: I am not sure if my wood grain is wrong. In reference from another message on
: this forum I think that they are quarter sawn cedar strips. But I am not
: sure. All I know is that when I plane it certain strips have chunks ripped
: out of them. I don't believe it is a question of plane sharpness(I sharpen
: it daily). If I set the depth any shallower I don't get a cut. At this
: point I am looking at continuation and just filling in the pits later with
: filler. Is this my only option?

For any strip builder and especially the novice, I believe using a paint scraper and a ROS is an easier, faster way to prepare your hull for glassing. Everyone has to sand the hull to some extent anyway, why bother with a plane?

I advocate the use of a long handled paint scraper to ONLY remove glue from the strip joints. The blades are easily sharpened on a belt sander with 120 grit. Round the corners of the scraper blade on the sander, so they won’t gouge. The scraper I use comes with a four edge blade that allows me to shape blades to fit the bilge and other concave surfaces of the hull. This makes work on the inside of the hull particularly easy. Ted in his “KayakCraft” book devotes more time to talking about using a scraper (on pages 103 and 104) than he does about using a plane. However, the scraper he shows has too short a handle. I use a scraper with at lest a 10” handle. The pile of shavings I get with a scraper would amount to about 1/4 the size of the pile of planed shavings Ted shows on page 106 of “KayakCraft”.

Ted Moores acknowledges the problematic aspect of using a plane on a stripper hull for the first time in his most recent book “KayakCraft”. On pages 105 and 106 of this book he addresses the problems (especially for beginners) of using a plane. And finally, on page 106 at the end of the second paragraph says, “If your planking is tearing out miserably (using a plane), scraping and then sanding with a firm pad and sharp paper is the only answer.”

The scraper cuts very fine shavings of wood if needed. The scraper can hop or chatter over a surface making small divots, but nothing like the tear out of a plane. The scraper will often cut better if the blade is angled away from the line of stroke. Laying the handle low to the hull or raising it high will produce different cutting results. There is no way a scraper can inflict the kind of damage that can be produced with a misused plane.

I suspect that neither Ted nor Nick has used a ROS on a daily basis as I did when I worked in professional shops, so they don’t have the same reasons to love the use of this tool as I do. I’ve always hated sanding. But a ROS with powered dust removal (very important!) makes it almost fun.

I have never build a stripper with 1/4” thick strips. I suspect that the 3/16” strips are easier to twist and fit in place than 1/4” strips. It never crossed my mind to go at it with a plane. The sharpest plane blade in the best tuned plane, set to the finest cut would take off more wood in a second than I care for, using 3/16” strips. The pile of shavings on page 106 of Ted’s “KayakCraft” book is more wood than I care to loose from my hull.

After scraping I recommend going straight to sanding with a DUSTLESS random orbital sander connected to a shop vac. I use only a light-weight (easy to hold for hours) 5” variable speed sander with a soft backing pad and 60 grit. This tool and paper grit makes short work of fairing. The ROS disk is used with the whole sanding surface flat against the hull. It is the nature of the ROS sander used this way, which rides on the high spots and levels the surface quickly. A simple continuous back and forth scrubbing type movement assures uniformity. The amount of wood removed is easily controlled even using 60 grit paper, because I use a low power (2 amp) light-weight (3 lb.) ROS. I have tried to sand through a 3/16” flat panel with this set-up and got tired of sanding before I got close to cutting through. If you tilt the sander on it’s edge you can take off material more aggressively. But then you must be well aware that you are making a dip.

It takes me 15 minutes to scrape a hull and less than an hour to fair it sanding. After a good wet down of the wood surface to raise the grain and close all staple holes (bottom only on my boats) another sanding with 100 grit smoothes out any remaining flaws. I finish the hull with 120 grit on a fairing board, sanding with the grain. And on to glassing.

All the best,
Rob