AgDad121619 said:
How experienced where you as a woodworker prior to build. I would love to build to cedar strip canoe when I retire but I have zero experience with that kind of work
I'm fairly handy around the house installing wood floors, trimwork, etc, but not near a level of building fine furniture. Honestly reflecting back, the woodwork was the easy part. The big learning curve for me was fiberglass and epoxy. I bought a few books and watched a lot of YouTube, there's plenty of content available online.
I got caught up watching video after video from a fella named Nick Schade who owns Guillmot Kayaks
https://youtube.com/@nickschade?si=DS38cUxb0GSE7Y8c . His content is easy to follow and not overly edited, he shows his mistakes and how he corrects them. I really appreciate that. Before I glassed the deck I had to move it when it was just the glued wood strips and it slipped out of my hand, fell to the floor, and folded backward on itself splitting almost fully through. After a lot of cursing I used some tape, super glue, and wood glue to get it back together and it's totally invisible. I now have the ability to fix just about any damage I do to it, which helps with my confidence on the water.
This took nearly 2 years but I have a full time job, 2 kids, coach their AAU basketball team, lego robotics team and have a few boards I'm on. If I was able to commit to the project fully through I bet it could get done in 3 months
Pull the trigger, it was super rewarding!
. Below are some of my photos of the build process picking up where I left off on the original thread.
