Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Greg Jensen on November 9, 2011 at 9:18am

BMC West in Idaho has 16' oak that I will be using for my chines. I understand they just opened a yard in the Denver area....

Good luck

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Permalink Reply by JAY STRUGNELL on November 9, 2011 at 7:38pm

I could be wrong,but I think 16' clear white oak is hard to find anywhere. If you can find 8' and epoxy scarf to lengh then place the scarf so that it isnt at the hardest part of bend should work out fine.

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Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on November 10, 2011 at 2:40am

Jay is right on the mark.  Make a jig for the table saw say anywhere from 8/1 to 12/1 and  you can cut all the scafs in less than an hour.

Good luck 

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Permalink Reply by Dave Z on November 10, 2011 at 6:52am

Lots of White Oak here in PA.  But with that we have the abscence of Doug Fir....

I have 8 sections of 5/8"x20' unscarfed white oak in my garage.  you can come and get it. haha.

 

Try ash too. 

 

I prefer unscarfed sections of flat sawn WO, but I have scarfed 8:1 and done ok with it.

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on November 10, 2011 at 5:35pm

It is common and acceptable to scarf two shorter pieces.  Make a taper jig for your table saw and cut a 12:1 scarf. Then place the scarf on the boat in an area that does not require a lot of bend, such as the center of the boat. It will not fail you.  Dave has it right, flat sawn

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Permalink Reply by Charles Ray Heater on November 12, 2011 at 8:46am

In my experience I have come to regard White Oak as well as Red Oak as inferior woods for building a drift boat, expecially in the area of the chine.  The wood does not weather well and it is very difficult to find any oak that does not have sap wood in it.  Sap wood means dry rot in the future.  Much of our shop repair work goes to repairing boats built with this wood.

 

Try the Mahoganys.  Honduras, Khaya or Sapele make fine chines and caps as well as gunwales.  Mahogany doesn't have the bending radius that Oak has but it will outlast Oak.  I have even used Fir and Port Orford and Alaska Cedar for chines in the past.  All of these woods will give better service than Oak.  For the chine caps I always use either the Mahoganys mentioned,  or Ipe.

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Permalink Reply by lhedrick on November 12, 2011 at 12:34pm

Ray,

 

The ipe I have used for other projects is very dense.  My questions are will is bond well with a scarff using epoxy?  How does it bend?

 

I have seen it used for outdoor tables and benches.  It seems to handle weather very well.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Charles Ray Heater on November 12, 2011 at 5:59pm

The Ipe bends fine.  A dimension of 1/2" thickness works very well.  Ipe weathers very very well.  We suggest oiling the Ipe cap.  You must have sharp tools when milling the wood.

After the scarf is cut I treat the mating ends with acetone or denatured alcohol.  Then I apply a coating of epoxy/hardner to both mating pieces.  Let the pieces dry for several days then sand.  Apply the epoxy/hardner with thickner and clamp lightly.  We have not had failure at this joint.

I persuaded my neighbor to have his contractor rebuild his deck with Ipe.  My neighbor does little in the way of maintenance.  He applied the initial coat of Daly's Seafin Teak oil and has not touch the project since.  It has been several years now but the Ipe looks very good.

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Permalink Reply by Jon grannis on November 13, 2011 at 8:04pm

I recently bought nice 14' oak at Austin hardwoods in central denver which i used to replace the original chine caps on my wood boat.

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