The only part of building one of my skin on frame kayaks that’s actually hard is creating this steam bent keyhole cockpit coaming, and most of that is just because you need perfect quality in bending oak to make the tight bend at the apex.
It’s been getting harder to find Oregon White Oak lately so for these coamings I’m using some white oak from J. W. Swan & Sons. Quercus Alba is definitely stiffer than our local species, but it will still make the required bends and the wood quality is excellent.
As always, steaming time is completely random. You just have to figure out what works best with that particular board.
Personally if I was building my first skin on frame kayak I would probably just buy one of these pre-fabricated from us, but I’ve definitely had first time builders tackle the challenge and succeed.
I’m pretty obsessive about the shaping of these because there’s a thin line between a coaming that is narrow enough to give you good knee grip, but still wide enough to allow you to raise your knees for comfort. Also for my modern kayaks I’m only using double lip coamings these days to give solid purchase for a spray skirt and a sea sock. I personally don’t like sea socks but I want people to have the option.
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