I am currently making my kayak using WRC from Home Depot. This wood was sold to me as 3/4 inch thick, in 4, 6, or 8 inch widths, and 8 or 12 feet lengths. In actuality it was only 5/8 inch thick and rough on one side. After you cut your planks into 1/4 inch thick strips, the rough unfinished edge will be hardly noticeable. I am using bead and cove strips, which as you suggested removed the roughness when I cut the beads with the router. In your case, you stated that you are not planning to use bead and cove so you will need to make a rolling bevel with a block plane on the edges of nearly every piece. The rough unfinished edge of a 1/4 or 3/16 inch thick strip will not add significantly to the work of creating a nice hand planed edge to join your strips together. So if you got a fair price on the wood I would at least give it a try. However, if you paid for S4S or paid extra for special processing, then you did not get what you ordered and should consider either returning it or getting a price adjustment.

Just my 2 cents worth.

You can get an idea of how rough one side of my planks were by looking at the bottom of the strips in the attached photo.

Greg

: I ordered WRC from a local lumber yard that had to have it
: delivered in from a regional supplier. What I ordered was 1 x 6
: S4S. When I placed the order, the guy at the desk confrimed that
: it would be 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches. Well I picked it up today, and
: it looked great all bundled up. When I got home I realized that
: it's only finished on 3 sides; not 4 as agreed, and its already
: down to 5/8 inch thick instead of 3/4. If I were to finish the
: 4th side (don't currently have a way to do it), it'd be closer
: to 1/2 inch thick. What would you do? Bring it back and hope
: that they can get stuff actually finished on 4 sides and 3/4
: inch thick, or just deal with what they gave me? If I decide to
: just deal with it, does anyone know of a practical way of
: finishing that 4th side without going out and buying a planer?
: It's the wide 5.5 inch side that's unfinished, so I was
: wondering if maybe I rip the strips, and somehow plane them in
: strip form, but this seems like it would be an awful lot of
: work. I should also add that I don't plan on bead and cove,
: otherwise I could shave off the unfinished side when creating
: the cove. Since this stuff is already down to 5/8 though, if I
: go bead and cove, I won't have much left to work with.....

: Comments appreciated

: Thanks,

: TO