One of the most common comments I get from people who have built one of my boats from plans is: “I should have just bought the ribs from you!”.
First time builders, the ones who would benefit the most from perfect bending stock are usually the ones who get sticker shock and try to have a go with less than great bending wood. After a ton of driving around, milling time, and a lot of cursing and broken wood, the financial wisdom of just buying good stock in the first place starts to sink in. I get a lot of orders from second time builders!
The journey from tree to rib starts at Zena Forest Products where 1 in 50 boards is good enough to be called bending wood.
Next I drive a few hours in the 1 ton diesel guzzling van to buy it from them.
Once home the first step is to cut away about a third of the wood to get down to the absolutely perfect stock.
Then it’s into the parks planer (‘the beast’) where it’s a battle of will between one of Oregon’s toughest woods and a relentless barrage of 220v direct drive carbide tipped fury. (Those knives ain’t cheap!)
From there it’s on to the table saw for a blade change and a fresh spray of blade coat. Then zip, zip, zip, until I’ve got a sizable pile of candidates.
From the candidate pile every crack, wave, wobble, and pin knot is excluded. What’s left over are the perfect ribs that get shipped to customers. What starts as a 5/4 x 6” x 8’ board typically yields enough perfect ribs for one kayak and takes about an hour and a half to make, pack, and ship.
The result is a rib you can steam for four minutes and tie in a knot. Is it worth it? That’s for you to decide. I hate what I have to charge for these but ain’t nobody gettin’ rich off bending oak.
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