This was the first weekend to attempt some work on Shan Skailyn. Altogether about 3 hours worth. I'm using a bunch of lumber that has been here since we originally built our house back in 2004. It's all rough cut stuff and looks all moldy and mildewy from years of sitting under the house on a storage rack. So the first step needed is to plane it down. Found a couple pieces of what is called 'ton' (sounds like 'tone' in Pidgin English - the national trade language of Papua New Guinea). One thing I've learned about ton is that it's very prone to dry rot. 25 minutes of planing these pieces reveals that they are totally unusable; full of dry rot. Might make some good firewood or something.
I actually have a few pieces of teak, but not enough to use for the gunwales as I would have wanted. Probably a good thing because that stuff gums up my saw and planer blades pretty bad.
So I dug through and found some other lumber that might work for the gunwales. Fairly heavy and tight grained stuff. NO DRY ROT!!! In Pidgin they call it 'galip' (pronounced 'ga-leep'). Not sure what we know it to be in English. It's a bit like mahogany though. I wonder if it's the same. It seems too heavy and a fair bit more dense. Anyone out there happen to know what this might be? It would be nice to know. Gary D., you seem to have had some experience with PNG lumber. If you're reading this, any idea what 'galip' wood is? It grows on the coast. It has nuts that the people eat.
Anyway, I planed it down and cut all the pieces for the gunwales, which I want to be a stronger variety of wood than the chines. As far as the chines are concerned, I'm hoping to cut those maybe next weekend.
Other than that, I spent a bit of time sharpening my hand planes, organizing my shop a bit in preparation for this 'little' weekend hobby, and chatted with some of my Mibu friends that were in the area and wanting to hang out a bit. I almost always stop work to spend time chatting with them!
WIth just about 20 minutes left available to work, I decided I'd start planing the edges of my plywood, which I had only rough cut when we were out in town recently. I had cut all the matching pieces at the same time so that they matched exactly. Did the same with the edge planing, checking with a combo square as I went along. Since any mismatches will come together creating a warped hull, perfection is important here more than almost anywhere else.
Oh yeah... also found out that my bamboo has been cut (I hired a friend who wanted a little work) and is currently soaking in the river. Should be just a matter of weeks before I see it and can judge whether or not it will work for me.
In this picture, you see the four pieces of 6mm plywood that will make up the sides of the two end sections of Gary's Wa'apa design. In the foreground is what will eventually be the stern and the bow of the canoe. I've put a screw through each end of all four pieces to hold them together so I can plane all four edges to a perfect match.
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