: I am still on the fence a bit about whether to go with hand
: bevelling each strip as I fit it, or to do bead and cove.
: Soooo... I would appreciate any and all thoughts and opinions
: about these two techniques, which do you prefer and which would
: you recommend for a novice.... I'm more concerned about the end
: quality rather than speed of build. As long as I'm feet wet by
: June I'm happy :)

: Thanks!

: Jason

Jason,

You have opened Pandora's box with this question.... There are strong opinions on both sides of the fence on this one.

I build my first strip boat with bead & cove from a kit with pre-milled strips. They went together great and I thought it was the way to go. Then, I decided to build a second boat milling my own strips. I decided to try the rolling bevel method and am about 3/4 the way through stripping the hull using this method.

So, here's my take on the subject. If you mill your own strips, you will save a days work if you skip the b&c and will also end up with wider strips since you don't mill off the sides so there's some wood savings. I'm finding some of the tapered joints are easier to fit without the b&c and using a good sharp block plane, getting them to fit is quick. On the down side, I've got a few minor gaps between a few of my strips that will require some filler that I probably would have avoided if I used b&c. Also, applying glue is slightly messier as whey you have the cove facing upward, it makes a nice "trough" to lay a bead of glue for the next strip but this is a minor issue....

So, my opinion is if you have b&c, it works great so use it. If you have flat sides, it works great so use it!! I'll probably build my next boat with straight strips but reserve the right to change my mind....

Try both and then decide...

Bob Beaullieu