: . . .was fortunate to luck into some green "red Oak", which bent
: wonderfully. Abit of a challenge ripping the boards into slats on my band
: saw. Took a while to figure out how to get continually uniform thickness,
: but it finally worked out after a few false starts.

Red oak is beautiful wood, but it needs to be protected from rot.

I am replacing the red oak gunwales (inwales and outwales) on my canoe this year because they have rotted out in places, and been severely weakened by rot in other places. I thought I could just replace a few feet, but whenever I cut out a bad area I ran into another spot that was going bad.

The gunwales lasted only about 4 to 5 years before showing signs of rot.

They were varnished, but not sealed with epoxy. The small decks on the canoe were made with wood from the same board I ripped the gunwale strips from, and they were coated with epoxy resin. They are in fine shape.

So, I offer this advice: Do the untraditional thing and coat all your red oak pieces amd parts with two coats of epoxy resin. Varnish, paint, and other sealants, like linseed oil, just don't do as good a job. Either that, or make some spare ribs now while you are making the originals, and plan on swapping out the rotted ones with the replacements in about 5 to 6 years.

PGJ