Home made skin-on-frame kayak

Last weekend my daughter and I finally finished building her kayak and got it out on the water. We still have to make a spray skirt and add the deck rigging, and make or get a better paddle, but it floats. I am both very proud and a little embarrassed to have anyone look too closely. We broke some of the "rules" of skin-on-frame construction, mainly using glue which makes the frame stiffer than it's supposed to be, and the finish is a bit rough, but it tracks straight and fits me daughter pretty well. A bit late in the season for any major paddling trips, but we'll try to put it to good use next summer. Photos in an album on my member page.

That's fantastic! You and your daughter should be very proud.

Wow, thats pretty cool!

I met a guy last spring who was a native indian who built a wooden kayak. That was at a place called www.Backtracks.com Wintercount, a survival school that takes place in Maricopa AZ and also another course in Rexburg, Idaho called Rabbitstick that is going on this week.

Jolly good job!!! (As my english buddies would say, I did edit the expletives though)

For a glue, were you working with epoxy or something else?

Did you rough out the frame with a bandsaw?

Did you learn anything? (lol, just because I also do woodworking and learn something every day)

Projects with your kids last much longer than the project itself!!!

Way to go.

Yes, I epoxied in the ribs, partly because the fit in the mortices was loose and partly because I couldn't get any doweling small enough to peg them. Also a bit worried about water getting trapped in the cracks and rotting the wood. I also used epoxy instead of oil to seal the wood after the frame was finished -- a big no-no because this essentially glues everything together and takes the flex out of the frame, but I think it will do a much better job of sealing and therefore preserving the frame. Next time I may try to stick closer to tradition. No band saw, just circular, table, and jig saws and a small block plane that saw a lot of use on both the softwood gunwhales and the hardwood ribs (ash) and masik (curved deck beam at the front edge of the cockpit, oak). Learned a lot, still a lot left to learn.

That is really cool! Was there a particular set of plans that you worked from, or was the kayak more of your own design?

I used two books, one by Christopher Cunningham and one by Robert Morris (don't have them in front of me here or I would give the titles). I started out with the Cunningham method them jumped to Morris after a while. Overall I think the Morris method is better for beginners but Cunningham has a lot of tips about making jigs, especially a rib-bending jig, that are really useful. Both cover building West Greenland kayaks in detail, and the end result is nearly identical, but Morris goes on to sketch out making other types of kayaks, including Aleut baidarkas, and two kinds of canoes. I have already built two "stitch-and-glue" kayaks from kits, but starting from a few lengths of raw wood was completely new and a fun challenge.

Thanks for the info ... I've always wanted to try my hand at building kayaks, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll have to look for the authors you mentioned.