Boat Building Forum
Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats
I worked as a professional cabinet maker and have a well appointed shop at home to work with, and I can say that if you've ever built anything a strip kayak shouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't take the class unless you have the time and money. Personally, I'd rather spend a couple hundred bucks on materials, tools, or gear and build something.
I don't think it's a bad idea to read a few different books to see how a few different people do the job. In addition to books you can buy, there are online guides as well. The one by Björn Thomasson at http://thomassondesign.com is quite good. Don't overlook other guides.
I built my first Skin-on-Frame kayak using a single book, but now I have 5 books on the subject. They are all different, in some ways quite different. One of the popular books would be incredibly frustrating to me because it spends most of the time building jigs to do the operations, while another does the whole job with a drill and single drill bit, a single chisel, a knife, block plane, and rope. If you know both ways and all of the others in between, you can pick the way that feels most comfortable to you and feels within your skill level.
What I can say is that for me as a woodworker, and for most people, fiberglass will be the tricky part. I would suggest reading up on that. Rob Macks has good information on fiberglass, Björn has good information on Fiberglass, Nick has good videos here, and West Systems has their "Epoxyworks" magazine archived in .pdf form on their web site. Thayercraft used to have a really good guide, but it's not on their web site now. Do some searching long before you get to the point of glassing.
Of course, you can post here if you get stumped.
Best of luck.
m
Messages In This Thread
- Strip: Hello, and a question
Paul Russell -- 7/7/2014, 10:37 am- Hello, and a question
Paul Russell -- 7/7/2014, 11:17 am- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 7/7/2014, 11:56 am- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
John Messinger -- 7/7/2014, 12:24 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Marc Upchurch -- 7/7/2014, 1:13 pm
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/7/2014, 1:10 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 7/7/2014, 4:38 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/7/2014, 6:52 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/7/2014, 7:05 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks -- 7/8/2014, 12:52 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/8/2014, 1:09 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Bill Hamm -- 7/10/2014, 8:19 am
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
John van burden -- 7/7/2014, 1:25 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Paul Davies. -- 7/7/2014, 3:50 pm- Hello, and a question
Paul Russell -- 7/7/2014, 4:17 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
Bill Hamm -- 7/8/2014, 12:11 am- Re: Hello, and a question
John van burden -- 7/8/2014, 8:43 am - Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Mike Bielski -- 7/8/2014, 9:36 am- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
John Faas -- 7/8/2014, 1:08 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
John van burden -- 7/8/2014, 1:41 pm
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Etienne Muller -- 7/8/2014, 1:32 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Mike Bielski -- 7/9/2014, 7:38 am- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 7/9/2014, 9:10 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Mike Bielski -- 7/9/2014, 11:34 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 7/10/2014, 10:29 am- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Mike Bielski -- 7/10/2014, 11:12 am- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 7/10/2014, 12:32 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Mike Bielski -- 7/10/2014, 12:49 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Paul Davies. -- 7/10/2014, 3:58 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Etienne Muller -- 7/10/2014, 4:33 pm- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Rob Macks/Laughing Loon CC&K -- 7/10/2014, 5:37 pm
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Bill Hamm -- 7/13/2014, 12:55 am- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Mike Bielski -- 7/13/2014, 1:49 am
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Hello, and a question
Paul Russell -- 7/8/2014, 3:58 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
Bill Hamm -- 7/9/2014, 1:20 am- Re: Hello, and a question
Marc Upchurch -- 7/9/2014, 10:47 am- Re: Hello, and a question
John Faas -- 7/9/2014, 6:07 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
scottbaxter -- 7/9/2014, 11:19 pm
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Hello, and a question
Paul Russell -- 7/10/2014, 10:39 am- Re: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/10/2014, 12:06 pm- Hello, and a question
Paul Russell -- 7/10/2014, 12:22 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/10/2014, 12:45 pm- Hello, and a question
Paul Russell -- 7/10/2014, 12:56 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
Marc Upchurch -- 7/10/2014, 1:21 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/10/2014, 1:27 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
Marc Upchurch -- 7/10/2014, 2:53 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/10/2014, 4:54 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
Marc Upchurch -- 7/10/2014, 5:23 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/10/2014, 6:54 pm
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/10/2014, 1:21 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
Marc Upchurch -- 7/10/2014, 2:57 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
John Faas -- 7/14/2014, 1:39 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/14/2014, 2:35 pm
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/10/2014, 1:00 pm - Re: Hello, and a question
- Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question *PIC*
Etienne Muller -- 7/10/2014, 4:44 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/10/2014, 5:04 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
Etienne Muller -- 7/10/2014, 6:14 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
JohnAbercrombie -- 7/10/2014, 10:18 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
Dan Thaler -- 7/11/2014, 6:02 am- Re: Hello, and a question
ancient kayaker -- 7/12/2014, 8:06 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
Etienne Muller -- 7/13/2014, 10:02 am
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
Donovan -- 7/14/2014, 4:03 pm- Hello, and a question
Paul Russell -- 7/15/2014, 12:02 pm- Re: Hello, and a question
Donovan -- 7/18/2014, 9:20 pm
- Re: Hello, and a question
- Re: Strip: Hello, and a question
- Hello, and a question
