Consistent width of strips is critical on each bundle you make. Make each board into a bundle and keep them together through each step. I always mark my strips so all of the "A" through "K" strips are sortable. And I keep each bundle taped together until I use them. It keeps my widths right - even when butt jointing.

The best and highest use of bead and cove is for keeping butt joints together. I guess its butt joint with bead and cove strips or scarf to make the joints work best.

: Someone recently asked a really important question;

: "Whether you are hand beveling the strip edges or B/C them
: there is no reason to start the process with strips all
: identical in width. And, you will hand plane, rough sand, finish
: sand the inside and outside of the wood so - what's the point of
: starting with strips identical in thickness?"

: The difference is night and day!

: Here are the keys to the kingdom.

: Having strips of equal thickness is HUGELY important. It allows you
: to easily align strip edges. If you can align strip edges,
: AND your strips remain in contact with your forms, the hull surface
: IS PERFECT!!!!

: IT IS PERFECT

: This is the genius of strip building.

: You will have very little sanding, scraping and fairing to do.

: If you start with the assumption you won't be able to align strip
: edges, that you can sand, plane and fair your way to a perfect
: hull, you
: will pile hours and hours of work on your project.

: How could you know? You can't if everybody else does it that way,
: if it is assumed you will do it too.

: After stripping many, many boats, I've learned exactly how much
: time is saved by paying attention to aligning strip edges.

: It's like the foundation of a house. If it starts out crooked or
: weak, every other line in each floor and wall will be off and
: will be hard to correct.

: If your strips are of different thicknesses they will create a
: rough surface that must be leveled with plane or sander and this
: will destroy
: and defeat the beauty, the simple genius, of the strips naturally
: creating a perfect fair surface.

: If the strips are of different thicknesses they won't lay against
: the forms correctly, and leveling the interior and exterior
: surfaces will throw
: you further and further AWAY from a fair surface.

: Bead and Cove profiles must be centered perfectly or they will
: create more problems than they solve. Setting up B&C cutters
: is one of the
: fussiest jobs you can do with a router. I worked for years with
: routers and I didn't get it right the first time I milled
: B&C strips.

: Did I throw out those strips? Of course not. I used them and
: UNKNOWINGLY suffered many extra hour of work compensating for my
: mistake.

: I bet 90% or more of first time builders do the same. That's way I
: advocate beveling one edge of all your strips at 3˚ on the
: table saw and hand
: beveling as needed to complete your hull.

: Aligning your strip edges is JOB ONE.

: Do that, focus your time and energy on that, and you will be
: stunned at how beautifully perfect and fair you hull is from the
: start!

: This means, slow down, dry fit and clamp each strip in place BEFORE
: you apply glue. To align strip edges you must figure out how
: to twist and bend them (with a heat gun) and how to clamp and hold
: them in place, which means creative use of different kinds of
: clamps,
: hot glue (think of it as a clamp), tape, staples nails, or whatever
: to get the job done.

: If you can't get a strip edge to align you need to be asking
: questions here about, how do I hold a strip here when my spring
: clamp won't reach,
: or some such question.

: Applying the wood strips is the best part. Take your time now,
: align strips edges, and the rest of your work will be fun too!

: All the best,
: Rob