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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on September 6, 2010 at 8:18pm

Glen L has a great web resource for boat building woods. You can find it by CLICKING HERE

Below is what they say about Redwood. It does not hold fasteners well. If you want to try it I recommend that you bolt through the rails and soak the wood with epoxy to toughen it up. My concern would be that the bend in the rails could be prone to fracture.


REDWOOD
28 lbs. per cubic foot, 2.33 lbs. per board foot
Grown along the Northern California coast, the heartwood is light cherry to dark mahogany in color, while sapwood is nearly white or pale yellow. The heartwood is extremely decay resistant, but sapwood is not. The wood is fairly straight grained and free of defects, especially if heartwood. It shrinks and swells little, is easy to work, but tends to be brittle and does not hold fastenings well. The strength is moderate, it does not bend well, and has little use in plywood boat building.

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Permalink Reply by Troy Nicolls on September 10, 2010 at 8:24pm

I used clear heartwood redwood for my frames on my Trapper. It is very easy to work with, but soft and as Randy suggests, does not hold screws well. I used it because it was free. I used 3m 5200 to bond it to the hull. I also used pine plywood for the hull and surf salvaged/ backyard milled mahogany for the shear and chine. The boat is nearly finished and has not yet touched water. I think it will be OK for lightweight frames, but I would be reluctant to use it for shear rails... kind of splintery and likely to snap. However, unlike the frames on my boat, you could more easily replace the rails if it didn't work out.

Troy
Redding, CA

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Permalink Reply by eric stevens on September 10, 2010 at 9:05pm

thanks for the info, i live in redding too. i live right next to the convention center so i fish by the sundial bridge a lot. I have never seen any other river where you can catch a 17 inch trout almost every time you go. maby i will see you out there some time, i am in a two toned blue wood 16 footer most of the time. I am building a new boat right now, building boats keeps me sane.

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Permalink Reply by Troy Nicolls on September 11, 2010 at 10:24pm

Eric
Those two big ole honkin salmon youa re holdin would keep me quite sane!

I thought that was the same boat I have seen on craigs list advertised in Redding, then I see you are actually from Redding. Small world this internet.

I'm new to boat building this year. Rebuilt a 16 footer I bought a few months ago, now building a Trapper on a budget and thinking about a duck layout boat now. Problem is, I have no space for all these wood boats. Thinkin I should build a loft next.

If I ever see that blue boat out on the Sac, I will surely stop and say hi.

Don't know how long you've lived here, but the trout fishing typically gets much better in October.

Oh...back on topic...You are aware of Redding Hardwood Specialties down south of town near Northstate Recycling? I am not aware of any place in town with a better selection at what I believe to be reasonable prices. That's where I bought the white oak for my chine log for my Trapper. I think it was $3.25/bf. Also bought DF marine ply there for my 16 rebuild. My current build is of very nice Montery Pine plywood from Lowes at less than half the cost of the marine stuff. It's an experiment. I don't have real high expectations for this build. But if it holds together, it will be one lightweight and super cheap drift boat. Now I know there's actually another woodie in town, perhaps I'll seek you out to give you a look when I'm done?

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Permalink Reply by Brad Dimock on September 13, 2010 at 2:04pm

I'd second those stressing the weakness and brittleness of redwood. Gunwales are something you want pretty strong and limber. I'd recommend ash. It really doesn't take much wood to lay up a very nice set of gunwales, board-foot-wise.

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