Sorry to hear you trashed the skin. Keeping it would have made it simpler to make a replacement. You could have measured the original, and maybe salvaged some hardware parts.

Check out the Klepper webpage at www.klepper.com. According to that the original was built with birch frames. It might be easier and cheaper to get birch plywood than okume. Consider it.

Apparently they just seal the wood with several layers of varnish. Personally, I'd put on a couple of thin layers of epoxy to seal things, and then a coat or two of matte or satin finish varnish.

Good luck with the restoration.

Paul G. Jacobson