: Kayak Burning

: I was heating a strip the other day to help it bend and had the
: heat gun in one place for a little too long giving the strip a
: little bit of charing. While doing this I was curious as to
: whether anyones tried this intentionally as an effect for the
: whole/parts of your yak? Just a random thought.

: Wood Veneer

: Today I was at work, i'm an architect by trade, and I passed by a
: vendor displaying some really crazy wood veneers of various
: woods and several different textures and again it got me
: wondering? How could i use this on a kayak? Has anyone ever used
: interesting veneers for more than just a small inlay? The rep
: had never built a kayak, but he spoke as though he was somewhat
: knowledgable on the subject, but had never had an order for use
: on a kayak.

: Here the website for the company with veneers.
: http://www.baconveneer.com/pages/cuts.html

I haven't tried veneers on a boat either. I suspect it would be less of a problem on a plywood boat than a stripper, since strippers generally need a lot more sanding and there would be a risk of sanding through the veneer. Also, with ply the marquetry can be done the plank is flat. I did some experiments with built-up decks, gluing various shapes together using different woods and planing down to see what I got. Some of the effects were quite dramatic but I didn't put any on a boat. On one I had several thin layers of birch with the grain on alternate layers at right angles to the others; I sanded it at a slight angle and applied varnish, and the different grains catch the light entirely differently yet they are all the same color; very interesting effect. It can be very time consuming however.