as i think about spring coming and it warming up enough that wood glue works (> 50 degrees), my project for a 25lb lightweight touring kayak has started in earnest.
the other day i picked up the petrel play forms from CLC (plus a couple nice T-shirts that were on sale). today, my 1000 linear feet of 3/16X3/4X96 inch paulownia strips arrived. big thanks to Randy Bogardus at Clearwood Paddleboards for sorting through his inventory and rejecting the 'heavies' to mill me the lightest strips.
i was impressed with a really tight packing job and everything appears to have come through shipping in great shape. my initial impression is the paulownia, compared to cedar is not visually interesting. very consistent color and grain. pretty much a balsa wood kind of look....so am curious to see how we will approach the finishing steps and how stain and paint will work with this.
next steps are to buld a new workbench in the garage and get the strongback set up.....i expect the stripping to go faster than usual as, like a lot of folks, i am working out of the house for the next several months so i can covert commute time stripping time.
h