the slack and as many wrinkles as you can, working the surplus toward the ends, Now trim off your surplus cloth about six inches below the gunnels. This makes it easier to work the cloth smooth and will eliminate a later tendency for the material to hang in folds, which can work their way up into the cloth on the boat after you have applied the resin and moved on. With sharp scissors, Slit the cloth at the ends until you reach a point on the stem where it is obvious that the uncut, cloth will stay down, then go an inch or two farther to be certain, End this cut at one edge of the narrow flat on each stem and pull the cloth from one side around the stem and tape it down. Let the cloth of the other side hang down out of the way. Tape the cloth down in as many places as needed to keep it snug over the profile. 3M Brand Filament Tape holds better on cloth than any other I have tried. Do the same thing at the other end, on the same side of the canoe and you are ready to start applying resin. Use an isophthalic polyester resin. You may hear from some expert" in the bleck about epoxy resin being stronger, but for all practical purposes polyester is entirely satisfactory and is mich easier to work with. It is the recommended canoe resin. The best resin I have ever used is Boat Armor by Glass Plastics. Tf your resin comes in a flanged can, like a paint can, you can simplify life by turning it upside down and opening it with an ordinary becr can opener, making a small air vent across from the opening. This greatly simplifies pouring. You'll avoid a lot of ness this way and the can ean be closed when not in use by putting tape over the two holes. Slosh the can around before you open it, to correct any separation of the styrene monomer, which is part of the resin. Read the instructions on the can carefully, most of them are based on working in pint or quart quantities, but T haye found this to be a little more than I like Lo work with.and T dislike very much to have a pot of cesin start to "gel" before I have finished using it. Recently I have been cutting off the bottom portion of a Miracle White Fabric Softener bottle and using about 3 1/2 inches of that and filling it about to the 2 1/2 inch point with resin. This still leaves me room for stirring. I use an eyedropper taken from a bottle of NTZ Nose Drops and put my catalyst in one of the bottles, removing the label and painting the bottle red to avoid accidents. Try l-pint sherbet containers, polyethylene, 3/4 full. Making sure the tube of the eyedropper ix full each time, T put in six squirts when the tempersture is around seventy, cut back to five squirts at seventy-five, four at eighty and three at ninety. I know how to do this "by the numbers" but am assuming you do not have a gram scale and graduates calibrated in cubic centimeters. Fach rise of ten degrees in temperature cuts your pot life in half, roughly You can work out something similar for your own purpose: Time your first batch to the point where it starts to turn dull and set up, and adjust things accordingly. One half hour is about right...long enough to let you mix a new cup of resin and proceed with a "wet edge"...not long enough for the resin to sag. I use a two-inch brush with my pot. You ave not going into production on canoes, so don't worry about production methods. I've been in that position, too, and feel T know whereof T speak. You can whittle Little wooden paddles to mix the resin, or use a very small spatula, such as an artists palette knife. Stir well and start to apply the resin. Apply like varnish. That is, use a full brush and stroke into the wet resin, lifting your brush out of the wet with a smooth motion. This avoids brush marks, but it. haw an even more important function in the application of fiberglass. If you brush out of the wel into the dry, you can easily build up some slack ahead of the brush and may end up cutting a gore to geb rid of the surplus material...which is just plain sloppy work. By brushing into the wet, yon tend to keep working any slack back into the wet area in amounts ¢o small they never show up. Keep alert for bubbles but they are not much of a problen, Apply resin only up to the center Line during first. application. Otherwise you will not be able to do the ends as T have directed you to set them up. By the time you get down to the other end of the canoe, the resin on the first end should have hardencd. Finish the second end, being sure you apply resin only upon the small flat that forma the end of the canoe andnot around upon the other side...which is also the way to treat the First ond. Now you can go back and trim the first end, sand off any edges and prepare it for starting the resin én the second side, Tape it back around the profile, as before, The second end will again be ready for preparation by the time you get down there. PLEASE DO NOT BRING MATERIAL AROUND THE ENDS AND PLASTER TT DOWN WITH RESIN. With all my experience I can't straighten out a mess like that myself. As you finish each little pot of resin, you have cleanup routine to go through. Tf you don't believe me, skip it for a few pots and you'll become a believer, You have to clean the brush thoroughly after each pot. Otherwise the old resin will “kick over" while you are applying the new. Same for the pot, get all the old resin out before it can start forming gel particles to mar your finish, These become hard lumps and are no fun to sand off. Get a couple of two-pound @ffee cans with snap tops. Clean them well and, with a magic marker, mark one of the covers "Clean" and the other "Dirty." The solvent in each will be clean when you first start, but not for long. Pour about an inch of solvent into cach can and put the covers on. When buying brushes, try to get the kind with handles that are round, like dowel, As you finish each pot, strip as much resin as you can back into the pot and rinse the pot out with a little solvent. Now, force the brush againat the bottom of the ndirty" can from all angles, with good force until you fool sure you haye worked solvent into the heel of (he brush. Now hold the handle of the brush between your palms, with the bristles below the edge of the can and spin it as rapidly as you can between your hands. This forces resin and solvent out under centrifugal foree. Repeat the process in the "clean! can and your brush will be as good as new. T commonly usc a brush for four or five canoes. When the dirty can is fairly dirty, empty it (use for sloshing out the pot) and replace with clean solvent. Now switch the two covers and you are back in business. I prefer MEK Solvent... not to be confused with MEK catalyst, or hardener...but acetone is also good. Acetone has a lower flash point than MEK, but don't let anyone smoke while either is in use. Both can turn you into a screaming tower of pain in a second. When you apply the second coat of resin to the outside, work from gunnel to gunnel as you go. This will avoid an unattractive double-coat down the centerline. Apply the first coat of resin to the inside in the same manner, for different reasons relating to control of slack material.When the outside is finished...and it is, after the second coat of resin...you can turn the canoe over and remove the forms. Tf you have made all parts accessible from the inside and left ample clearance on the end forms, you'll have no problems. Tf there is a bit of glue adhesion to a form, @ Light rap with a hanmer in the right direction will free the form. Draping the 60" cloth inside the canoe takes time and is tough on the patience, but it is important that you do it right. Work it into one end first, ending with a neat over-lap on the inside of the willow stem. Just be sure the cloth is smoothly down against the bottom all around. I can't tell you where to cut the cloth, because this will vary with the way you do the job, but proceed carefully, knowing that it can be done neatly and you'll come out okay. Trim the surplus material hanging over the edge until there is only about an inch sticking up and fasten this with spring clothespins about every foot. As you apply resin, watch carefully for any tendency for the cloth to rise off the bottom in response to the work you are doing then. ‘Two coats of resin over one layer of cloth arc enough for the inside. If it is available, use flat-weave glass, 7 1/2 oz, weight, Flat- weave is fairly new in these light weights. In it the strands are not twisted before they go to the loom. This gives a smoother sur— Face and one that requires less resin to saturate the cloch. This is good because surplus resin is simply surplus weight. With flat~ weave, the second coat of resin leaves the surface smooth enough. Of course, if you feel the need of a "showboat" you can apply additional coats of resin and wet sand, using about’ 200 grit paper Then finish with Dupont buffing compound on a Lambawool buffer and you'll get a glass-like finish that will make it hard for people to believe there actually is fiberglass in it. Make wooden cradles to hold the finished hull while you work on the details. Cut then from your plans for stations 2 and 8 and pad them with urethane foam or soft rags. Foam is better because it is not slippery. Fasten these forms to your sawhorses. If you have followed instructions, your brush will still be about as good as new and you will not have messed up your work area. Using a "full" beush tends to start resin running down the side of the pot, but if you watch for this and pick up the drip with your brush as needed, you'll avoid most of the drips on the floor. After building twelve canoes on my forms and at least that many for others, I believe T could actually do all of the resin work in @ business suit without ruining it, but for a first-time shot at it. I recommendUse good ventilation. If you are working inside the house during cold weather, you will find that you can make a "booth! out of poly film, making it so it has access to a window. Then introduce a small tan into the window to exhaust the air in the booth. This will minimize fumes inside the house. These are "fugitive" fumes and will not be around long in any case, but they bother some people, wives partioularly, (You, will need. approximately 2 1/2 gallons of resin. THE TRIM Agter building several canoes with ash trim (white ash) T realized that getting the ash involved more work than building the canoe. Also, my first canoe had a stem and stern of natural cedar knee, which I had grubbed out of a swamp and worked down into the right configuration. Again, almost more work than building the entire canoe. Then I began to understand that this new technique of canoe building permitted other approaches than the old-line, traditional ways. My last nine or ten canoes have been built of Western Red Cedar and have had the trim made entirely of Philippine mahogany. The results are most satiafactory. This cedar is the lightest wood commonly available and the mahogany is tough and beautiful. Also, there is usually no problem in getting mahogany in canoe lengths, while most other woods are not available that long. My present fifty-pounder is made this way, using 3/16" planks. Quarter-inch planks make a stronger canoe, but also somewhst heavier. if you are building for the portage Grail, use g/16" planks If you are building for lake use, go to 1/4". The difference will be about five pounds, or less, in final weight. Please understand that all of these woods vary considerably in density, and therefore in weight 1€ the lumberyard operator is a friend of yours, you can pick over the pile fo. weight, color and grain direction. Tf not, tell him what you went, take what you get and you'll still have a lightweight canoe. The diagrams at the back of these instruc ions will ansver most of your questions as to dimensions, etc. Feel free to innovate to get some of your own personality into the canoe, but bear in mind that I haye made many canoes and many mistakes, You can spare yourself most of the mistakes if you follow the instructions and the plans rather closely. The Norm Harris canoc, made according to these instructions is beautiful and functional. I haye received nothing but compliments on each of them. If you see fit to depart from the instructions... such as using lawn chair webbing instead of rawhide for the seats...plywood...but if, instead, you follow the instructions scrupulously you will have a minor work of art that will please you as long ax you own it. THE GUNWALES: The gunnels are important to the strength of the canoe and should be applied with care. They consist of an outwale, which in my canoe is one-inch by half-inch, and an inwale which T make one-inch by three-quarter-inch. This extra thickness is to allow for notches which T cut into it...here's why... 1 [he eye expects notches, because the traditional canoe which we have seen for years, has spaces between the rib ends. 2. Notches permit you to slosh water around in the canoe and then empty it by turning it over and letting the water and mud run out through the notches. 3. Notches provide good places to fasten the ropes that tie your cargo down, against possible spills in the rapids. My notches are cut 1/4 inch deep, with a dado head, and are two ‘iosien lougea The undisvicbed wondlim between Ciee oe (eo 1 1/4 inches long. Leave an uncut, space about six inches long at the middle, where the thwart will be bolted and leave about three or four inches of undisturbed wood in from the decks at each end. You'll have to measure this, but figure about eight inches along cach inwale for the decks. You'll find you have to do everything twice in fitting parts to- gether...more about that later. Make a temporary thyart from a piece of 36" scrap. Mark the center points of your gunnels. Now clamp an outwale into place at the center station and continue clamping it along the ribed sheerline- When all is in order, drive some small screws pom the inside to hold the outwale in place. 3/4" by if6 are about right. When secure, remove clamps and repeat the process for the other outwale. As mentioned, the longest part of each deck will come back about eight sand it ix much easier Lo remove the corresponding part of the hull now, while you can still loosen the ends of the outwales and use a saw. Cut down about 3/8" below the scribed sheerline. Now, clamp an inwale at the center point and examine how long it should be, It's a good idea to chisel about 5/8" of the willow stem out to provide a place where the ends of the inwales can get support. Keep clamping the inwale as you go until you get close to the stens. Now you'll be able to see where to cut them off for a good fit. Cut each inwale alone the center line of the boat to wetBefore you drop the inwale into position, saw out an amount at each end that will allow for the deck to be recessed and match approximately what you cut out of the hull. You can tidy up the matching later, with a sharp chisel. The final fastening of the inwale and the outwale to make the gunnel is done with 1 1/2 inch brass #10 flathead screws, driven in from the outside, at every other "land" between notches. Use a Screwmate, or similar tool, to prepare holes for the screve and you'll save a lot of grief in getting them in. Tf the serews break through on the inside, grind about a sixteenth of an inch off each one before you drive it. I don't recommend 1 1/4 inch screws here, because you want all the strength you can get at this point. TE THWART The thwart can be a plain piece of wood across the middle of the canoe. This would serve the purpose of providing strength, but will do nothing for the beauty of the boat. For my last several canoes T have made the thwart shown on the plans. ‘his is also a carrying yoke. It is good looking and functional and I urge you to try it. Start with a piece of mahogany roughly 3 1/2"-4" x2" (4-1/4) ana thirty six inches long. Saw to the pattern with a saber saw or band saw and start whittling. The mahogany cuts very easily and you'll have your part in no time. I know you will regard the result as one of the best features of the canoe. When you install the thwart, slant the bolt holes in toward the center of the canoe, to get as much purchase as possible. Use 2 1/2" X 9/32" bronze bolts. Grind four flats on the head of each, to form a sort of aquatty pyramid, and polish them bright again. Bend each one just under the head to match the slant of your holes and install them with a washer under each nut, You can use the round heads, just as they cone, but the effect’ is nowhere nearly as pretty as the faceted head. To avoid light showing through at points where planks are not perfectly mated, get some opaquing paste from a local Lithographer and apply it over the seams with a fine artist's brush. Apply on the inside of the canoe after the first coat of resin has hardened. The second coat. will protect the paste, which is water soluble but is unaffected by resin. Nail holes can be filled with round booth- picks dipped in glue, if they bother you. Bath these defects are illed with the resin by capillary action and are completely harm less, but it hurts my pride to have the village idiot look up under the canoe, when it’s on the car, and ask whether it leaks at these points. Suit yourself.Metal trim for the ends can be obtained at most marine supply stores. Ask for sluminum cockpit trim. Get tho kind with holes already drilled and countersunk and be careful bending it, to avoid breaking it at the holes. Install it "dry", then remove and reinstall, with epoxy under and on the screws. This will avoid any possibility of a later leak, resulting from a blow by a rock. That about weaps it up. I'm eure you'll find yourself asking questions, but a bit of study should proyide the answers. T know my first canoe would have been a lot better if T'd had these plans to follow at that time. T started from scratch with a piece of paper and a pencil, and you're a long way shead of that. If you feel like it when you have the canoe, T!d like very much to see a snapshot of it. Good luck to you and happy canoeing. en Harrisbere) arovrd forrm arch Kasten of the edge wh screw use aluminum or brass scren/ here, to protect plane blade. witlow elem piece Fits into Cus she and is held by screw, fiom below / "S / drive in shoglenails cutoff heads and sharpen- to hee villew on forms:“a4ay Vous 4oy9 yale, gaze/3 Ageoyan a uote $b basehe “ Dutosal Upllett see 2 bazs7 osagag haps & srage 195,34 7225 BUR auc P Apclaid vemupy ‘3y¥bl 2 Avie¥s. BE LOS SEATON 2] FPO PMC SIS Noo Win py yibig aoe gn) as wymos — ApuDL -5320) por pauun) jor aprypiea 3Pay 359 pores Sout typ . 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