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 wrap complex curves without wrinkles, and shrinks so well I can sew it dry on a kayak, although I do sew it wet on my canoes.
The process starts by sewing a small pocket into one end and then another at the other end that is a few inches shorter than the actual kayak. Then I stretch the skin longitudinally, pin the keel, and flip the boat over. I use a batten with a groove and a hot knife to cut the centerline seam which gives the perfect overlap everywhere except 2 ft from each end where the fabric is cut a bit wider.
Somewhat similar to how historic kayaks were tightened, I lace the skin down the center. Unlike historic kayaks I leave this lacing in the boat. After that I use upholstery thread and a simple whipstitch to sew the center seam, which takes about 90 minutes to 2 hrs depending on the boat.
After this the cockpit coaming is placed and the fabric is sewn to the inside using the same type of cord I use for the deck lacing.
A historic detail that I’ve kept on this kayak is two small toggle loops towards the bow that would have originally captured the toggle at the forward end of a seal skin rifle bag (hunters from this time period carried rifles and harpoons). Little details like this add a bit of ‘soul’ to the project.
I want to finish this post by mentioning that the original method of covering a kayak with seal skin was an extremely precise and arduous process done almost exclusively by women. In a process that was repeated every year, four seal skins were dressed, stretched and sewn around the kayak with seams below the waterline that were watertight even without modern adhesives. In my opinion this part of the process would have been much more difficult than the men’s work of building the frame.
Build time on this step: 5 hours
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