I have a few wood shops next to our shop. You can regularly find me inside the dumpsters like a homeless Man pulling out their throw aways. I am regularly amazed at the wood they throw away. I just built a kitchenette at work from some giant pieces of clearcoat furniture grade plywood they tossed. The hardwood pieces they toss are amazing. Not very large pieces, but large enough for a hobbyist to use. Unfortunately they dont seem to use teak
That must be a thin layer of glass with that epoxy.... Both kayaks are beautiful!
I have a touch of that disease. My shed fills up with bits of this and that... until I no longer own my stuff and my stuff starts to own me... then I do a purge.... and the process starts over again.
My daughter and I built a strip plank canoe... it was much easier than I thought it would be.... we also just ripped 2x's. I think she still has that canoe.
Wood flexes differently than most materials. I think that is what you are feeling when you are in a wooden boat. Wood is one of the only known materials that will not work harden over time. So wooden boats can be made in a way that gives and takes with the waves. Other materials need to be stiffened so they will not be destroyed by the constant motion of the waves. The fibers in wood are "bound" to each other through a process called hydrogen bonding... Hydroben bonding can be thought of as being similar to an electrostatic attaction.... so the "bonds" between fibers constantly heal and re-bond after each flex.
I have heard that they suspect the one reason the early Vikings were so successful crossing oceans, was that the construction of their boats was made in a way that allowed them to flex considerably without breaking.
Yep... but the European's were also using wood. Part of why the viking longboat was relatively light compared to the European boats was that the Vikings also used lapstrake instead of Carvel construction techniques so they eliminated heavy frames and MASSIVE keels. The overlap created natural "stringers" that gave the boat the longitudinal strength it needed. In the VERY early days of longboat construction they actually stitched the lapstrakes together using horse hair and "plumbed" the gaps with tar. That gave the boats additional flex. After steel bacame more common they "clinked" the strakes together with iron staples. Hence the construction term "clinker". The relatively light nature of the Viking longboat allowed a crew to transport their ships over land.
When I was a kid my mom wanted a new outside door to the basement. Dad needed a good excuse to do the work so he built a 26 foot Thunderbird there so he had a good excuse to knock the wall out and mom got her new door.
