: 1) Someone has recently given me a bunch of 40+ year old cypress lumber
: (2"x8") to use on my kayak for strips. I have always heard that
: it's best to use dry wood on projects, but does wood ever become too dry
: for building kayaks?

It will be fine as long as it stays the samae dryness - if you move it to
a working area where it starts to absorb atmospheric damp it may start to
warp a little. Get it cut into strips whilst it is still straight or it
gets a lot harder.

Once it is in strips it doesn't matter if it bends a little, as you will
be fixing it down to the forms and bending it to the shape of the boat anyway.
Mind you - if you are coving and beading it, you probably want to do that
without it warping ... so get that job done soon after you cut it and it
should be fine.

If you can keep it as dry as possible, you will end with a lighter boat.
Very dry wood may be a little more brittle, so if your deck design calls
for tight bends or twists you might want to damp a strip before applying
hot-air gun to get those tight curves. Once it is in place and still in a
dry atmosphere it should dry out pretty quickly, well before you get to
sanding and glassing.

: 2) If the wood is adequate, what size strips should I cut off for the deck
: (I'm building a hybrid).

Traditional size is 1/4" by 3/4", but that may not come out of 2"x8" without
a bit of waste. Main thing is to use the same width strips throughout (or
at least the same width within an area of one type of wood if you are using
more than one for a pattern). I've used 5/8" planks to make 5/8" strips,
which looked fine. I've also used 1" planks to make 1" strips, which are
OK if you don't need to twist them too much - I used 1" purpleheart which
doesn't twist easily, and had to split some strips into two 1/2" ones, which
still looked fine. So don't sweat the details ! For thickness, 1/4" is usual
for WRC. I used 5mm on my first boat (which was a scaled down Great Auk, at
5/6 the original size, so scaling the strip thickness made sense). I think I
was close to 5mm on my full-size boat, too, but some of that was hardwood,
and in places the thinner deck was supported by very thin (2mm) laminations
of ash a bit like deck beams (behind the cockpit, which takes a lot of stress
when getting in the boat, and the foredeck, which bears a lot of load during
rescues).

: 3) Could someone give me a direct link to the correct cove and bead router
: bits? I'm overwhelmed at the number of router bits available and don't
: have a clue what to look for.

Can't help you there - I've always found rolling bevels easier and with less
waste.

: Thanks, and sorry for all of the newbie questions!

Don't apologise for asking questions - if no-one asked, no-one would post
answers and the forum would be a dull and uninformative place !

Andy