Well I would say this is the first major oops in my build! Do to the fact some of my strips hitting the keel near the stern will a bit proud, when I sanded they thinned out so much that some broke through! I already tried a glue/sawdust mixture and as expected that did not work. My options appear to be:
Extend the external stem another six inches. This might be tough to blend into the boat since there is minimal rise (or drop in this orientation) of the keel in that six inches.
Cut back the damaged area in the three strips effected and replace with strips matches as best I can.
Try an epoxy/sawdust patch.
I’m leaning to the second option but interested in the opinion of more experienced kayak builders and if there are other options I have not thought of! Option two or three would be done after I have taken the deck off the forms so I could work on the area from both sides.
i took a look at your pictures. first, this is looking really nice. and this is a minor setback at worst, a learning opportunity to build skills on the positive side.
option 2 is the way to go - your leaning is spot on. for whatever its worth, i don’t have a single stripper i have built that i didn’t end up cutting out an errant or damaged section of strip and replacing it.
some things that i have learned in that process:
celebrate the anger/disappointment (depending on how you do this, sometimes best out of earshot of family members) but let it pass before fixing. working while upset is not a recipe for good results.
when replacing adjacent pieces, don’t have them all stop at the same place, stagger them as if you were doing a repair to a wood floor and trying to match the vibe.
try to match the general color - as you have pointed out. but you were not working with full length strips anyways…so don’t over obsess on matching.
work slow (and i really mean slowly…no hurry here) and do one strip at a time. work by hand with a thin kerf hand saw and use blue tape to mark where you want to cut (i basically put the blue tape on the edge i don’t want to cut and then ensure i cut right along the edge of the tape. the key thing is not to take material off of the adjacent strip that is not coming out.
butt joints are fine. to make the ends, when you are cutting out, i drill a little hole for my saw blade that allows me to make the cross strip cut…and then i use a flat file to clean up the line (again work slowly becuase you dont want to cut into the strip you are not replacing). the flat file can also be used to clean up the longer cut along your blue tape line.
based on what i see here, you can have this cleaned up and back on track with two sessions…one session to cut out and replace…and a second section after your glue dries to refare it in.
below is a picture of a repair in my last boat where i had a strip that i damaged with a bit of carelessness with a handtool. i cut it out and put a new section in. it’s inside the red highlighted section where you see two small lengths…that otherwise would have been a single length.
What do you think of the idea of using a razor knife to make the cross cut instead of a drill, saw and file? Would that be cleaner, more accurate and need less post-processing? I’ve used that technique for land-based fine joinery, but never had occasion to try it on a strip repair so I don’t know if it’s applicable. It seems to me that the boat strips are thin and soft enough that they could be cut with a razor knife without undue effort. Am I full of it?
If it were my project, I would use a laminated outer stem. I have done this on three of my strip boats and it looks really nice. I used Alaskan Yellow Cedar strips for cosmetic reasons but WRC is much easier to bend into shape. I do this after the hull and deck are mated together. These pictures should give you an overview.
I am planning to put in a laminated outer stem. The issue is that, as I understand it, the stem should end at the keel line where it starts to flatten out. This permits you to blend the outer stem into the keel. The extra six inches of outer stem would be in an area that is basically flat so it would be a bit more difficult to blend.
I do have this option still available if after trying option two it still does not look right.
Actually thought of you when I saw the issue. I said, “Howard will say this is not a big deal!”
Like the small drill and coping saw idea. Was thinking of a razor blade, or one of those universal tools, but believe the saw will give me more control.
One question, I am using bead and cove strips. My hope is that I can gently coax each of the three effected strips out along with the bead. Am I better off just eschewing that idea and just cutting along the strip parting line, leaving the bead with the canoe and cutting the bead off of the repair strips?
Yes, you will want the stem to blend smoothly into the keel line. To make that happen, you will need to plane off hull material on the keel line then build it back up with the laminations. If you match the glue color to that of the wood, you will barely see where the stem ends and keel begins after shape it smooth.
Picture is the bow of my Spindrift. I had an issue much like yours so extended the stem back 12” from the bow.
lots of good ideas being shared. on your specific question about the fact that you built with cove and bead…
on cutting out the old strip, ignore that it is cove and bead and cut the line on the surface that your are trying to match. that said, when you fare it in, you cannot then sand signficantly relative to your current faring for the part of the boat that is not being replaced becuase the line will then move.
on the replacement strip, you will need to cut off the bead and glue a bead into the cove so that you have a rectangular section. (you could use the bead you cut off to glue into the cove if you cut it off with a saw)
Mark’s idea would work well too if you like the aesthetics of it. definitely one of the options i would look at…but i am comfortable replacing strips…
on lazlo’s idea of a razor knife, i would not have a problem with that idea if in my experience the razor cut effectively. for the razors i have had, i just have not had a lot of positive experience cutting strips with them. i have a lot of experience planing and whittling, but not this kind of cut. but if you can make it work and keep the cut clean/controlled, whatever tool works.
the key thing is its nothing that can’t be fixed…so that’s part of the fun of building…dealing with your dings and choosing between all the approaches on how to come at it.
by the way. the saw that i use for these kinds of repair is a little bonzai saw: Bonsai Saw – Chesapeake Light Craft and beading saw: Beading Saw with Woodpecker Tooth 6" – Chesapeake Light Craft. i use the bonzai saw often to start a cut from a very small hole and tight curves and use the beading saw for relatively straight runs and less severe curves. these two saws get a lot of use for my strip build projects.
I love the woodpecker and bonsai saws. If the wood is soft enough, the bonsai can be started by working an X-Acto knife blade through the wood. This makes a large enough slot to accept the tip of the bonsai saw. Here’s the process in use to cut a flush hatch through sapele plywood. The outline of the hatch was traced with the x-acto blade to score the wood and cut the top layer of fibers. In the third picture you can see just how fine the kerf line is with this technique. Using just the razor knife the final kerf is as thin as the score in the first image. Maybe this can be adapted to cutting the strips?
Howard, I know what you mean about controlling a razor. Bare razors are only good for paper, foam and other soft stuff. X-acto knives, with their round handles, will roll if you apply the kind of pressure needed for long cuts in wood and box cutters are the worst of all worlds. But there are good razor knife designs out there. Here’s my favorite razor knife. It has an ergonomic grip and a good weight that allows total control for both straight lines and curves. The blade folds away for storage. It can also be locked into one of 4 different positions to give you multiple cutting angles which is useful for beveling or working on a curved surface. I got mine from Flite Test to use on model RC airplanes, but it turned out to have great utility for general woodworking, especially fine joinery. If you don’t need the multi-position option, Husky makes a similar one with a slightly better feel which is available at Home Depot and such.
laszlo, thanks for sharing. thats pretty cool. my razor knife experience was limited to inexpensive box cutters… so this is pretty interesting. your pictures are really great for understanding. i may add this to the candidate list of my “one new tool for 2026”. Right now my top candidate tool is a an oscillating edge/belt spindle sander…
You fly RC Laszlo? We use the FT Baron for combat at my club. Two midair’s yesterday so some repairs to make. I can fix the one on the right because it was only one aileron. I will replace the one on the left because I lost part of the wing and tail.
