BOATBUILDING By - John Atkin.

[RonW]

http://www.boat-links.com/Atkinco/Articles/Methods.html

Here is a little jewel for those that have not yet seen it. Be warned though, that you may find a statement or two that would lead to a lynching if made by those of less then noble blood as Mr Atkin.

[Bob Smalser]

Good quality Eastern pine and other pines are suitable for boat building -- other pines are not, so great care must be taken in determining the proper species. Clear Alaskan (yellow) cedar, Port Orford cedar, select fir and Oregon pine is plentiful on the west coast and northwestern areas of this country and Canada. Good quality fir and Oregon pine is used for keels, planking and decks in these areas.
I probably oughtta email the Oregon fella who keeps this site and ask him his take on the above confusion:

"Oregon Pine" is Australian and other export vernacular for Doug Fir...but when used in the same sentence as "good quality fir" is about as clear as mud. All other western woods called "fir" would be a poor choice for boats.

If he means "Western White Pine", while it has many properties of Eastern White Pine, moderate rot resistance isn't one of them according to the USDA.

[RonW]

QUOTE from John Atkin-

- I do not advocate the covering of plywood, stripped plank or cold molded hulls with synthetic cloths. While this is done -- my experience has indicated such covering is subject to failure, in various areas and conditions of swelling, etc., and I see no need for further complications. -

I am surprised that no comment has been made concerning this statement. Those that are intending to build using traditional strip planking might find this usefull as to possibly increasing plank sizing (where needed) and elimanting a lot of work and exspense by covering with glass.

[Jack Heinlen]

Okay, let's have this out, once and for all. smile.gif Old, or old second growth western white pine is not the equivlent of the same in the East. Eastern White Pine, in good circumstance, is in the middle of the range as far as resistance to rot goes. Not as good as the cedars, but better than the spruces. Western White Pine is with the spruces.

Frank. I honestly don't know, but back up all contentions with some data. I'm too lazy to look it up, but it ought to be backed by data/experience, and shouldn't be that hard to explicate.

It's like: can you safely glue white oak? Nobody knows?

I have to believe that somebody knows, about both, at least within reasonable parameters.

[RonW]

To add a comment concerning white pine, I totally agree with Jack and bob's comments, but at least here in the midwest white pine is a missleading lumberyard slang.And the wood is not suitable for boatbuilding and will rot very readily unlike the true eastern white pine.

Lumber is sold from the mills to a distributor, who in turn sells to large lumber buyers and also wholesellers who in turn resells to the smaller lumber yards. The distributors buys from sawmills all over the U.S. or even canada and mexico as well. Consequently they lump many similar species into one heading. They are at least half a dozen or even a dozen or more pines lumped into the heading white pine. WHITE PINE meaning or at least in this part of the country meaning any of the soft to medium denisty whiteish or cream colored pines that are easily machined for moldings, and trim work, such as crown moldings, chair rails, casing, baseboards and so forth. Thus the lumberyard slang of white pine which actually has nothing to do with the true (eastern) white pine species. Which leads credability to Atkin's statement as being aware concerning white pine.

The same is done with southern yellow pine, the distributors has 4 individual species that actually make up this heading, - they are long leaf pine, shortleaf pine, loblolly pine and slash pine. Thus southern yellow pine can be any one of, or a combination of any and all of the above to form a new type of lumber know to us as southern yellow pine.

[ 10-28-2004, 03:31 PM: Message edited by: RonW ]

[Keith Wilson]

Might John Atkin's comment regarding glassing plywood have been made in the days before epoxy was widely used? It seems to fit polyester resin fairly well.