> I'm thinking about cutting my own strips and wonder if I really need to
> mill the cove and bead. It sounds like beveling the edges would be easier.
> Could one use a joiner to bevel the edge? It sure would save some money.
> Any advice would be helpful.

I think cutting your own strips instead of buying them is definately the way to go as they are a lot cheaper and also because you can make some narrow ones for the tight curved areas.

I'm doing a beveled edge kayak right now. I set the table saw (yeah, that Ryobi we spent so much time chatting about a little while ago) to a 3 degree angle and cleaned up one of the 1/4" edges of the strips, then I turned the strips around and cleaned up the other edge at the same angle. USE A PUSH STICK AND KEEP YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM THE BLADE. This has made it a lot easier in the almost flat areas along the side of the boat. In many of these areas where the curve is gentle (middle of the boat) I hardly have to plane it if at all. I'll probably reduce the angle when I get to the bottom flat section, and the deck. Of course I could have ran it through a router instead and maybe saved a lot of work, but I don't have the bits and I haven't tried it so I can't really say.

When installing a strip I check the gap at each form and make a scribble mark. Small scribble for a small amount of bevel, and larger scribble for more bevel, etc... This is much more artwork than science. After beveling with the plane I run down the edge with a sanding block to smoothen it up a bit. After doing this a few times I got to the ability where most of the time I can get the strip right the first time. It does seem like a lot of work, and I'm not using staples so that is also making it go slower.

My $.02.