North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 20. Woke up to beautiful early morning light on the kayak frames. Such a privilege to share space with these sculptures for a while. We started the day by cutting the stringers off and lashing them back on in the correct pattern. Having conquered that task, we...
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North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 19: Lashing on keel and stringers
North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 19. We started the day by bending in some adorable tiny little ribs at the ends of the kayaks before finishing the shaping on the ends and tying everything together. Each kayak has a different end treatment. The smaller one is pegged and and the keel is...
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North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 18: Shaping the keels
North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 18. Today was long. It seems like every day we start the day deciding to replace something we made the previous day. In this case it was one of the coamings which, while accurate for the type, just looked too thin. So we ripped, planed, and steamed...
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North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 17: Pegging the ribs and prepping the keels
North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 17. Started the day by pegging every other rib with 1/8th inch dowels. We left the pegs slightly proud on the inside to match the original kayak. It’s subtle details like this that add richness to a historic replica kayak frame. Third time was the charm rebuilding...
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North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 16: Ribbing the kayaks and bending the cockpits
North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 16. We started the day by bending in the ribs in both kayaks only to immediately realize that the rocker was wrong on the longer kayak. This was pretty painful considering that I’ve already ribbed this kayak twice precisely so I could avoid this exact situation, and...
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North Alaska Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 15: Lashing the deck together
North Alaska Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 15. We started the day by planing and cutting some beautiful clear bending oak that we buy from Zena Forest Products to make the ribs for the kayaks. The ribs in this kayak are cut oversized and then thinned on the ends to encourage a very specific...
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North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 14: Pegging the deck beams in place and adding detail to the deck
North Alaska replica kayak frame build, Day 14. Yesterday evening we pegged the deck beams with 1/8 inch dowels. This may or may not be historically accurate for these kayaks because some of the surviving frames are fastened with nails. One would assume, however, that pegs were the standard before contact with Europeans (or...
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North Alaska Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 13: Carving the curved deck beams
North Alaska Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 13. We spent the day carving the peaked and arched deck beams while listening to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra on this lovely 78 degree late August day. For some unknown reason my phone has started playing the Bing Crosby Pandora channel at completely random intervals, so...
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North Alaska Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 12: Replacing the arched deck beams
North Alaska Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 12. Started the day reshaping and reinstalling the new arched deck beams that we decided to replace at the end of yesterday. The new shape is much more accurate and the measurements are dead on which makes me happy. With this deck beam in place we were...
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North Alaska Replica Kayak Frame Build Day 11: Installing the deck beams
North Alaska Replica Kayak Frame Build Day 11. Today we got all of the flat deck beams shaped and installed, and got started on the more challenging peaked and arched beams. The attachment method for the arched deck beam directly in front of the cockpit is different on each kayak. The smaller kayak uses...
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North Alaska Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 10: Building the deck beams
North Alaska Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 10. Started work on the many deck beams today. These will be the first kayaks I’ve built that have more deck beams than ribs. (27 on the longer one). Fortunately I invented a clever miter jig that allows me to cut the precise angle of the gunwales...
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North Alaskan Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 9: Starting the final frames
North Alaskan Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 9: After picking up another fat stick of pine, we finally got going for real on the kayak frames. Most of the day was just spent measuring and re-measuring and re-measuring some more, but eventually we did manage to install one deck beam. Building replicas is such...
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North Alaskan Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 8: Picking up more bending oak
North Alaskan Replica Kayak Frame Build, Day 8). Today I drove down to see Ben Deumling of Zena Forest Products to pick up some bending oak for the kayak ribs. A second generation sustainable forester, Ben and family manage a 1300 acre parcel of FSC certified woodland in the heart of the Willamette valley,...
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Video: Bending test ribs into the North Alaskan Inupiaq replica kayak
Bending test ribs into the North Alaskan Inupiaq replica kayak I’m working on right now. I bent in two sets, one with uniform thickness and one with thinned ends. Still not quite right to match the historic shape but we are getting closer. More details in yesterday’s post....
North Alaskan Kayak Build, Day 7: Bending test ribs
North Alaskan Kayak Build, Day 7: Spent the entire day bending test ribs into the larger of the two kayaks. Like I said yesterday the smaller kayak couldn’t be simpler, The ribs are cut just a fist width wider than the gunwales at that rib location. The longer kayak is more work. I’m not...
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