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 than the original museum kayak to help prevent hull collapse as the boat ages. This wasn’t such an issue with the original Greenland kayaks because they were typically rebuilt at the end of every season, but with modern nylon coverings the fabric can last 10 years or more so it’s important the frame can too. There are many other woods that can be used such as ash or black locust. Hickory, beech, yellow cedar, or even bamboo are less desirable but can still be made to work. I’m always looking for new wood species that bend well so if you have a suggestion please share it!
The scantling size is surprisingly nuanced here. For example I found over the years that 1 1/4 x 1/4 on a 6” spacing will start to collapse after 3-4 years, but adding a 64th to the thickness and a 16th to the width mostly protects against this. However, add another 64th and the ribs become too stiff and don’t bend properly.
My West Greenland design is unique in that it is the only kayak we build where the rib lengths are fixed rather than determined by applying a formula. I prefer formula-based measuring systems because they are easier to use and scale up and down for different size users, but for this particular boat I was never able to reverse engineer a rib formula that would reproduce the original kayak shape accurately.
Generally I like to do all of my rib prep at the end of the day so the next morning all I have to do is fire up the steam box and start bending, which you’ll see in tomorrow’s post.
Build time on this step: 4 hours
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