Fellow Boat Builders,
Over the past few seasons, I've come to interact with you on a number of topics regarding the practice, or craft of small boat building. We share a wonderful common interest. Your gernerosity in sharing your experience and knowledge, and your encouragement and humor is most appreciated and enjoyed. A heartfelt "thanks" to each of you, not the least of whom is our host, Mr. Schade.

My own experience is limited to the two boats stored and the boat I have now on my strongback, and I would ask you your opinions on the following topics. I will repeat this request seperately for each catagory, as the questions come to mind, in the hope that we will come to a greater sharing of knowledge, experience, encouragement and humor.

Stripping:
Given an attept to "book match" strips on either side of a centerline, inserting "cheater" wedges or strips as needed to achieve the desired pattern,
it is sometimes difficult to get a strip to lay flat against a station mould. Do you "force it" into place, or let it find it's own way and count on fairing the shape as close to the lines of the boat later?

My own experience was that on one side of the center line, I might have been able to force the strip to lay flat, but on the other, it was impossible to do without the "cheater". After I had this difficulty, I ended up just letting it happen the way it wanted.

If using Bead and Coved strips; cove up, or down? If you worked on a kayak, how did you handle the transfer to cove up or down respective to the way the hull was stripped? The 45 degree bevel is a common practice, If you did this, how did it work for you; if not, how could you have done it different.

My own experience was that the 45 degree bevel worked quite well for my Wife's Stitch and Glue, for my own strip kayak, I chose to do the hull, cove to the sky, the deck, bead to the sky, that way, the shear joint ended up being a better joint. Gluing the strips of the deck was a bit messy. I think a set of strips milled double cove or double bead would work best. Draw back of this is the fragile cove that would be exposed before joining deck to hull...and possibly choosing the strips that would define this area of the hull and deck.

When gluing strips, how do you handle the drools? Do you meticulousley clean each drool, or let it harden and then scrape and sand?

My own experience was to try and clean up as much as I could right away. However, some of the diluted glue would seep into the grain of the strip, and it was difficult to clean up later. I ended up trying to use as little glue in the joint as possible.

Fairing the Hull surface for lay up:
Some might insist on the completely tight joint. I find this difficult to achieve, especially where tapered strips are required (cheaters). What kind of fillers do you use? Thickened Epoxy is a common practice, but taping each imperfection off, sometimes requires several days as one imperfection might be located where the tape for cleanliness will lay.

My own experience is to use thickened epoxy where the gap is structural, and a water based wood filler (Elmer's) with a darker color in places where the imperfection is more superficial.

Glassing the Hull:
When laying the tape on a keel line, especially at the stems, How do you get the tape to be invisible when the next layer of glass is applied?

My own experience is that the tape either didn't wet out fully and the tape line is quite visible in bright light. I attribute this to two factors; a) that the tape didn't fully wet out, and b) when I sanded the tape edges for a smoother lay up of the next sheet of glass, the sanded fibers were still left on the surface.

I've got to do some other things for now, but one quesiton's answer might just lead to more questions. Thanks.
Bill Cruz