Ancient dude,

I believe the only reason the thick CA glue worked so strong is that forcing the tight fitting spline into the groove forced the CA thru the cloth to bond with the wood also. No idea what would happen if you released the surface of the slot with wax. But I am convinced that the strength would be very much reduced, since the only thing you would have left would be a square plug of cloth, glue, and spline that would be hard to pull out from a sideways pull - it might also come out if the "plug" rotated in the groove. Either way it might be enough for normal usage. A Test on a small scale body might prove this is viable.

If anyone does one please let me know. I have spent 5-6 weeks doing continuous small tests to get one method. I am a little tested out - but I'll recover soon.

Marc

: That's a good question! I suspect the glue doesn't have to adhere
: to the gunnel provided the two sets of splines are stuck
: together to form a "hook". Skin replacement should be
: easy if the rabbet is waxed first, although that might make the
: skin liable to slip out during installation. Just a thought . .
: .