: A little while ago I asked if anyone knew how to do Morris's Spline
: style skin attach. The was caused by the pitiful stiching on my
: first SOF. The spring/ summer issue or 2008 Masik carried his
: article.
: Since I got no responses that anyone knew how to do it, I thought I
: would show the results.

: The picture here just shows the boat. Next post will show the seam
: around the nose.

: The Morris method cuts a 1/8" groove in the top of the gunwale
: and stem (fwd and aft). The upper deck is first installed. The
: skin is pushed into the grove, the glue is put in the groove
: (thick CA glue -Hot stuff in my case), and a "spline"
: is forced down into the groove, locking the skin in place. My
: splines were slightly narrower than the open gap, made of
: poplar, with a 5 degree angle on both sides. 30 seconds later
: that section of skin is permanately attached. I used 6"
: long splines stating from the center of one side, working to the
: ends. Since you can easily apply the glue and insert the spline
: to full depth without rushing, this makes a very controlled
: installation.

: The excess is cut from the first groove. Then the opposite side is
: installed in the same manner.
: Repeat the process with the bottom skin. At this point you have two
: layers of skin/ spline in each groove with a shallow open gap
: still showing.

: A cover strip is built to close out the gap. This is primarily
: decorative. My cover strip was rounded on the top (3/8"
: radius for a 1/4" wide cap strip). Then the base of the
: strip was cut to fit the width of the open gap - less than the
: 1/8" gap in the wood, due to the cloth down the sides. The
: result is a mushroom shaped strip. When you glue in place (with
: the same CA glue) the cover strip, only the mushroom cap shows.
: This makes a very neat installation again easily glued down
: without any drama. Applying the CA to a limited length allows
: you to hold the cap in place with your fingers, avoiding the use
: of clamps, etc.

: Shrink the skin, coat. Ready to go.

: Once I did my test samples and decided on each step, I had a very
: simple and pleasant method to install a skin with no stitching.

: Thanks you Mr. Morris.

: Marc

Marc, very nice job. Could you explain how you get two pieces of fabric, two splines and the top cap into the 1/8" wide groove. Also how deep is the groove and how "tall" are the splines, do they sit below or flush to the top of the gunwall.

Mark