Gunwale forms and tip shaping

Today I made the gunwale forms. Five forms used to form the rails and
hold them in place while adding shape to the bow and stern ends
and helping in placing the deck-beams.


The middle form.


One of the end forms and one of the spreaders wedged into
place.


All the forms in place now time to saw the ends to shape
and close to gaps.

By running a Japanese saw through the ends while they are under pressure
I wittled away at the gap closing it and giving the end more surface.


Both ends finished and now I've stretched
string between the ends to see that everything
lines up and is centered. Looking good :)

Next up, the deck beams.

Gunwales finished

After finishing the last of the deck-beams mortises the last task on the gunwales was to
bevel the inside edge of the rails.


The bevelling lines were marked out with a simple notched
jig.


The bevel is to keep the top of the rails flat and help when
the cloth is stretched over the top edge.


Here they are in all there beauty.

Now for some forms for shaping the gunwales. These
will help decide the shape and handling of the final
kayak.

Deck beam mortises

Next the mortises for the eleven deck beams. All the joints are mortises that sit at 17º and
together with that each beam will sit against the curve of the gunwales this sounds like the
job for a new jig.


This jig keeps the holes 1cm down from the edge and the holes at 17º.


This is what is left to clean up after drilling with jig.

Then theres a bit of chiselling to clean up and square the joint
and finished off with a file heres our first deck mortise.


One down 21 to go :)

Shaping the gunwales

After finishing off the last 30 mortises on the second gunwale its was time to
plane the ends to shape.


A batten is clamped and layed out after measuring
then a line is drawn on the inside.


Marked and ready to go.

I then used a jigsaw to cut close to the line. The next task is to get tight and close to the line with some planing.


A simple planing jig clamped to the block plane to help keep the planing nice and square, it worked a treat.

After planing the first curve I then used the this shape as a template
for the two other cuts gunwale number two, and on the reverse end of this
one.
Then after a lot of planing all that was left were the angled cuts on the under side. This
I done i pairs clamping cutting and finally planing to the line.


Here are they are, the same plane shape at the opposite
end as well.

These slight curves will help give the kayak a nice upper curve when
they are formed into there final forms.

Next in line is either the jigs to hold the gunwales into there proper
shape or I think it will be starting work on the deck beams.

The Start of something long

I hope to keep a building account of my first kayak build. I am mainly
following "Building the Greenland Kayak by Chris Cunningham" and
"Instruction in Kayak Building by H.C. Petersen".
I have been collecting materials on and off for a month, it has been
more of a problem than I thought it would be. Because of my
height, 191cm, I am having to build a long kayak, beams that run
nearly the whole length (Gunwales) will have to be 560cm.

I have tried for a few weeks to get hold of this in one piece
but gave up and have joined two shorted pieces with "scarf joints" and
not so greenlandish, marine epoxy :) It worked really well and this
weekend I got going measuring out the ribs to form the bottom form
and where the deck beams will be placed.
Here are some pictures of my progress:


The gunwales marked out and ready.


The jig for the rib mortices.


One side down, some chiseling to clean the corners
and then there's one to go.