Building A Canoe: Steps V, VI, VII

We'll, the cool weather has finally started to creep into Vermont and now I feel an definite urgency in working on the canoe if I want to get it into the water before it ices. Once it gets below 50 degrees, I'll have to bring it indoors to finish the epoxy work but I'd really rather not have it set up in my living room. 

Step V - Finish Stripping
I found the stripping process to be very slow. It would take between 1.5 to 2 hrs to complete a full row all the way around. No doubt it would have been faster had I just used one type of wood, or even if I had a set pattern with different woods, but, counter-intuitively, there is much more thinking involved in trying to do something that looks random; that, along with getting small sections to fit tightly, changing between drill (definitely need to pre-drill the holes for screwing down the strips) and driver, and dealing with all the clamps, it was just a very slow process.  

I finished stripping on August 18. The last row was a little tricky because I needed to shape two pieces with a bead on both sides. They also had to be sculpted over a length of about ten inches from 3/4" wide to a point but I found my Lie-Nielsen 102 block plane was the perfect tool for the job. It was great to see them slide into place perfectly. The final count was 69 rows. I had planned on using only one strip of cherry but ended up using three, one on each side and one on the bottom. In addition, I had been worried about not having enough strips but, in the end, I had plenty, with 350 feet left over. In retrospect, 1200 linear feet would have been perfect (I started with 1385) but I'm sure I can find a use for my surplus. I'm thinking of making a flat wall piece with them. I think it would look great to have them displayed next to each other. 

Step VI - Fill Holes With Dowels
After stripping, my next step was to drill out all the staple and screw holes and fill them with 1/8" and 3/16" maple dowels. I had no idea how many 36" dowels to buy so I was glad to have a local source. I ended up making five trips to Spooner Specialties, picking up a total of thirteen 1/8" dowels and nine 3/16". I didn't count my holes but if I assume the my dowel length was 1/2" per hole, I filled over 900 1/8" holes and over 600 3/16" holes -- probably pretty close to the actual but I'm not interested in finding out the exact number. By the way, fair warning to any copycat canoe builders out there, forcing the 1/8" dowel into the 9/64" hole I drilled into the basswood was not fun. It was a real tight fit because the basswood didn't cut cleanly (I think the humidity of summer had something to do with it but filling the walnut holes was so much easier). My blisters have at least healed but I still have a sore shoulder.

I needed to take the canoe off the forms early in order to finish putting the dowels in the stems. 

In addition, I didn't feel comfortable with the design of the stems. I felt they needed some additional reinforcement. Ideally, there would have been a laminated strip inside the stem that the strips could be attached to, but it was too late for that so I ended up sticking 5/16" dowels through both sides and epoxy-ing them in place. I think this will work as well as anything. 

Step VII - Cleanup and Fill Gaps
The next step was to clean it up, shape the stems, and fill any holes/gaps. One of the problems with using walnut is that it didn't flex as well as the basswood so I did have a fair amount separation on the tight curves. Nothing too extreme, but definitely noticeable. I tried to make an epoxy putty that would match the wood using PC-11 (marine epoxy) and Transtint's Dark Mission Brown dye. For some reason it came out more gray than I would have liked but it was good enough.

It took about three rounds of sanding and refilling the holes. Luckily, I have a real nice Festool sander/grinder (it can be partially seen on the right side of the last image). Between cleaning up all the dowels, glue, and epoxy, I don't think I would have wanted to use anything else. I started with 36 grit paper (touching very lightly), and worked down to 120 grit. Gil Gilpatrick said that anything smaller than 80 grit doesn't make a difference but the sander/grinder leaves a very distinct sanding pattern so I wanted to go smaller. In addition, I went back and hand sanded with 100 grit paper just to make sure it looked good.  

 And there it is, prepped and ready for the first coat of epoxy!

Flag Updates

In May, as I posted previously, I was at the Vermont Studio Center and worked on my flag series. I wasn't happy with this one, the nine sided flag. I've had doubts about the center section but finally, this week, I've been able to work on it again and make the changes I wanted. I'm much happier now.

In the new version I have nine bars (random length, random width, random placement) to fill the center. They are made with quarter sawn bird's-eye maple. I've never seen any one use it before but I think it looks fantastic. It cuts across the depth of the bird's-eyes and creates an effect much like a curl but with an intensity that is very different. And the flecking in the maple really makes it sparkle. Really very cool (you'll have to take my word for it). I'm going to shellac paint each bar a random variation of blue.

Last month I also finished preparing my double star flag. It was quite an effort, and very stressful, fitting all the rays around the circles and overlapping each other but it turned out pretty damn well, much to my surprise.

Now I can finally finish painting all three of the new ones. Hopefully, they will be ready sometime in September and I can get to work on some more.

Building A Canoe: Steps II, III, and IV

After making the sawhorses, the next step was making the strips. I decided to make my canoe out of basswood and walnut because for some reason, I can't say why, I wanted as much of a dramatic contrast as I could get. I had thought about staining white cedar black but with all the sanding and shaping that is needed once it is together, I realized I would have to restain it after the assembly which wouldn't likely look too good because of the difficulty in getting the stain lines to be precise.

I had never worked with basswood before but it is known to be easy to work and it is light in color and weight. It isn't rot resistant like cedar but with all the epoxy and varnish, I didn't think it was really an issue. I also was concerned about the possibility that basswood and walnut would shrink and swell at significantly different rates but I checked and, though they aren't the same, they are in the same ball park. Again, with all the epoxy and varnish, I didn't think the changes would be significant. 


I've worked with walnut a lot and know it is also easy to work and relatively light, although I was surprised at how much more dense it is than basswood since I'm usually comparing it to maple or ash. I had notice basswood was mentioned as a wood choice in the Gilpatrick book but I had never heard of anyone building a canoe with walnut but I figured that was probably because of the cost. Objectively, it does seem like a crazy wood to chose but I'm not looking for a sane canoe, just one I'd like to look at.


In reality, the cost of the lumber is a real small part of the whole project, even with the walnut. Basswood is ridiculously cheap. I bought 28 board feet for $25.20. The walnut is of course much more expensive. The lumber yard was selling it for around $7.50/bd-ft but I figured I had enough older stock which I had bought for around $6.00/bd-ft so I didn't get any more (hopefully the price comes down before I need more) I didn't do an actual count of how much walnut I'm using but I'm sure the cost is under $30 (in comparison, the fiberglass and epoxy will cost around $600). To my surprise though, when I started milling the walnut I had, I found I had some exceptionally figured pieces. I actually would have preferred that it was straight grained because it would be easier to work but, hopefully, the curl will show through all the fiberglass. 


Once I had the lumber I spend a two or three days dimensioning it and then cutting the strips and milling them with cove and flute edges so the fit together tightly around the canoe forms. One of my goals in dimensioning was to get a variety of widths between 3/4" and 1". Luckily, I was able to get three sizes, 3/4", 7/8", and 15/16". Since my shop is pretty tight, I couldn't work with lumber larger than 9' so for the basswood my strips are either 4', 6', or 9'. With the walnut my strips are much smaller with the longest being 5'.


Based on the information in the Gilpatrick book, I thought I needed between 1400 and 1600 linear feet of strips. When I had finished I was a little short, only 1385 but given that my widths are greater than what he was using I hoped I'd be okay (after finishing about 1/3 of the canoe I've done another count and I'm sure I have plenty).

1385 linear feet of bead and flute strips

Normally the next step would be to build the strongback and canoe forms but I was lucky in having a friend of a friend lend them to me. Given that I don't foresee building another canoe, building the strongback is a lot of work for something that I don't even know where I'd store it when I'm done. Having the forms already made was also real helpful because the Gilchrist book doesn't provide clear dimensions and pulling the measurements off the drawings is difficult. 

As a side note, I think it is worth mentioning the size of the sawhorses again because I couldn't find any recommendation as to how high they should be. I ended up adding a couple of inches to bring them to 27". I'm 6'1" and I think that is a good height for me, make adjustments accordingly. The good thing about the two inch spacer is that I can easily remove them if I find that they are too high when I'm working on the bottom.

After I installed the first strip I walked away from the project for five days in fear that I wouldn't be able to do what I was envisioning. Until you start, it is difficult to understand how much the wood has to bend and I wasn't sure how I was going to attach small sections of strips, especially of the stiffer walnut, and get it to glue tight. That second row is a killer because it is the point of no return where you start gluing. 

After five days I worked up the nerve, bring all the clamps and fastening devices I could think I might be able to use. After the fact, I realize I should have flipped the strips so that the flute side was facing up. With the cove side facing up (as I did it) I risked damaging the edges as I clamped them between the forms. I would have re-done the first row because of it but I was nervous that I didn't have enough strips and didn't want to waste any. 

I quickly realized that staples would not work for holding the strips because the walnut was too hard -- the staples would just bounce off. So I ended up pre-drilling holes and attaching them with drywall screws. Unfortunately, this meant that the forms would be shot by the time I was done. I should have just made copies of them before starting so I wouldn't damage the borrowed ones but then I figured I'll just copy them when I'm done so the lender can get a new set.

I have been going with a random width, random length design. I don't want the finished piece to be at all visually predictable. Along with the dramatic contrast, I think it will be visually very interesting. Another feature that I'm planning on is to use different size walnut and maple dowels to fill all the drywall screw and staple holes (contrasting with the color of wood the hole is made). In addition to adding another layer of interest to the piece, I think it will give it a rougher look, which is important given that so much of it is made with walnut -- I don't want it to look too precious, I want it to look like it doesn't matter if it runs into rock and gets a dent.

In this last image you can see that I added one strip of cherry in the middle lower section. I really wanted one piece to be different than everything else and cherry is a nice intermediate color. Incidentally, this canoe would have been easier (and cheaper) to make with cherry instead of walnut. To my surprise, cherry is much easier to staple than walnut.

As I'm going along, I'm more pleased with how it is coming out. It is slow going though. With all the choices to make -- width, length, type of wood, avoiding lining up the joints, how to clamp or attach section, along with all the time needed to step back and admire the progress, along with the extra time needed to daydream -- it is taking me about 45 minutes per row per side. To give myself a mental break, every now and then I add an all basswood row, they are so much easier to install.

Building A Canoe: Step One

I have been contemplating building a canoe for many years. I'm not sure how many but at least ten, and during the previous year I've been seriously mulling over the design. Now, finally, I have officially started, and completed, step one, building a pair of midget -- sorry, vertically challenged -- saw horses. 

I think they look real funny, being just 25 inches high, but they need to be short because they are topped by a six inch high strong back and canoe forms which add another 18 inches.


Though they are aesthetically nothing special, I'm happy with them because I've finally found a use for some of the dozens of barn flooring boards I have had stacked in my backyard (I'm sure to my neighbors' dismay and annoyance) for the last seven years. I originally thought I could use them in some kind of domestic project, being that the boards are probably well over 100 years old (and probably old growth), but I quickly realized that they had been pickled in horse pee for many decades so bringing them indoors was not going to be an option.


I'll post images as the project comes together but my goal is that final product both floats and, most importantly, is a stunning work of art. Though I don't have any experience in building a canoe, or any other boats, I know people who have and I've been peppering them with questions for several months now. Based on their recommendations, I'll be using Gil Gilpatrick's Building A Strip Canoe as a guide and constructing his Wabanaki canoe design, a 16 foot general purpose solo or day tripping craft - perfect for exploring the many beautiful lakes throughout Vermont. Hopefully, it will be finished before the ice sets in this year.

Residency at Vermont Studio Center

I was at the Vermont Studio Center last week for a one week residency with 59 other Vermont artists. One week isn't really enough time to get a significant amount of work done, but it was a good opportunity to focus on work for a week and meet other Vermont artists.

I've decided to dedicate this year to working on my Flag Proposal Series so I had prepared three of them to work on during my stay at VSC. After a couple of days I realized my goals for what I was going to accomplish were completely unreasonable. I've always known that my process was slow but I thought that if I had a week to just focus without having to worry about cooking and shopping or any of the other various distractions I normally have, that I would get a lot done. I learned that the work is just slow, regardless of how many other things I have to do.

By way of background, this series is part of my efforts to get the American flag replaced with one of my designs. I've completed three already and I hope to get enough of them done by the end of the year for a show. After last week I think this goal may be unreasonable but I'm trying to focus to see how far I can get. I'll be real happy if I can finish six this year.

This first one, a nine-sided flag, has been the biggest struggle design-wise. The middle section is the second I've made for it and I'm still not happy, though I need to look at the images more to decide what to do. I'm also not sure about the orientation either -- horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. 

I'm happy with the direction and progress of this one, trapezoid flag. I still need to paint the center but I'm not worried about it at this point. I think the salamander-shaped, epoxy-filled, knot in the future blue-ish section is a great addition.  

This final one, double-star or double-sun flag, I am worried about because I know how difficult it will be for construct. I need to fit all the pieces together so they overlap but are still offset by about an eighth of an inch. I'm not looking forward to the assembly but at least I have the excuse of having to fix my router and finishing the others before getting back to it. I thought I would finish the other two and get well into this one during my time at VSC but I still have a ways to go on the others and I never touched this one, other than to arrange it. 

The overlapping circles are constructed, and will be painted, like this older piece, Forever Holiday, except with variations of blue rather than red, yellow blue:

To see the direction of the work, here are images of the first ones:

First Flag

shellac on curly maple, cherry, and bird's-eye maple

24" x 41" x 1"

2009

 Starry Night Flag

shellac on curly maple, cherry, and bird's-eye maple

26.5" x 26.5" x 1

2010

  Inverted Chevron Flag

shellac on curly maple, curly birch, and bird's-eye maple

53" x 34" x 1.5"

2010

New Images of New, Old, and Unfinished Work

I had Rick photograph new work last week before installing the sea shell. In addition to having a good camera and the right lights, his ability to get the colors right with photoshop are much better than I can do even with the right equipment so I think it is well worth the investment to get a decent portfolio together.

Epitonium apexaurum (Hitzig, 2010)
curly yellow birch, walnut, shellac, gold
82" x 48" x 1"

I had finished the piece below in September/October (I spent several weeks trying to get the shellac to crackle by taking it in and out of a meat freezer before giving up and calling it done) but, luckily, it hasn't sold yet, in spite of the unusual and spectacular figure, so I've been able to get a good image taken. I decided on the shape because the end of the board was cut at that angle at the lumber mill or forest and I thought it would look good at the other end as well.

Frozen Flame
shellac on blistered maple

30" x 19" x 1"

The title is partly a reference to the blue surrounding the flames and partly a reference to putting it in a freezer.

I finally finished my first flag. I wasn't happy with the coloring in the star section when I first had it imaged. This is what I was trying to do originally.

Untitled First Flag
shellac on curly maple, cherry, and bird's-eye maple
24" x 41" x 1"

The second flag isn't going so well and I think I'll need to completely redo the blue section. I've tried about 5 or 6 different combinations of blue, deep blue, purple, green so far and none of them work. I think I might try something more geometric next. At this pace I should have enough of these for a show in about 15 years.

Almost Square Flag Draft
shellac on curly maple, cherry, bird's-eye maple
26 1/2" x 26 3/8" x 1"

Alternate orientation

I also had an image taken of an older piece that I didn't have a good picture of, again, luckily, it remained unsold.

Miocenean Memory
curly maple, moose antler, epoxy, shellac
52" x 14" x 4"

I thought the piece looked something like a bear, maybe a proto-bear from long ago, long since forgotten, hence the title (I think bears first started to appear in the Miocene). The figure in the wood really makes it look like it is covered with fur.

I haven't yet finished the piece below because I've been struggling with the overlay rectangle. Since I was having other pictures taken, I had it imaged also, hoping that having a good picture would help to see it better.

Untitled/Unfinished
shellac on curly maple, cherry, and walnut
49" x 26" x 1"

I consider vertical striped section to be done but have been unable to find a color combination for the overlay stripes that work with the rest of it. So far I have been through the following combinations:
red/yellow/black/red/black
all clear
shades of blue (which looked great but didn't work with the rest of it)
blue/green/blue/green/yellow-green
blue/green/red-green/blue/yellow-green
various shades of black added to the above

Right now, I'm liking this combination the best but think that it might be better to replace it with a solid black piece (with grain still going in the perpendicular direction). It is painful how the little things can take the longest time. It is also painful learning how to paint. You'd think it would be easy but it really isn't. Sculpture is much easier, painting sculpture is relatively easy, but figuring out color combinations and making colors work on their own, that is hard stuff.

New Wedges

I've started a new pair of book-matched wedges. This time I wanted to go for something that was 4" thick and had thought about stacking four 1" boards with veneer in between but then thought that I'd better off doing something simpler first. Having a 2" board from my last trip to the lumber mill, I figured two 2" boards would be a good intermediate step. I'm glad I held back because this one difficult enough. It seemed like an endless process of cut, glue, cut, glue, cut . . .

For this set, instead of using veneer between the layers, I used a 1/4" piece of cherry. I should have done the math though, because, as I found out after cutting it, at the angle of the wedge, 1/4" becomes a 3" band, which I really didn't like.

I also didn't like the proportions of the piece so I felt it would be better to cut the cherry band down and reorganized the wedges. Although, one thing nice about the two large wedges is that they could be made into free-standing sculpture. It almost inspires me to make something along the lines of what Anne Truitt has done. Some other time though. Below is what I've come up with this time.

28" x 32" x 4
2nd Wedge Set Draft

A Much Better Idea

While looking though the exhibition guide to Sean Scully's show at Dartmouth's Hood Museum, I came up with a much better idea for the floating triptych failure I had put to the side in October. In reviewing the guide I had the same thought I had when I saw the show, it is interesting work but it would look much better in wood. I especially like his work with sets of stripes placed in perpendicular directions and with curly maple you have the added benefit of the figure being perpendicular to the stripes, giving you a multiple perpendicularity effect.

My biggest concern with gluing the sections together was in losing the live edges. Luckily, I was able to save one of them but the glue up was difficult and imperfect. I ended up having to route-out (i.e., use a router) the last strip of cherry and inlay a new, wider piece.
I like this one much better.

Shell Commission Part III

I'm about ready to start painting it. Both walnut and birch are open-pore so it take a ton of shellac to seal, walnut especially. With maple, being closed-pore, it is really much faster to get to the painting stage.

Shell Commission Update

Here is the roughed-out shell commission. Having heard Hank Gilpin give a talk at Gallery NAGA two days ago, I've been thinking about what he said about commissions, how they are a great opportunity to do interesting things that he wouldn't normally do (he gave an example of a ten foot long table six inches high). I think this is a good example. There is no way I would have thought of doing a giant sea shell but I'm happy to be doing it and pleased with how it is looking. In this way, it is really a collaboration with the client. I don't mind collaborating; there is no reason I need to work alone with self-inspiration. Although there is always a risk in working with other people - that you may create a camel when you really want a horse - but done right, it can be an opportunity to make something much better than one would otherwise do.It looks like it will turn out to be 83" rather than the 80" I had in my drawing but I'm sure that isn't a problem. I was able to select curly yellow birch boards with similar figure and all the curls are moving in the same direction so it should look like one consistent board throughout the piece. I'll bleach the heart wood out of the top three sections so it won't distract from the coloring. The section second from the bottom is darker than the rest because I had started shellacking it to get an idea of what it would look like.

Working with yellow birch also has me thinking about Hank Gilpin because he is famous for his use of rarely used species, which yellow birch is. Though, I now have a good understanding of why yellow birch is such an under-utilized wood. Frankly, it is a pain in the butt to cut. The wood is so hard and the curl so intense that you need to make the very smallest cuts on the joiner and planer or the grain will tear out with deep gouges. Then, there is so much tension in the wood that I can't get it through the table saw in one pass; the boards pinch the blade as it is going through so I have to repeatedly stop the saw, pull it out, and start again. A four foot board can take 4 tries to get it through the saw (rough cutting with the band saw might have been a good idea). Although it is extra work, it will be worth it. Yellow birch is the right species for this project and it will look great when I'm done. Besides, cutting the boards is an almost insignificant part of the project. I'll spend so many more hours painting it, I won't have any memory of the difference in cutting time when I'm done.

Sorry George

For every piece that I finish, there is probably one that I started and didn't like and couldn't save. And of the finished pieces, I probably redo half of them at least once. This false start is especially disappointing, not only because it started as a big hung of valuable wood (the second half of a three inch thick board I used to create the book-matched wedge), but because I thought the draft looked good and invested a lot of energy trying to get the colors right. But after struggling with the colors I put it back together to see how it looked and felt certain it wasn't going to work.

I would have created two sets of wedges but the deep, live edges on both ends of the board meant that my wedge would only be a few inches wide. In looking for alternatives I thought using the live edges in a piece that revolved around the color blue might work, but the blue theme seems really boring now and as I look at the piece I think the live edges make each section to individualistic to relate to each other. The question now isn't "can I save the piece?", it is "can I find something interesting to do with the wood I have left?"

George Nakashima would hate me for it, but I think I need to get rid of the live edges. I just don't think there is a good way to get the three sections to relate to each other otherwise. Perhaps cleaning them up (straightening the edges), cutting them up (and adding some other woods), and gluing together is the way to go. That way, I can add more contrasting colors and maybe create some interesting geometric shapes. Sorry George, I'm just not getting any inspiration from your spirit right now.

Shell Commission - Part I

A couple of weeks ago I received a request to design a custom piece for this space above a fireplace:With the following dimensions:The client had bought "Thrice in a Lifetime" at the Paradise City show in October for the space but it really didn't work, as I realized when I saw the image of the location. In addition to being a large, odd shaped wall, it also starts 10 feet above the floor, so a 3' x 3' piece would get totally lost. They wanted to know if they could exchange what they had for something that fit better and I told they they could. The specific request was to "draw up some ideas for a special order shellac painting piece (perhaps something shell-like)." Since the client had previously asked about doing something shell-like, I felt the emphasis was really on shell-like and not on a general abstract piece.

At first, I was confused about how I could apply what I do to make something that would be considered "shell-like." I didn't want to do any carving and all I could think of were scallops. Then I realized that gastropods, cephalopods, and the like, create sea-shells and that it might be possible to create a flat projection of something along those lines.

After spending a couple of days looking at thousands (no exaggeration) of shell images, primarily from this site, this one (94,199 shells for sale and I think I saw them all), and this one; I decided to go with something along the lines of this and this. The great thing about working in the parameters of something "shell-like" is that the diversity of shapes and colors are so great that there is an enormous amount of flexibility. Had they asked for a dog, whale, or some other figurative object, I probably would have refused, but shells, they seem to work with what I already do.

So I started drawing, and struggling with creating something that fit the space proportionally. Here are my series of drawing, in the approximate order they were created (I know it is a lot to post but I think it is interesting how they go from something rough and horrible to something that actually might work):
After I drove by a Shell station I realized that I could create an art deco stylized scallop-like shell but then realized it really wouldn't fit the space very well. I also didn't like its perfect symmetry, although shells like this and this are really captivating. Some shells are somewhat angular but I thought it would be too "hard" for the space. Finally, I was happy with a drawing. I just needed to recreate a clean version, which I did below:

I suggested that it might look best in flame yellow birch, which I picked up recently, because both the grain and the figure are larger than maple and could be seen better from a distance; and that the stripes could be made with walnut because it would contrast better with the yellow birch than cherry would. I also thought that the tip could be gilded in order to draw more attention to the top and make it more visible from a distance (about 17' high).
As shown in the cross-section drawings, the edges will be rounded, there will be a small gap between the sections (eight total), and the sections will be joined with a backing that will be screwed into each side.

I'm hoping to finish the piece by sometime in November. Luckily, the clients are flexible about the schedule so that I can have time to finish some new pieces for the shows I'm going to in September and October. I've started milling the wood that I have and the figure in the yellow birch should be perfect for this application, really big and dramatic. However, I'm a little short on what I need so I have an excuse to go to the lumber mill on Monday to pick up some more birch, walnut, and what ever else looks interesting. Always good to have an excuse to go to the mill.