> I am planning on building a strip kayak, I have access to redwood since I
> am from the northcoast of california. But I was wondering, if money was
> not the object what would the best wood material be, to build my boat. I
> have heard that mahogany is dense,strong yet light. If you had the choice,
> and money was not that serious of an option, which wood material would you
> choose? By the way, I am planning on building the Guillemont. Any insight
> would be appreciated!

When someone says ``if money is not an object'' I naievely tell them that if that is the case, then they should simply send me all the money they have.

So far no one has complied, but I have been told that there IS a check in the mail. When it arrives, there will be a party at my place, and you, and all your friends, are invited.

`Best' is a relative term and what is best for you may not be best for someone who wants a lighter boat, or a cheaper one. Pine is available in many areas in long lengths, which can make ripping strips faster and easier, as you won't have to scarph shorter lengths.

Eastern White cedar used to be the preferred material for canoes, strip canoes (and then for strip kayaks) Reasons cited were the light weight, resistance to rot and good strength, but I suspect that the ready availability of the wood in the vicinity of the early New England and Canadian canoe building companies had a lot to do with this choice of materials, too. Regardless, of reason, it is a good material with a substantial track record.

When fiberglass was first used to cover canoe hulls the common resin was polyester. Red cedar did not work well with that product. A rumor I've heard is that this was because of the greater amount of aromatic oils in the red cedar, but I'm not so sure about that. David Hazen's book on stripbuilding canoes ( and kayaks, though they are not in the title) mentions using a sealer on red cedar before applying the fiberglass and polyester resin, so there seems to be some sense that the bond needed improvement, and that it could be improved with a rather simple step.

With the introduction of the more expensive epoxy resin, and the ready availability of red cedar the trend has seemed to be toward favoring this combination.

Since most of the strength of the hull is in the glass that sits on either side of the wood strips, and not the wood strips themselves, it seems you could use an even lighter weight wood, such as balsa. The cost could be pretty high, but balsa is so soft you could probably do all the cutting and fitting with a Swiss Army knife and a Swingline stapler/tacker from an office supply store. You can buy a material consisting of blocks of balsa lightly glued to a thin sheet of fiberglass fabric. This arrangement makes the material easy to flex into compound curves, but the end grain of all those blocks tends to soak up a lot of your resin, making this a slightly heavier proposition than one might imagine.

For a bizzare idea, consider using 3/16 Fomecore (R). I think you can buy some with a wood veneer layer on the surface instead of the usual paper layers, but if not, a sheet of Fomecore (R) sandwiched between two pieces of wood veneer would give you a very interesting building material. The Fomecore (R) comes in 4 by 8 foot sheets and you can get veneer in 8 foot lengths. Cutting ths material with a long straightedge and a razor blade or hobby knife would give you 8 foot long strips with a wood surface on both sides, and no sawdust for waste. Would it be strong? Who knows. By itself it would be pretty flimsy, but you could probably wrap enough glass fabric and resin on it to make it as strong as you could desire.

Just a few rambling thoughts on the subject.

Paul G. Jacobson