wood for carvel planking

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  • Luther
    Junior Member
    • Apr 2005
    • 9

    wood for carvel planking

    Can one use spruce for carvel planking of a 40 foot troller in the southeast Alaska area, Is yellow cedar better, How about good straight grain hemlock. All the above would be cut on my own saw mill and quarter sawed. I have heard that hemlock is related to fir, just of poor quality.
  • ShagRock
    Pirate of the Grand Banks
    • Jan 2009
    • 1985

    #2
    Re: wood for carvel planking

    Hi Luther..that's a big project you're undertaking. I'm not expert enough to 'compare' the wood species in your locale, but here's a neat link to Alaska tree species with characteristics, workability, and general uses such as boatbuilding. Hopefully, others will be along to give more helpful information. Good luck with the boat!

    G. Rowe (Bayman)

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    • SunshineBridge
      Senior Member
      • Oct 2009
      • 129

      #3
      Re: wood for carvel planking

      Hi Luther,
      I'm a novice at this so I bought the Collins Complete Woodwork manual... it says that Sitka Spruce (or Silver Spruce) is a non durable wood so as durability of planking is pretty important I'd avoid it. Looking at Shagrock's link Western Hemlock also has low decay resistance. I also see that Western Red Cedar is a local wood, so if I were you I'd use that, it has quite high decay resistance and is frequently used for planking.

      Cheers,
      Graham
      Graham,
      Restorer of Sunshine Bridge

      When you tell life long friends what you've bought and they look at you like you need a therapist, you've had your first Wooden Boat moment. Probably the first of many :-)

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      • Mrleft8
        Banned
        • Feb 2000
        • 31864

        #4
        Re: wood for carvel planking

        Yellow Cedar is good. Spruce bad (except for spars). Your "Hemlock" is different from our "Hemlock", but I think it's probably safer to go with the Yellow Cedar if you have it. Quarter sawing is not a particularly good idea due to splitting issues. Better off to rift saw (45 degrees to the grain).

        Comment

        • tapsnap
          Senior Member
          • Dec 2007
          • 436

          #5
          Re: wood for carvel planking

          I agree with the comments so far. For a project this big, invest the money in materials that are going to last. Hemlock fir rots faster than pine as does spruce. Yellow Cedar is good

          Comment

          • S B
            Senior Member
            • Feb 2008
            • 1479

            #6
            Re: wood for carvel planking

            Nothing wrong with spruce,plenty of oldboats here planked with it.You're in Alaska, shouldn't have the same problems with rot as the people down south,in the heat.

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            • Luther
              Junior Member
              • Apr 2005
              • 9

              #7
              Re: wood for carvel planking

              Thanks guys,
              since I posted I found several guys that have had experience with both spruce and yellow cedar. They said spruce worked ok but was soft, Red cedar was ok but was soft and split pretty easily. Yellow cedar seemed to work the best but had a tendency to split on the ends and you needed to drill pilot holes. I was hoping to take this on later in my retirement. Forty foot is what I want but in reality it will most likely be smaller. Red cedar is south of my location and would be difficult to get. The rest of the wood is near me.

              Comment

              • ShagRock
                Pirate of the Grand Banks
                • Jan 2009
                • 1985

                #8
                Re: wood for carvel planking

                Originally posted by Luther
                Thanks guys,
                since I posted I found several guys that have had experience with both spruce and yellow cedar. They said spruce worked ok but was soft, Red cedar was ok but was soft and split pretty easily. Yellow cedar seemed to work the best but had a tendency to split on the ends and you needed to drill pilot holes. I was hoping to take this on later in my retirement. Forty foot is what I want but in reality it will most likely be smaller. Red cedar is south of my location and would be difficult to get. The rest of the wood is near me.
                According to this lumber source, Yellow cedar has always been prized as a boat building wood in the state of Alaska.

                Alaskan Yellow Cedar Scientific Name: Chamaecyparis nootkatensis Alaskan Yellow Cedar is quite a versatile species of lumber that can easily be used in any project. This species of wood can be used for decks, siding, trim, ceiling, paneling, floors, doors, custom woodworking, and millwork. Its durability and ease of tooling makes it readily adaptable for the … Alaskan Yellow Cedar Read More »
                G. Rowe (Bayman)

                Comment

                • Bob Smalser
                  Member
                  • Jun 2003
                  • 9716

                  #9
                  Re: wood for carvel planking

                  Originally posted by Luther

                  .... They said spruce worked ok but was soft, Red cedar was ok but was soft and split pretty easily.

                  ....Yellow cedar seemed to work the best but had a tendency to split on the ends and you needed to drill pilot holes.
                  I'd stay far away from rot-prone Sitka Spruce in the hull, leaving it for the spars for which it is better suited. It might be OK in an open dinghy hull, but even though you are in a cold climate, troller hulls have too many enclosed areas that aren't well ventilated. Plus it's as or more expensive as either cedar. That alone makes it a poor choice.

                  You'll find all these woods like to split at the ends when they get exceptionally dry by the end of the building season, although among them you'll find Alaska Cedar the easiest to work. And you'll need pilot holes for your nails anyway. The pilot hole is there to insure the nail follows the line you want it to without bending, and overall they take less time to do than the time required to dig out and pull even a small percentage of bent or misdriven nails.
                  Last edited by Bob Smalser; 10-07-2009, 08:31 AM.
                  Bob

                  http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/b...lser-index.asp
                  http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl#smalser

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