: When you live on an island things are often harder to do. Here is
: how I went about resawing some cypress today:

: Step 1: Load cypress on top of VW bug sans roof-rack. Ensure equal
: force put on each end so the wood bends to the shape of the roof
: which evens out the payload.

: Step 2: Drive to ferry dock.

: Step 3: Load vehicle on barge to St. John.

: Step 4: Drive to best friend's house, set up saw, resaw lumber.

: Step 5: Load lumber back onto car. (See step 1)

: Step 6: Buy friend 6-pack of beer. (Do NOT skip this step. OK To
: move up in the list but not down.)

: Step 7: Return to ferry dock.

: Step 8: Load vehicle on barge back to St. Thomas.

: Step 9: Return home.

: Step 10: Unload lumber.

: It's that simple. I must say, it's great to have a friend like Jeff
: to help me resaw this horribly crooked lumber. We had to snap a
: chalkline and aim it down the saw, then use that edge against
: the fence to saw the other edge, and then use that new edge
: against the fence to dress the edge to final width. It came out
: absolutely perfect and I now have two 16'
: close-enough-to-straight-grain cypress gunwales, two 16'
: stringers, and plenty of stock for crossmembers. I bought wider
: boards so I could have the gunwales and stringers as close as
: possible to quarter-sawn. Even with sawing out the crooks it
: came out pretty straight grained. Now I just have to put it all
: in the shape of a kayak!!!

: This stuff was shipped from the US. It's dried to whatever they dry
: it to there, and when they ship it here it starts to absorb back
: the moisture because of the humidity here. Of course it absorbs
: some here and some there so it swells more in one spot than the
: other and it gets warped, crooked, twisted, etc. It's hard to
: ever get wood that is straight. I have some wood for a few
: guitars I'm planning to build that I have very carefully been
: bringing up to moisture so it doesn't warp. This cypress I let
: sit for a month before sawing. Nothing down here is easy!!!

: All the best,

: Malcolm

Yes but you do get to paddle year round, something that not all of us enjoy.

Bill H.