: By my reading of this, you plan to chisel a groove the length of your boat
: (about 5 meters), and this groove you plan to make only 1/2 mm to 3/4 mm
: deep and with perfectly accurate width along the entire length.

: That sounds like quite an undertaking, and I'm not sure it is necessary.

: If the material is just under 1 mm thick why not just bond it directly on top
: of your wood. when the glu sets you can gently sand, in line with the
: "inlay" to bring that 1 mm edge thickness down to nearly
: nothing. When you apply your glass and resin over this there will not be
: any noticeable bump.

: If the edge of the inlay casts a shadow under strong, directional light, that
: surely is not going to be as objectionable as any slips you might make in
: your chisel work. You certainly can't make the groove narrower than your
: inlaid material ( it wouldn't fit), so you would have to err on making it
: larger -- and that would give you a shadow line, too.

: Since you plan to leave the inlay a bit above the surface of the surrounding
: wood, you are committing yourself to sand it down. If you mount it directl
: on the surface, you also have to sand. In this regard I see no advantge to
: cutting the groove first.

: There are some nice pictures of kayaks that have been decorated by having
: veneers glued directly on the outside of the craft, without incising a
: home for them first. I think Nick's guillemot design is applied this way.
: unce they are under the glass they look as good as if they were done the
: harder way.

: Just a few thoughts

: PGJ
The banding is .040 inches thick but the reason I am chiseling a groove is because the king board I am covering it with is slightly below the level of the deck panels glued to it,not everywhere but most of the length.I kind of cleaned up the groove so the banding set down somewhat but not flush.Yes ,it was a lot of work(4.3 metres long) but when I sanded it and the deck it looked pretty good.I stayed up till 2 AM last night and glassed the deck ,put another coat of epoxy this morning.It really looks great,wish I had the technology to post pictures.The edge between the banding and deck where I left little gaps were filled with dark sawdust from the banding itself and are not too noticable.A couple of spots show white (incomplete wetout)probably a little air trapped but I will shoot exoxy in to them with a syringe tomorrow.
Thank you everyone for your help,it was actually pretty easy other than time consuming.The hardest part is just fear of the unknown.
Happy building.
Bert