JEM Watercraft

Redwood makes very pretty boat. Ya need more money than ole Ben Gum ta buy it though. Western red cedar works good. I've got two aromatic cedar trees planked up to make strips out of.
Bob

Best part is it was all free.

Guy ask me one time what kind of wood I liked to work with and I told him
"free".
Bob

Redwood would work very well. Even better if its free. I wish I could find some that didn't cost a fortune. Most strip kayaks and canoes are built of cedar or redwood, or a combination.

I use cedar and then for contrast, pine. Cedar is the most flexible and least brittle of the three. Pine is the heaviest. The specific gravity of the two is almost the same. Redwood is 0.35 and western red cedar is 0.32. Redwood is slightly denser and more brittle than cedar, so if you have to put a severe bend or twist it could break. However, judging by your forms I wouldn't think you would have a problem.

Chuck (Oldsparky) made strip pirogue out of redwood. He may have more info. I have no personal experience with it for boat building.

I agree with wannabe, free is the best. I have literally tons of free wood to include 16 foot long cherry 1X6's. Problem is, it is all hard wood. Very difficult to build a boat with unless you don't mind a very heavy boat. My dad gave it to me. He used to build cabinets many years ago.

I wish he would have stockpiled cedar and redwood.

Free Red Wood is nice but if you don't have that luck do like I did .... Look around and find a stack of 20 foot 1 x 4's in a persons barn and offer to buy some. I got 55 of them for the same in dollars.

Chuck.

Diamond in rough?



Looking better.



I think these might work.



Ended up cutting about 70 strips. Probably about 45-50 are useable. Out of the rest I can cut shorter lengths. Not bad for free redwood.



These were all 2x4. Still have about 20 2x6 between 10 and 16 feet long. Still need to buy some cedar and pine to do some different patterns with. All of this wood came from an old deck that was torn down

Once planed, the wood looks great. Besides, you will need plenty of short ones once you get close to where both sides start to met in the middle on the hull bottom.

Oh man!

I love your shop mate. I would give my eye teeth for a table saw and thicknesser like yours.

Mic,
Not my shop. Its my Brother in laws. Hes got every woodworking tool known to man. So if I need to yse something it usually cost me a Six pack or so.