Just for an overall figure, I looked up the "complete kit" prices for a 17' woodstrip canoe from Flounder Bay Boat Lumber, and Newfound Woodworks. They range from $850 to $1400. What follows is an example of estimating the material costs in 1998 for building a 20-foot Micmac canoe, assuming that I rip my own strips from boards. This will cost a bit more than a 17', and as you will see, comes to about $1000. At the end, there is a list of tools needed.
Stu Sanders and his 20' Micmac, near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
1. (strip thickness + saw kerf = thickness of wood needed to make each strip)
If you are cutting your own 1/4-inch strips from 3/4" boards, try to get an Oldham 24-tooth thin carbide blade; it has a width of only .05" (1/16") in the 7-1/4" diameter, and costs about $8.00. (Oldham also makes a 10" blade but it has been known to wobble from the heat of the friction.) Adding this kerf width to the thickness of each strip (.25") totals a mere .3" per strip. A 1/8" kerf will add 25% to the amount of wood needed.
If I were to make the bottom strips for the 20' canoe 5/16" (.3125") for extra stiffness, then the thickness of wood including the kerf per strip would be .3625" or almost 3/8" per strip. For the sake of simplicity of this illustration, I am assuming the standard 1/4" or total of .3" per strip.
2. (inches of wood per strip x number of strips = total board width)
Multiply the strip-plus-kerf dimension times the number of strips in each length of strip desired. I need 52 strips 18' long, 48 strips 20' long for a 20-foot Micmac canoe. Other canoe requirements are listed below.
.3 x 52 = 15.6" of total width in 18' boards
.3 x 48 = 14.4" of total width in 20' boards
3. (total width in inches/12 x length in feet = board feet)
A board foot is 12" x 12" x 3/4." So divide the inches of total width by 12 to get the fraction of board feet needed in the width, and then multiply by the length in feet to get the total number of board feet in that length of board.
15.6" / 12" x 18' = 23.4 board feet of 18' lumber.
14.4" / 12" x 20' = 24 board feet of 20' lumber.
Total board feet for the project = 47.4 I would actually have to buy 16" inches of width, two 8" wide boards for each length, because lumber doesn't come in exact fractions of inches, but in widths that vary by 2" increments. Therefore,
16" /12" x 18' = 24 board feet of 18' lumber.
16" /12" x 20' = 26.67 board feet of 20' lumber.
24 + 26.67 = 50.67 total board feet. The extra amount will allow almost 10% for breakage and mistakes.
Strip quantity for other models of canoes or kayak
and nearest 2" increment in total board width for each length of 1/4" x 3/4" strip , assuming a kerf of .05":
18' x 36" Micmac: 38 strips, from12" x 20'; 36 strips, from 12" x 16' = 36 board feet 4. (board feet x price = total cost for wood) What about scarfing? If you are thinking long lumber is so expensive that you would want to buy shorter lumber at a lower cost per board foot, and scarf them together, you could save almost $40. At the same time as I checked the price above, 8-to-12-foot lengths of Canadian Western Red Cedar were going at $4.95 per board foot. If you are going to scarf the boards edgewise before ripping, and the scarf is at the recommended 1:5 ratio, it would take an extra 20" of length on a 4" wide board to make the scarf. So a 12' x 4" board scarfed together with a 10' x 4" board would make one 20' board, and two 10' boards would make an 18' board.
Buying lumber this way, you would need:
48" total width in 4" wide boards, 10 feet long, and 48" / 12" x 10' = 40 board feet of 10-foot lumber, and Total board feet, 56, times $4.95 per board foot equals $277.20, a savings of $39.49.
You can save a tiny bit more money by cutting the scarfs on individual strips, or just plain butt-jointing the strips at the station forms as some builders have done. Personally, since one of my main motivations is to make this boat as a work of art, albeit a utilitarian piece of art, I choose to go with the full-length boards. Some builders have used other species such as Atlantic white, Port Orford, or Alaskan yellow cedar; Cypress, Spruce, Pine, Redwood, Philipine mahogany, abachi; even recycled deck lumber, fence lumber, greenhouse lumber --- you don't have to use Canadian Western Red Cedar. This 70 lb, 17 foot Micmac was built by Tom Argentieri, using bead and cove Atlantic white cedar strips and white oak for the gunwales, thwarts etc. The seats were hand woven with plastic cane and are "extremely comfortable." Tom lives in Yardley Pennsylvania, close to the Delaware river with wife and 3 kids. Two major manufacturers have what is called "clear coat" resin. This resin is thin and excellent for penetrating the wood and glass for the first coat of bonding the glass to the wood. To fill the weave use regular, thicker, resin. On a 16' to 18' Micmac, you will need about 3 gallons total to laminate 6 oz. cloth to the boat and fill the weave, about two gallons in clear coat, one in standard resin. On the 20' Micmac, I think I will need 5 gallons combined total. The prices to follow are 1998 list prices.
West Resin from Gougeon Brothers is the standard of the industry, opening the boatbuilding market to epoxy resins and providing much research and information. The stuff works great and is expensive. 207 Clear Coat is $107.20 in a 1.3 gallon kit. The next size kit is over 5 gallons, which would be too much, so two of the smaller kits ($214.40) would be necessary to make the right amount of the Clear Coat for a 16' to 18' Micmac. Three of the smaller kits ($321.60) would be necessary for a 20' canoe.
The regular 205 Resin is $85 for a 1.2 gallon kit. One should be enough for filling the weave on the 16'-18' canoe, two ($170) for a 20' canoe. So, for the 20-footer, the total cost in West System is $491.60
The two resins are mixed at different ratios, requiring two different sets of mini-pumps ($9.65/pair), if you choose to go that route. Graduated medicine cups and/or 60 cc. syringes are the cheap way to go.
System Three describes itself as a "medium modulus resin with high resiliency and good elongation (11% compared to West's 3.35%)," resistant to "star breaks and stress cracking." System Three has a clear coat 1.5-gallon kit for $116, 3-gallon kit for $210. Regular System Three resin is 1.5-gallon kit for $85, and 3 gallons is $138. For the 20-footer, 3 gallons of Clear Coat and 3 gallons of regular resin, total cost $348. For quality and price, this resin would be my preference.
MAS Resins, distributed by Newfound Woodworks, ( MAS Epoxies Home Page has a list of other distributors)
tend to be more brown than the WEST resins, and from the data I saw at their homepage, appear to have only 2% elongation when cured, meaning a fairly brittle resin. It is a low-viscosity resin, which means it acts like the clear coats. Cost: $198 for 3 gallons of slow hardener and resin.
RAKA Resins are among the cheaper resins you can buy, and I've read bulletin board postings both pro and con on this resin, so for those on very tight budgets, proceed cautiously and mix thoroughly! Cost: $98 for 3 gallons, and a 12-ounce sample kit for testing is $8.
(length of boat in feet x price per yard = total cost for cloth) 4-ounce, 50-inch wide glass cloth is priced at about $5.10 per running yard; 6-ounce, 60-inch wide cloth is $6.30 per yard, from Flounder Bay Boat Lumber.
Ash for gunnels, thwarts, and seats may add up to $100. Varnish, $30 to $60, depending on how good a UV absorber you want. If you want silicon bronze screws (I prefer dowels epoxied in place) add another $12 to $14. Dust mask, rollers, squeegees, brushes, mixing pots, staples and glue for edge-bonding strips may add another $30. Let's just say I need another $200 to cover everything.
Grand total to build a 20' canoe from full-length cedar boards, System Three resins, glass cloth and other supplies: $990.69, or just round off to $1000. Makes a kit with already-ripped bead and cove strips seem like a pretty good deal!
17' x 34" Micmac: 32 strips, from10" x 18'; 36 strips, from 12" x16' = 31 board feet
16' x 34" Micmac: 28 strips, from10" x 18'; 37 strips, from 12" x 16' = 31 board feet
16' x 27" Abenaki: 36 strips, from 12" x18'; 20 strips, from 6" x16' = 26 board feet
20' x 24" Tsunami: 62 strips, from 20" x 20'; 34 strips, from 12" x 18' = 51.3 board feet
Multiply by the current board-foot price of Canadian Western Red Cedar clear flat grain stock, which is the best quality and the highest price: ($6.25 on 5-1-98) = $316.69.
If you use a saw with a 1/8" kerf, the cost will be $395.86, making an investment in a thin blade well worth it.
16" total width in 4" wide boards, 12 feet long.
16" / 12" x 12' = 16 board feet of 12-foot lumber.
EPOXY RESIN
GLASS CLOTH
I build my standard-weight canoes with a single layer of cloth from gunnel to gunnel, and a second half-layer of cloth underneath it, across the bottom of the boat, inside and out. Thus, the length of the boat in feet is also the total number of yards of cloth needed, since two one-and-a-half-layer laminations equals three layers altogether, three times the length of the boat in feet.
20 yards of 6-ounce cloth for a 20' canoe totals $126.
HARDWOODS and SUPPLIES
TOOLS
I cannot guess at what you might have to spend to rent or buy tools that you don't already have. I merely list them here so that you have an idea of what you might need. The first part of the list is hand tools.
The second part of the list is power tools. Some things, like a table saw and disc sander, you may not need if you buy already-ripped bead and cove strips.
The Stripper's Guide to Canoe-building by David Hazen is available from:
Lunch stop whilst honeymooning on
Shaw Island in the San Juans
Copyright 1998, David Hazen. You may download, store, or print a single copy of this page for your personal information. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored or transmitted for personal gain.
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