(Entry 11) Almost done!

Hello again there o' faithful reader, it has been a long time since we last met.  Since you were here last, a lot of work has been done.  I haven't taken pictures of all the stages, most of the work was mind-numbing and tedious and the pictures likely wouldn't have been any different.  Anyway, let us begun once again.  You'll notice a cross-hatched yellow string on the outside of the canoe, that is the "Kevlar roving".  The roving is probably the second worst part of building this type of canoe, only beat out by the rib glue-up and installation (and that was partially my fault).  I can't explain what the Kevlar is, but it sure is a pain in the ass to work with, a million strands of hell (no shitting, I'll include a closeup of some at the end).  At any rate, the Kevlar is applied to the gunwale with heat n' bond, a magical paper-backed hot glue type adhesive (oh yes, notice the inwale and outwale with all of the Kevlar fibers dangling from it, that is now called the gunwale).  The heat n' bond is thinner than a piece of paper, but holds the Kevlar tight.  The heat n' bond is activated by (you guessed it) heat, so I used an iron to apply it over top of the Kevlar.  Yes, I used an iron, now be quiet!  

There is another lovely picture of the Kevlar.  After I was all done attaching the Kevlar to the canoe, I had to put a coating of varnish (clear coat) on it (Yes, on the yellow string...and I thought putting the Kevlar on was tedious, oh gee it gets better).  Apparently if I don't put a coating of varnish on the Kevlar, it will act like a sponge later and soak up all of the varnish applied later as a sealer coat on the Dacron skin.  Once it is all sponge like and steals the varnish from the skin, it leaves little pin holes along the length of the string that could allow water into my boat (not something I'd like to experience).  So blabbidy-blah and a bit of bibbidy-booh and that's the fun Kevlar song.  

There, the sun is shinning through my canoe!  Actually, it's a lamp (boo).  Anyway, those there that the lamp is shinning through, are the floorboards.  They were another fun step in this build.  I'm not sure who thought of this canoe thing, but they were really, really bored I think.  It is one painful job after the next, and once you think the pain is over and the wound has scabbed over, they pick at it again until it's left open and bleeding.  Whooha, off topic, strange!  So the floorboards, lets put a flat piece of wood (that doesn't bend very well) on a curved surface, yay!  Not only will we do that, we will also make you glue them into place after you've test fit them, so go ahead and take them all out and put them back again.  Grrr!  The other thing in the picture is (the  longish vertical board in the picture) is one of the thwarts, it holds the canoe in it's shape.  It was a square piece of cherry lumber, now it's roundish.  I really didn't get creative with it at all, I think all of my creative juices have vanished during this project and it's time to just get it done.  I guess it's just the idea of having put all of this time into something that may or may not actually float, and if it does float, how long will it actually last for?  So there ya go, that is my reason for not using my imagination anymore on this project.  If this boat floats, I'll put imagination into the next one I make (and apply all of my new knowledge as well).

As promised, there is the closeup of the Kevlar roving.  To me it looks like doll hair, kind of scary!  That creepy doll-hair-type stuff also ruined my scissors, it took a lot of work to actually cut this stuff with scissors.  My scissors blades are all dented and dulled, silly Kevlar, you need not be so strong.

Boom, da end!