Hi Patsy,

I was wondering where you have been the last while.

I've actually never veneered anything other than the edges of plywood. So please keep that in mind as you read this. (that is it could be completly wrong.)

first a question, do you have a sealer coat on your canoe yet?

It seems to me that if you have a sealer coat of epoxy, that will prevent any 'dark' areas from glueing veneers and graphics on.

here is what I think may work.

1) A sealer coat on the entire exterior of the canoe.
2) Use Epoxy to glue the veneer on. lay out the epocy on along the line if interest, and on the back of the veneer. Let that set up a bit, and soak into the veneer. Then with the canoe on it's side place the set the veneer in place,
with the epoxy part set up it should be tacky. So you may have to work from one end to the other to prevent any wrinkles or bubbles in the veneer.

3)Now we have to press the veneer in tight. I think a combination of seran (or ceran, or... you know that plastic food wraping stuff) and some kind of weighting system. Wrap from one end of the canoe to the other in Ceran wrap.
This should hold the venere down fairly well, and it will squish out some epoxy to the sides of the wood. It should also force it to fill the ridge a bit, thus it should harden such that you have less changing of the ridge to get a good layup of fiber glass. If you can use good old gravity, and weights on top of the seran wrap (maybe with ablock of wood in between) it may help.
Perhaps tape could be used to hold it down while the epoxy set??

4) once mostly set up, you should be able to remove the seran wrap, and scrape most of the ridges off.

I wonder if prior to this step, it is reasonable to roll down the veneer. That is prior to when the epoxy is mostly setup, but when it is very tacky?

5) Sand and if required a coat of epoxy, to bring down the edges, followed by another sanding.

Now I've never done this, it is just how I would proceed, with out any guidance from a book, or forums like this one. The scary thing is... well it's all scary. However, if you have trouble it is not an easy process to back out of. Plus I'd feel a bit like an environmental terrorist using so much seran wrap.

I'd recommend a 'dry fit' of the strip to make sure it lays down nice and smooth, perhaps taping it in place to mimic the effect of the seran wrap.

A fairly regular poster 'OOtek, or such' (no insult meant by the bad memory) has some fantastic veneer work on a few kayaks he's build. you should take a look at his previous posts, and contact him as to how he did it.

Now haveing typed all that. If you just skipped to step 5 after getting the veneer on however you can. and put a coat of epoxy over the strip, then sand, and repeat until you have a smooth transition, it would help. Two thinks, It would aid in preventing taking off so much wood that you ruin the line. (cause it's protected by the epoxy build up at the edge)... hmm brain just died, can't remember what my second point was.. However. Lots of sanding is required at the edge of the fresh epoxy, and the fill coat.

some posters mixing a thick mixture of expoxy by only adding half the hardener, letting it setup, then mixing in the rest of the hardener. This would give you something that you could put on nice and thick at the edge, and reduce the risk of runs. (Never done that either...so a practice run is in order)

Please, Please, Please, put a cool veneer picture somewhere along the strip, maybe at the bow, just the head of a howling wolf, or a crane, or dolphin or somthing. Even just with a single piece of veneer. But what every you do pictures and descriptions of the process and how it went for you, you have to be posted here (If it's not, it should be the law ).

As always, best of luck

Myrl