Dwight,
Sorry to hear about your first stripping attempt. I'll ditto everything said above. Its very possible to rip a vast majority of good strips.

We both buy strips and rip our own. Pretty much 50-50. SO I can talk out of both sides of my mouth Nice trick huh!

The trick to ripping is to build your jigs and try them one strip at a time. When the jig fails to produce a good one stop tweak on your jigs until you have something
that is reliably producing a good strip every time. My scanner just blew (tonight's project) or I would post you some jig ideas. I am sure others could do the same.
Eventually, after trying and tweaking your jigs; you'll get jigs that will produce the right size strips and then the right coves and bead almost every time. However, if
you losing a large fraction of your strips, then its time to stop and improve the set up. Keep tweaking. Don't burn through a bunch and lose the time and the wood.
Keep stopping, keep tweaking.

You asked about bought strips. In this life there is time or money. That is largely the basic question of ripping or buying. Bought strips are not cheap. They take a
lot of time and equipment to make well. But they are wonderful. When I was first questioning which way to go, Someone told me that bought strips are and I quote
"a superior strip" Well that sounded like a very biased plug if I ever heard one, but folks kept saying similar things about bought strips. So I did both. I Bought and I
ripped. Well here is what I have found. Bought strips are indeed "a superior strip" It doesn't mean what we make ourselves are deficient. I make some great strips.
Look at a boat and I think you won't find which strip is bought and which strip I ripped. However, when you take a raw board shape it. Then cut it in to strips, then
cut the strips to size, and then route it on both sides. Our strips take 6 passes. Well it can get to be a long dusty monotonous task. If you don't have a dust system it
can be a very dusty process. What is left on your lawn will kill the grass for a season if your in your yard. If its winter you are and its an outside job....Still at the end
of 4 days having enough wood lying in a pile for your boat or two feels pretty good. However, it can be more then some hobbyists want to be involved in. Having
said that lots of folks on this board rip strips. Lots of folks prefer to rip there strips. And we all have our reasons. Some for cost, some for quality and some because
we are rugged individualists and we would cut down the tree and turn it into the raw boards first if we could. If you think I am kidding I'll show you an ash tree that
came down behind my house. It would make great fire wood, but that a single 30 foot trunk of straight grain......

For me, I rip my own strips if I am picking the wood. When you get into the wood store and find that most perfect board with the right grain and it says very cool
thing to put into my boat.... Well that's the strip I rip. Also if its a pricier wood, I'll trade doing it myself in small quantities to justify the increased cost. It gives us a
collection of different stuff to play with when we get to accenting or patterning our boats.

My shop buddy however, likes to start from scratch on the raw boards and rip. If its in his boat. He bought the board. Both ways produce a great looking boat.

For me the fun is usually in the boat building and not in the ripping. So I am willing sometimes to jump from buy the plans to build the boat. That means buying strips.
I'll be the first to say I am not above buying dimensional lumber for any project. Boat or otherwise. Look if your part timing a boat around all the other things in your
life. Job, family, kids sleep, it can be two weeks to a month to get your strips all ripped and routed. Some times the money spent is worth just in time hassle and
monotony. The down side to buying strips is you don't get to pick the wood. As in: this is the board, this is the grain going into my boat. However, you can be real
specific about species and colors tones, grains etc. with a strip maker. The bought strips come out perfect, no knots. Its clear and perfect every time.

On the other side though. When you tell a strip builder what you want. He is going to find a good clear board and will know how much you need for what kind of
design. You can mix it up I want a little of this and that and the package is soon sitting like a Christmas present next to your forms. That's a good feeling too.

The other thing I like about bought strips is that you have another person in your corner. If I have a building question I can go to the designer, this board or the strip
builder and asked those first timer questions. Its another source of how-do I help.

There are several places that sell strips. We have used NewFound Wood Works. WWW.NewFound.com. We are close enough (same state) to save out delivery
costs. Dwight, I am have no professional affiliation with these folks. The only thing we have in common is our live free or die license plates. (Or was that live freeze
and then die ) Having said that I'll tell you my friend was right it is a superior strip. However, that's just the beginning. We have been through 4 boats with this
group and they have really sweat the details with us every time. You'll get what you ask for. Lots of help for the first timer. They have a Wooden Boat Rendezvous
every fall that is filled with beautiful boats and seminars on various aspects of boat building. with a ton of fun folks many of whom are on this board. If the best
advertising is word of mouth, well I'll say this is one group that has done right by us every time. I know there are other groups out there doing the same. I can't
comment from experience, about others, but my sense is there are several good strip makers out there.

Having said that if your wanting to rip your own, and the rugged individualist with the tree waiting to be milled out back wants to see you succeed, Remember its not
rocket science. Just keep tweaking your jigs.

Enjoy,

!RUSS