: What's blotchy? The grain on the strips (stripper boat?) or uneven
: sanding? If the blotchy area runs over several strips, perhaps
: try hand sanding with the strips with a finer sandpaper.

: Whatever you do, I would not seal the wood in any way before epoxy
: unless you're talking about furniture. Boats rack and twist and
: expand and contract in the sun and you just don't want delams to
: start occurring.

As I understand things, Pine can be blotchy. I have sanded very well and the kayak I made has a blotchy hull but I also made some shelves that I used draino and then shellac on and the color is nice and consistent. My canoe is what I am working on and I am wondering if I can even that color out. It sounds like I need to stay away from the shellac on the wood but maybe pulling the whole thing out into the nice warm sun for a few days may even it out. I am interested in seeing what happens to the pine that is UV protected in my kayak over the next couple of years.
Does anybody have any more to add about the darkening of pine under UV protected epoxy?

I have also considered using cabinet scrapers as a final process prior to epoxy. I have been told the scraper leaves a better surface due to the cutting of fibers by a sharp tool. However I am worried about getting a nice even scrape along a curved surface. If the epoxy darkens differently due to scraping or sanding a unscraped but sanded surface may stick out like a sore thumb.

Thanks guys, No shellac for this job until I can do a test panel.
Even as it is I think this is going to be a nice canoe with mahogany and curly maple surrounded by the pine on top and filling in most of the hull.