Deck Beams and a Paddle!

I've finally finished fitting all the deck beams to their mortises, each one a custom whittling job to get it down to a snug fit. It is a task like most around this kayak, it's not particularly hard or skilled work, it merely takes time and attention to whatever it is that your doing. Keep in mind when reading this blog that this is the first time that I've ever attempted any sort of wood working project that didn't involve 2x4's and a nail gun or a chainsaw. If I can do it, you can do it. So be encouraged, make your own, and come paddle!

The deck beams are now snug and theoretically, should all be correctly angled and fit beautifully into the gun'l's and allow it to hold its shape while I work on the rest of the boat. I'm excited for this next step because it will be a solid unit and something quite beautiful to look at in itself. It also seems like smooth sailing after this but that might just be in my novice mind. The book does say that getting the deck fitted and straight and true is the most difficult part of the project and almost impossible to fix after the fact. I've taken great care and gone slow because of this. When I first put the gun'l's together in their forms (which I have yet to mention) with clamps keeping their ends perfectly match and great care making sure the forms were square I sighted down the middle with some mid-marks drawn and I was a dead on! Just today I got the final pieces of dowel need to keep the bow together once formed so soon I shall get on with this and start having some more impressive photos.

On another note, my paddle is finished already! I went to Frontenac and saw Tom Froese of tandjpaddles.com for a one on one workshop and he guided me through a wonderful four hours of carving cedar up into a nice traditional unshouldered paddle. He cut out the basic shape with a bandsaw or jigsaw and marked lines on it to shave in between and showed me how to use the drawknife, plane and spokeshave and how to work the grain properly in a piece of cedar. This was especially useful to me because cedar is the main wood of the boat as well. I've used the lessons many time over already! At the end of the workshop I had a nice looking paddle that needed its final sanding and a finishing. These pictures here show it after three coats of tung oil and a coat of wax, both of which I got from shop.skinboats.com, a store based out of Anacortes, WA. I like these (not that I've used anything else) because they are super organic and eco-friendly. This is really nice because then you don't have to worry about harming your garden, cats, or yourself when applying the product. It's a little peace of mind after working with industrial products all day! Anyways, the oil helps preserve the wood and really brings out the grain beautifully as you can see while the wax is an added security factor as well as making it slide better in your hands and feel much more sealed and protected from the elements.

Some of you may be confused by the shape of the paddle here as it is not like "Euro" paddles at all. One key difference is the blade shape, it is long and narrow, only about 3.5-4 inches wide on this one. This helps it move more easily through the water for long distance paddling as well as being pushed around by the wind less. You can also shift it from one end to the other in your hands, which greatly helps in rolling to get added leverage. Another difference is the hand position, standard hand position is only shoulder width apart, not the euro way of about elbow width apart. Combined with no feathering, where euro standard is about 30, this makes for a lower and longer stroke, a lot easier to keep up on long distance trips. Aside from that it is very similar to the euro stroke, using your torso more than arms and such. This paddle also feels so light in my hands, I can't wait to get it out on the water.

note: not for the apples!

Making the gunwales

The first thing to do is to make the gunwales. The ribs and deck beams both directly attach through mortise and tenon joints to the gunwales so they must be the strongest pieces in the boat. They also require the most precision and care. I had to make sure that they were matched correctly for stiffness and curves. Each piece is naturally more limber when bent one way instead of the other and can also have natural curves in  a couple directions. Since I got both of my gun'l's from the same piece of wood, I had very little to worry about.

Once I had them properly matched, I lined them up as best I could to each other and clamped them together firmly. This way I could plane down the edges and trim them to exact length. I could also shape the ends this way and keep them identical through some fairly fluid design. Since they'll be held at a 73 degree angle once in kayak form, a cut at a complementary angle is taken from the ends starting at the halfway mark and heading to the bottom of the board. Then, to give the lines a little sweeter look around the bow and stern, a shallow curves was planes out in the last 70 inches on each side, maxing out at half an inch. As you can see in the picture, it's still quite noticeable.

Once this is complete, it's time to start on the mortises for the ribs and deck beams. I used a pre-made jig for keeping square on the rib mortises and I had to make one for the deck beams. As mentioned, the gun'l's are on a 73 degree angle and the deck beams are straight, so the holes have to be at a 17 degree angle to counter this. I used a drill with electrical tape to make sure I kept consistent depth through out the rib mortises but the deck beams go right through.

Now the deck beams are ready to be made. For this, first you have to cut them down to length, which is just a rough measure because you have to mark them and cut the tenons in next. This process could use a jig, which I attempted twice but it fell short of adequate both times and I used two combination squares to mark both the top and bottom point at which it should touch the gun'l and on both front and back. After this, I played connect the dots, drew in a one and a quarter inch tenon perpendicular to that line and then played cut within the lines. At first tenon's seemed more daunting than anything else but my first (correctly measured...) beam fit like a bug in a rug! Now I'm pretty much up to speed except for my paddle which will be the next post.

What it is

To let people know who haven't nerded out for days of their lives on the interwebs looking at these things, I'll give a brief description of the build and the abilities of the craft I am making. It is a skin-on-frame boat, built on the 4,000 year old design of the Greenland Inuits. It has remained fairly unchanged in the last four millenia and can still outperform many modern boats. The Inuits made theirs out of driftwood and seal skin where I am making mine out of cedar, oak and nylon ballistic fabric.

The design is built around anthropometric measurements. The overall length is thrice the users armspan, it's beam the user's waist plus a fist or two depending on skill level. Before building I sat on a 2x8 on a 1x1 to find my balance point, where I want my footrest beam, thigh beam(masik) and backrest to be as well as where I don't want the steam bent ribs to be, like my bum and heels. From here, I transferred said marks on to the gun'l's and from there could mark all the rest of the deck beams and ribs. All that is left to do is to do it.

The frame is built with two gun'l's, lashed into shape to deck beams with mortise and tenon joints. The ribs are steam bent and attached to the gun'l's and then the keel and two runners go on to define the shape of the hull once the skin is on. There are no nails or screws, everything is lashed together using mortise and tenon's or dowels. This gives some advantages known to many ancient mariners, Inuit, Viking and Celtic alike. A ribbed hull that is lashed can flex to absorb blows from rocks or other objects in the sea and bounce back to shape, where fiberglass or plastic would crack or smash. It can also 'hug' the waves, bending with them instead of being forced around by them, giving them excellent roughwater handling. The finished kayak when I'm done should weigh less than thirty pounds, a similar fiberglass kayak would weight close to seventy pounds. I should be able to put this on my roof rack single handedly no problem. It is also cheaper, I'm spending about $800 on this including shipping from afar, speciality woods and nice tools. I could have saved money but spent more time and effort sourcing the material, and probably gas money too. A store bought kayak of similar performance could cost up to $4000!


Here are some teaser pics and next post I'll actually mention the build process!

Starting off!

I write this post, the very first already quite late in my maiden project. I have already cut the first deck beam and fitted it, following a lengthy procedure of honing the gunwales and an far lengthier of kindling the project in my head and heart and of course research. Most of the research has come through the internet, first seeing greenland rolling video's while a beginner whitewater kayaker and then a extensive look at the different styles of northern inuit qajaqs from Greenlander to the Aleutians. I'm choosing the west Greenland qajaq for several reasons. One, it is the most popular, so there is lots of build journals and books available in print and screen versions. The second, which causes the first probably, is that I believe it is the most aesthetically pleasing form I know. Finally, the design is 4,000 years old but delivers a boat that is virtually unparalled in the buyers market. It is half as light, many times stronger, faster on calm water and a more agile roughwater friend then it's manufactured contemporaries. I'd also like to make an Aleutian Baidarka at some point for their long-hauling ability but first I gotta get in that water!

I was up in the air between doing a workshop which range from medium far to very far away from my current homebase and getting it done quickly, with good guidance and more expensively or buying the book which was cheaper, more personally rewarding and more educational. Well, I got a job which has been going full time, now seven days a week, eight hours a day, so I bought the book and I'm doing it after work, three to five hours a day, in my backyard. So far, it has been very rewarding.

I got the book from the QAJAQUSA website, from their suggestions, it's called "Building the Greenland Kayak" by Christopher Cunnigham. I'm following it about 90-95% and filling out the rest with alternate techniques seen on the internet or my own way of doing things, because I bloody well can.
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=8533980667&searchurl=an%3Dchristopher%2Bcunningham%26kn%3Dgreenland%2Bkayak

There are numerous more books and plenty of awesome workshops to help you out on your own journey. For workshops, Anders Thygesen seems to be the best on the planet, at least my eyes on the internet get the best impression from his site. Check out his website and his blog. He has great videos, articles on paddling and paddling techniques and a blog chronicling, among other things, his 3000km trip around Norway in his Baidarka and Greenland paddle.
http://kajakkspesialisten.no

I got my wood from a speciality wood supplier nearby. It wasn't cheap, I spent nearly $250 on two pieces of Cedar 1"x6"x20' each, one milled to the gunwales, and a 1"x8"x12' piece of green White Oak. Along with the minimal scap at my disposal and some dowels that I have yet to buy, that should cover the wooden portion of the boat. For the rest, I ordered it online at www.skinboats.com. I got nylon ballistic fabric, 9oz/yd for the skin, tung oil, wax, shockcord and the 2part poly-urethane finish for the skin. I literally just got it while writing this paragraph and I'm so stoked for it! I have (almost) everything now! It wasn't cheap and I might have gotten better prices locally but the one stop shopping while working full-time was stress-free.

So I got all the stuff, now I can build it!