> I saw a boat at the Wooden Boat show in St. Michaels MD that had a neat
> solution to the nail head problem. The builder had counter sunk the nails
> below the surface of the deck. He was careful to place all the nails an
> equal distance from the edge of the deck. Then to routed a groove about
> 5/16in wide and probably less than 1 ply deep right over the nailheads. He
> filled the groove with colored (black) epoxy. The effect was a nice accent
> stripe all around the edge of the deck.

I think it might be better for the router bit, and easier to align the nails, if you could rout the groove first. I can't think of an easy way to do this, though. Maybe if you centered the deck and tacked it in place you could guide the router around the outline of the hull, pressing the deck into place as you went. When the groove was cut you would know where to place the nails (in the groove, of course) and they would be countersunk with little of no additional effort.

Paul Jacobson