: So when scarfing is to simulate one board, why would you do it any other
: way???

: Or to match colour and character is this not a simple no brainer way?

: -mick

I suppose one of these days I'll make up a jig to make my scarfing easier, and closer to foolproof. Until then, I only need a few of the the longer strips for getting started. I can fill in with shorter strips, which I join by butting the square edges against each other.

In the past I have both picked planks with little color variation at the ends where I would be scarfing, and also done the deed with planks with wide color variation. The difference in color is very pretty, actually. It depends on where you use it, though.

I'm in awe of some of the "coffee table quality" I see here in boat building. I got into strip building because it was simple. I guess anything can be made a little slower and a little prettier.

If you want better grain matching, and are willing to spend the time on matching and scarphing, then go for it. It is certainly possible. Time and quality considerations to ponder: I think there have been several posts on jigs for making scarphing easier and faster. taking time to build such a jig will probably save time in the long run if you have many scarphs to do. The worst case would be trying to make multiple scarfs on strips without a jig. That kind of work will drive you buggy, take a longer time, be messier, etc. (I know it is a lousy way to do things -- I tried it that way -- but just once!) On the other hand, if you don't want to make a scarpf cutting and alignment jig, you can get nice alignment by making a single scarf on the boards instead of multiple scarphs on the strips. It is a middle approach.

PGJ