Re: My lawton tender thread. Plans arrived today

Originally Posted by
MoMan
Just a word of caution: Because ash is harder than the cedar, when you go to sand the hull you may find that the cedar sands away much faster than the ash, leaving you with a raised section of ash and an indented section of cedar. You would be better off using wood that is similar to the density of cedar, like peruvian walnut or basswood. Better yet, sort your cedar out and pick the lightest colored pieces and position them next to some darker contrasting cedar.
MoMan has it here. Look for woods that will sand like the cedar - it will make both fairing and sanding much easier. Also, pick woods that have natural contrast as dyeing the wood won't work well as the dye penetration would be limited. Also, you'll be removing material from the surface to fair and sand, so you'll probably be removing the colored layer of wood. There is huge color variation that can be found in the cedar alone. If you look at the picture of the Wavy Gravy below, you can see that the "football" on the bottom of the hull (American football, not European football...) has been made from darker strips than the upper section of the hull. The same with the feature strip. Everything on this hull is Western Red Cedar with the exception of the center line on the feature strip which is Basswood. Careful selection of strips can lead to great results.

Alternatively, if you look around, you'll find some woods with wonderful color that can include reds, pinks, greens, yellow and other hues naturally. If you wet the surface of many of these woods with a bit of water (No mineral spirits or turps!), you'll often see the color make a more pronounced appearance. Another option is to look for materials that have interesting grain - the figured grain against plain strips of grain makes for great accent strips.
"The bottom of a canoe should only touch two things - one is air and the other is water."
-The Silver Fox