Thomas Boats

Back at Oregon Wood Slabyrinth for some bending oak. This big White Oak was really impressive and heavy as hell. It was also full of blade-destroying metal (it killed 3 bands!), and less clear lumber than you'd expect. Its a game of probabilities that you hope to tilt in your favor over time. Thanks to Dan and Mandy who are always friendly and accommodating!

Oiling the frame. This frame is built with very rot resistant western redcedar, white oak, a bit of Alaska-cedar, and will remain well ventilated if stored correctly. So oiling does little to preserve it. But oiling makes it look pretty, and years later when reskinning, the oil will make it easier to peel off the glued nylon skin without damaging the frame.

Part 2 of the bend: I bend the lip over the coaming body that I bent yesterday. This lip holds the sprayskirt on.

This is one of the payoffs for tracking down the highest quality green white oak; it makes THIS bend possible.

Here I'm bending kayak coamings for , aka Cape Falcon Kayak. They offer the highest quality online curriculum showing how to build skin on frame kayaks and canoes. They also offer kits and supplies to support the curriculum. These coamings are included in the kits and individually. I probably build 30 of these for every boat I build. Some boatbuilder, ha!

Continuing the "I'm still here" series; Holdfasts have earned their place in my everyday setup. These are made by Gramercy Tools. Excellent and affordable. Leather pads glued to the clamping face are essential. At first I wondered if they were any better than quick action bar clamps. They don't seem to be faster in this case, but in other situations they can be way faster. They grip slightly better, are less likely to be in the way, and require less maintenance. Your bench has to be compatible though, and they require your big ugly mallet to be close at hand.

Just look at that fleck! "Look at the flame on that one"-Nigel Tufnel

When I see this come out of the planer, I'm usually fooled into thinking I've reached Peak Woodworking before I've even made a dime... or anything useful. Like Nigel, I could just keep these boards around to cherish.

The planer is friend Brian's old Parks. Its the Model T of planers; a planer for everyone, affordable, not too big, made by the tens of thousands. Yet it has most of the features and adjustments of the big boys. Its tough, and heavy enough to stay upright when green oak is trying to lever it over. Its just slow... putt putt putt. Like a Model T. And it takes half a freaking day to change the knives. My future nonexistent Oliver 399 will run circles around it someday.

The whittling continues. After milling the big White Oak log, the good folks at allowed me to break things down further right at the mill! This is special treatment and I'd never expect it, but in this case its mutually beneficial, and since Dan was done milling for the day, I wasn't in the way.

As I said in yesterday's post, I need oak of the highest structural quality for steam bending boat parts. So I carefully look over each board, grade them for different uses, cut away the parts I can't use, and place the rejects in a stack for Dan to use for other purposes. Sometimes I have to reject really nice boards that any furnituremaker would be glad to use, but have some kind of structural defect for my use; wobbly grain, weird figure, grain runout, pin knots, big knots, etc.

I have VERY limited space to store wood, and now my load of oak is a lot smaller, lighter, and free of sapwood which easily grows mold. This is enough oak to keep me in business all summer, and it will be a challenge to use it up before it dries out too much.