Building a stitched lapstrake canoe

August 3+4, 2007
Gluing Outwhales -- 0:30 hour


Gluing on the outwhales went a lot quicker and easier than fitting the inwhales into the hull. There was just one nasty surprise as we placed the first clamp on the 2nd side there was a loud CRACK as we started to bend it around the hull. I had not noticed a wood knot about a foot from the end. Fortunately I had managed to get 5 strips out of the 16ft. mahogany board that I bought so we went to plan B and used the extra strip which went on just fine.

I had just barely enough glue from the 3 oz mix to re-coat the new strip and see that there was just the right amount of squeeze out along the length. I walked back along the length and added a few clamps at spots where I did not see any glue squeezed out on top.

I also ran a rag along under the bottom edge and wiped the excess glue to cove it in so there would not be any bead to sand off.

August 4. After removing the clamps I rounded over the outer edges with a 1/4" rounding over bit in the router. Then I used 80 grit sandpaper in the belt sander to even out the surface - removing the excess glue and the edge of the top plank that protruded slightly.

I cut off the ends at the stem and began to shape the ends of the outwhales with the sander. I made a second pass over everything with 220 paper in the belt sander to smooth it out a bit.

Here's a movie of the gluing process, it took only 0:30: