> How do I do the bed and coves for the strips. I'm trying to build a
> Guillemot single expedition, but I don't get how do you specially do the
> coves.

You use a router mounted in a table, or a shaper, with two special bits. One bit has a concave cutting area, which makes a convex shape on the wood strip's edge. The other bit has a convex cutting area which makes a concave shaped cut on the wood strip. It doesn't matter if you have as hard a time remembering what the difference is between concave and convex as I do. One edge of the wood is scooped out, and the other edge is rounded over in a matching shape.

If the concept is still a bit difficult to understand, you have a few possibilities: A) There is a picture of how the wood strips fit together in Nick's website. Look for his description on how to build a strip built kayak. B) a tool catalog that sells these bits should have pictures of them, and the cuts they make. C) Your local hardware dealer might not have the exact bits you need, but he can show you something similar. D) You can buy strips with the bead and cove edge already formed. If you do not have a router, router table and the bead and cove bits, you might weigh the difference in the cost of the ready-made strips against your investment in such tools, and the time it would take to learn them, and to make the strips. When you calculate this, remember to figure in the price of the lumber you won't have to buy. E) if you have the tools for ripping strips, and the boards to rip, you can do just fine with strips that have square edges. Most of the time they will fit together just fine as is. In other areas you can gently reshape the edge a bit with a hand plane in a minute or two. In fact, even with bead and cove strips, you will have to use your plane to reshape the strips at the ends.

Hope this helps get you started.

Paul Jacobson