After waiting a full 24 hours for the Danish Oil to dry it’s time to put the skin on. The fabric we are using here is the 840 denier (9oz) Xtra Tuff nylon cloth sold by skinboats.org. I like this particular cloth because it’s strong but still lightweight, has excellent flex allowing it to...
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Video: West Greenland Kayak Build, Day 6: Finshing the deck and cleaning up the frame
With the stringers tied on and the end plates in place, I turn my attention to finishing the deck and cleaning up the frame. The front of the cockpit is supported by a curved framing member called the ‘masik’ that sits low and tight across the paddler’s thighs. Ideally this should be fitted with...
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Video: West Greenland Kayak Build, Day 5: Finishing the deck
Yesterday someone asked how long it takes me to finish a kayak. If I’m working alone building one of my own designs it’s usually about 40 hours start to finish. This is lightning fast compared to other boat building methods which is what makes skin on frame so addictive. I tell students to budget...
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Video: West Greenland Kayak Build, Day 4: Tying on keel and stringers
The ribs are still slightly pliable for the first few hours after steaming, so I always try to tie the keel, the stems, and hopefully the stringers on the same day. Doing this helps to smooth out the overall shape and lets me know if I need to replace any ribs while the steam...
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Video: West Greenland Kayak build, Day 4: Steam bending the ribs
I like to steam the kayak ribs first thing in the morning to leave plenty of time for tying on the stringers and the keel in the afternoon. The steam box I’m using here is a simple plywood box made of two pieces of half-inch screwed into some 3/4 x 1 5/8” tall pieces...
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Video: West Greenland Kayak build, Day 3: Prepping the ribs
The wood I use for making the kayak ribs is clear, straight grained, freshly-sawn Oregon White Oak that we purchase form Zena Forest Products. This rare forest resource is incredibly strong and rot resistant but also bends like butter when steamed for a short time. I space the ribs in this kayak closer together...
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Video: West Greenland Kayak build, Day 2: building the deck
After a day of misc. prep work it’s time to spread the gunwales apart with spreader forms and start building the deck. The 25deg angle on these forms is a slight departure from the original gunwale angle, which appears in photos to be closer to 27 degrees. I choose to build at 25 so...
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Video: West Greenland Kayak build, Day 1: Misc. prep work
I’m finally getting around to mixing down the video footage from the last Greenland kayak build. The kayak you see being made here is based on an early 20th century West Greenland hunting kayak collected in the Disko Bay area which is currently housed in the Canadian Museum of history. Interestingly, the cockpit of...
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Video: An impromptu rolling session
Just some random footage of an impromptu rolling session taken when my friend Jenny came down to pick up her new boat. I’m not usually successful at teaching the reverse sweep roll unless I’m standing next to someone in the water but we gave it a few tries anyways. Jenny’s failed attempt here is...
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West Greenland on the water check
Took a bit of time this morning to get Jenny dialed into her new Greenland kayak on the water. For Greenland commissions I like to fit the paddler to the bare frame and then also do an on the water check with the finished kayak. For both safety and performance, the fit on these...
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Some random shots from the recent Greenland kayak
Just some random shots from the recent Greenland kayak build. This project was a bit of an ass kicking because we used it to re-shoot the entire Greenland half of our skin-on-frame building course, which concludes an insane work push to update all of our courses this year. The kayak itself is from plate...
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Fitting Jenny’s West Greenland kayak
Jenny built an F1 with me eight years ago and has been using it as her primary sea kayak ever since. This year she decided to commission a West Greenland near-replica to explore traditional Greenland paddling skills. Because Jenny lives four hours away and also because of the pandemic we tried very hard to...
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Material notes from a student in New Zealand
For anyone thinking about building a skin on frame kayak in New Zealand I wanted to share this email I got a couple days ago from a student where he discusses materials sources and building methods. I figured this might be helpful to some people even if you’re not building one of my boats:...
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Sharing some of our favorite skin-on-frame photos: My favorite Greenland kayak ever
We’re sharing some of our favorite skin-on-frame photos from the last 15 years while we build the tiny house. (Check out @actuallytiny). I’ve been thinking a lot about the kayak in this picture lately. Built 16 years ago this less than faithful reproduction of a certain historic Greenland kayak remains to this day my...
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Charlie’s West Greenland kayak
A gorgeous Greenland kayak built from our plans. Nice work Charlie!...