: Obviously it doesn't have the same
: strength as wood strips, but it does have the advantage that it is
: available to me, whereas cedar isn't in the UK, and I don't have to tools
: at the moment to start milling strips...

Cedar is relatively easy to get in 15 or 18mm boards - we got a lot from
North Yorkshire timber as tongue and groove board for a ceiling, and I'm
sure they mill the tongue and groove themselves, so the boards should be
obtainable to order, and cheaper, without the TIG, which will also get you
more strips ! For the sort of prices you are objecting to in pre-milled
strip, you could readily obtain both the timber and the tools and have
change (and for your second boat you only need buy the timber...)

You need a block plane anyway, and this is great for rolling bevels, so you
don't need a router table to mill bead-and-cove, which is probably more
trouble than it's worth (personal opinion...)

Other timbers easily obtainable in the UK also make fine kayaks - such as
the timber marketed as "redwood pine" which is usually Scandinavian plantation
grown Scots Pine and has relatively few knots. Lots of the Scandinavian folk
who post here build with pine and spruce and it makes nice light-coloured
boats, although it does go yellow after a bit of exposure to the sun. Spruce
in the UK tends often to be plantation-grown Sitka or Norway spruce from the
UK and is often rather knotty. OK if you can browse and pick your boards and
don't need all long strips.

Although a table saw is the quickest way to make strips, a bandsaw has a
thinner kerf and produces strips which require only a little bit more sanding
later ... but the bandsaw does a whole lot of other jobs too (cutting out
forms, for example). I got mine for £150 a while back, but that was new, and
you should do better secondhand...

I am fortunate in having enough 15mm cedar boards (recycled timber which cost
me nothing) to make at least a dozen boats, but unfortunate in that they
would all be the same colour, so I'd be willing to part with some at a price
a bit lower than you'd get from a timber merchant if you happen to live near
me ... Barnard Castle, Co. Durham.

Here's an example of a boat with a deck pattern that only needed short strips,
which are a mix of cedar, spruce and mahogany (all either salvaged or offcuts)

and the main image is one with some longer strips but many very short strips
in the deck, this time a mix of cedar, pine and purpleheart (I don't
recommend the latter, however good it looks - it's very hard work!)

Andy