School Canoe Project

[Tim Parent]

My school was given an Atkinson Traveler form this summer and I plan to use it with my kids. Here's the first of what may be an endless stream of questions: Cedar - I have a source in St. Albans, VT. They describe the wood as rough-green clear. It's stacked and covered, not stickered. When I get it to our shop should I sticker it and let it dry a bit or keep it stacked tight? Will it develop stains, like pine does, if left stacked tight? What moisture contend should we be aiming for? I don't see us building right away, too many things I need to prep first. Thanks for your help.
Tim

 

[Todd F]

Tim, I cant answer your questions but congrats! Look forward to hearing about your progress.

 

[Tim Parent]

Thanks, Todd. I just hope I can get the kids fired up about it. Wood and canvas canoes come from somewhere outside of their universe.

 

[patrick corry]

I'm sure there are several people here on the forum who will be interested in seeing your cedar lumber once you have it. Without being an expert, I believe that stickering the material is preferable to tight stacked. Is your source in St. Albans a sawyer? I have been looking for a source of clear Northern White Cedar and my son lives near St. Albans so that would be very convenient if good material can be located near his home.

PS... I'm building an Atkinson Traveler as well. Just cleaned up the form and varnished it and the steel bands.

 

[Todd F]

Tim, not sure of your kids ages but our youngest just turned 18, he is mechanically inclined. Still in the slow process of building a workshop and have acquired a canoe or so. A few of them would be salvageable if so inclined but we are going to disassemble them to learn to use various tools, better understand how they were constructed, and reuse as much as we can. To his credit he has been restoring old hand tools we will use. Told him he gets the pick of the litter, except the BN Morris in the living room, to restore for his own. I wish you luck and hope you plant a seed of curiosity!

 

[Worth Gretter]

Patrick, your form looks great. I think you are going to be fielding a lot of questions from Tim since your project is further along!

Tim, the preface to Mike Elliott's book This Old Canoe: How To Restore Your Wood-Canvas Canoe has an anecdote about a group of boys who were sure the boat they were building wouldn't float, but that turned to pride when they got it out on the water and started receiving compliments on their work! I am pretty sure you will have the same outcome!

 

[Tim Parent]

Patrick, I'm driving up to Goodridge Lumber in St. Albans tomorrow to pick up the cedar. I'll try to send pictures if I can figure out how to do that. Thanks for the encouraging words, Worth.

 

[floydvoid]

Tim what school are you at? Building a boat with students has been a goal of mine for a while. I teach special ed, at elementary level, which is a little young.

A teaching thought for your project- grab a cheap boat to restore that’s not a basket case. Teach some of the basics of building using that boat first so that they really understand that they are making something real that floats. Do prep work for materials while the canvas dries, and paddle the restored boat as the new build is under way. Or have the new cedar to a dry state while restoring.

Lots of $300 old towns down here near ct.

 

[Tim Parent]

Floyd, I'm also in special education, 7-12. As a paraeducator, my job is to lead student projects in small groups or 1:1. I'm at Mill River school in N. Clarendon, VT. I have a bunch of my own canoes in need of repair. I do need to find a way to make turning a pile of lumber into a boat something they can wrap their heads around. I am thinking of getting kids on the water, but that's hard to fit into a class period. I also have a 1/4 scale canoe and the form that I built it on which might be helpful. When we built our sugar house we had a scale model that I kept one step ahead of the real one so kids could see exactly how things fit together. Not quite flying blind, but pretty close.

 

[Dave Wermuth]

When I acquired 1100 bd ft of cedar a few years ago, I stickered it. I suggest you use 5 or 6 stickers under each layer. for a board that is 8'. more if longer...I assume it is rough sawn, plain sawn?

 

[Rollin Thurlow]

Hello Tim, Its always great to see wooden canoes being taught in schools. Its a big job that requires a lot of time and perseverance .
If you have a good amount of green rough cedar its best if you can sticker it like Dave suggest. That way it will dry the best. If space is a problem, you can just sticker it every third or fourth row. It will take much longer for the cedar to dry but staining or warping should still not be a problem.
For faster drying and for saving space, you can rip the stock to its rough size and then set it aside with each row well stickered and complete the milling and finishing process latter. The thinner cedar will dry much faster. Even with each row stickered it will take up less space than the larger rough boards.
If you have a dry space, it would be best to leave the stack uncovered unless there are other issues you have to consider.
Lets see the form and your lumber pile.

 

[Tim Parent]

Dave, the wood is rough-green, and I expect it to be plain sawn, but I'll find out today. Thanks for the stickering suggestion.

 

[Tim Parent]

Thanks, Rollin. Space for stacking the lumber is an issue that I haven't worked out yet, one of many. Bird by bird.

 

[Tim Parent]

Correction: the mill I picked up the cedar from is in Albany, VT not St. Albans, VT.
Question: how do I post pictures on this forum?

 

[pklonowski]

When you're writing a post, there's a button the bottom left corner of your post, says "Attach files." Click that, and a navigation window opens, where you can find your files, and double-click to attach. If you want to attach more than one, you can click once on each one, then click the "Open" button, lower right corner of the navigation window...

 

[Tim Parent]

Thanks for your help, Unrepentant Canoeist.
Patrick, that little pile on the left is where I got my cedar. I bought all the long stuff.

 

[Dave Wermuth]

Guessing that should be enough. Depending on how you are able to resaw.

 

[Tim Parent]

School has a 14” bandsaw that can hold a 3/4” blade. I’ll be ordering a blade for this project. Any recommendations?

 

[Dave Wermuth]

Tune it up. Keep the right tension. Easy does it.

 

[Tim Parent]

The Atkinson Traveler form is in the shop! By a freakish stroke of luck the stickered cedar fits tightly between the horses and stations on either side of the form. The whole thing is on retracting casters that I found in the shop, so if there were anyplace to move the form, we could do it. School starts tomorrow and I still need stem stock. True Temper has a mill just down the road that cuts lots of ash. That’s my next stop. Maybe this project will happen.