North Alaskan Kayak Frame Build. Day 4) Today I made the final decisions on rib and deck beam placement and mortised the gunwales.
For this project I’m recording the dimensions in standard measurements but also in anthropometric units. Generally I’m not very interested in anthropometric measurements because they can’t be applied to the body diversity of modern people, I also don’t feel like there’s enough information about how these measurement systems were applied to gain anything of practical value.
However, these North Alaskan kayaks have such an obvious, elegant body measurement system that I just couldn’t help myself. I am a medium sized person and probably not really far off from the original builders and everywhere I turned things were exactly a hand span or a hand or a cubit or a fistmele. It was so uncanny that I erased my original markings and just did the whole thing with body measurements and nothing was off by more than a quarter of an inch. I decided to leave the second set of marks and just use those for my mortising. I feel like the barely perceptible variation will make the finished product feel less mechanical.
Harvey’s frame surveys have been invaluable in guiding my choices for the hidden aspects of the kayak I’m building. The whole book (Kayaks of Alaska) is such an incredible resource.
I’ve been experimenting with using a smaller trim router in a plunge base hoping that it could be my new mortising solution. I have to say I’m not thrilled with the performance. I love the overall setup but the router shaft is either flexing or slightly off, leading to unacceptable chatter, which is disappointing considering how much I REALLY wanted this to work. I’m breaking the edges of my mortises with a carbide carving bit chucked in my drill for a more hand finished appearance.
My deck beam mortises are about an eighth of an inch low which is bothering me but it was a deliberate choice to leave a little bit of breathing room in case I’m not exactly right on my sheer curve and need to do additional shaping.
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