From Instagram | Cape Falcon Kayak

Filling kayak rib orders

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Filling kayak rib orders today which is not my favorite activity, although I do like seeing the grain and watching my vintage Parks planer blast out wood chips like a snowblower. The wood we use is Oregon white oak which is a little bit stronger and a little bit denser than some other white...

Richard’s canoe, ribbed with kild-dried oak

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

One of the downsides of my canoe building system is that it requires really good bending wood, or does it? One of my students just sent me this picture of a pack canoe that he just finished ribbing with kiln dried white oak. He wrote the following: “Hey Brian, Just wanted to let you...

Carrying canoes for mental health: Update

February 2020September 2022Leave a comment

It’s been almost exactly a year now since Tom and Kyle completed their epic journey to climb self-supported 10,000 vertical feet to arrive at the Mount Everest base camp (17,000 ft) carrying Cape Falcon canoes. Tom and Kyle undertook this feat of brutal endurance to raise awareness for mental health issues and also to...

On YouTube: Two new videos on the North Alaskan kayak build

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Turn the sound on for this one! In addition to the time lapse videos you’ve already seen here we just uploaded two new videos to our YouTube channel. The first is a 14 minute video montage set to music that shows every single step in building these beautiful traditional kayaks. The second is a...

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build Timelapse video 14 of…12?

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build Timelapse video 14 of…12? In this last time-lapse I attach the coaming which rests directly on the deck stringers (as opposed to the deck beams) and is supported on the sides by small stanchions. The lashing for the coaming is kind of neat and wraps around the stringers, the...

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build Timelapse video 13 of, um, 12?

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build Timelapse video 13 of, um, 12? In this second to last video I’m lashing on the deck stringers. One of the nice things about having so many deck beams is that the deck stringers could be fairly minimal and still be strong enough to do their job. Even though...

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build Timelapse video 12 of 12

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build Timelapse video 12 of 12 This is actually the second time we tied on the stringers because I wasn’t paying attention to the drawing and realized way too late that the longest stringer is supposed to be the second one down. It’s such a minor difference that if it...

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build timelapse video 11 of 12

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build timelapse video 11 of 12. After a day spent shaping the ends of the keel we started lashing on the keel and stringers. You can’t see it here but the keel is lashed on in a unique way where it is drilled at each rib and a running lashing...

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build timelapse video 10 of 12

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build timelapse video 10 of 12. North Alaskan kayaks don’t have separate stem pieces so the ends of the keel are carved out of much larger pieces of wood to give the ends strength and shape. To replicate this I glued wood to the ends of the keel. The original...

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build Time Lapse video 9 of 12

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build Time Lapse video 9 of 12. After a test ribbing and a full ribbing that turned out to be wrong, we finally steamed in the final ribs. For steam I use a wallpaper steamer connected to I crudely built plywood steam box. The wood here is some incredible quality...

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build timelapse. Video 8 of 12

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build timelapse. Video 8 of 12. In this video we cut and prep the rib stock. Originally I created a somewhat complicated formula to determine the rib lengths to match the drawing, but after ribbing the kayaks I realized that the compensations had overshot the mark and the deck had...

North Alaska Kayak Frame Build timelapse. Video 7 of 12

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

Not the most exciting video but still part of the process. Here we are tying the diagonal lashings on every other deck beam....

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build time lapse video, 6 of 12

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build time lapse video, 6 of 12 One of the more ridiculous aspects of this build was the need to fabricate peaked deck beams and then carve them to look like natural crooks. We put a lot of effort into making them match the look and shape of the deck...

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build time lapse. Video 5 of 12

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build time lapse. Video 5 of 12. Here we begin building and fitting the rest of the peaked deck beams. Reverse engineering an artifact is a lot more challenging than building a boat from scratch. The original builders would have collected natural crooks throughout the year and then let what...

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build time lapse. Video 4 of 12

January 2020September 2022Leave a comment

North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build time lapse. Video 4 of 12. In this video we laminate a couple of tall arched deck beams, and test fit all of the straight deck beams. A quick, easy form for one-off laminations like this is just to use a scrap of three-quarter inch plywood with number 10...