: Paul!

: Hey there, been a while, good to hear from you. We did have a happy
: Thanksgiving, hope you did too.

Yup. And I didn't blow my diet, either.

: I did cook my seeqqortarfik, and it worked great.

I'm not sure I'd mention something quite so personal on this board

: How in the world did you become such a font of knowledge?

Just lucky to be born at the right time, when so much of the world's knowledge is being put onto computer databases, and these are linked over the internet. When you can get a good guess at the keywords that search engines use, things can jsut jump out of those databases.

:. . . Were you an
: encyclopedia editor? You always bring such a chunk of info to the table. :
: )

Long background in journalism, some photography, some design, some editing, some fact checking, some online news production.

: What is the best way to skin a kayak?

Depends on what materials you are using. Right now I think the best stuff for use on a homebuilt kayak is what Tom Yost is using. Coverlight, a vinyl coated material reinforced with a woven center of polyester material. It is durable, easy to work with, doesn't need to be painted or sanded, and reasonably priced. Check out his site (www.yostwerks.com) for pictures of how he attaches the skin. He also has addresses of his suppliers.

If you are going with canvas, then I suggest getting a canvas stretching pliers from an art supply store, and using stainless steel or monel staples to hold the canvas in place on the frame. If you can't find those corrosion-resistant staples, use a few regular staples to hold the cloth in place temporarily, then use copper tacks hammered in do the job, and pull out the staples.

I like the idea of using laces on the front deck to tighten the skin. If the kayak frame can be disassembled into several parts, then the skin can be unlaced and the frame taken apart for easy transportation or storage. Lacing up the back deck would work jsut as well, but should a lace come loose you'ld see it happening sooner if it was right in front of you.

:. . .How about steaming ribs?

Steamed ribs? nah, ya steam clams. Ribs ya gotta barbeque. Just kidding.

: . . .What do you
: think of the Wagner Wallpaper Steamer as a steambox?

It isn't a steambox. It is a steam generator. It makes the steam all right, but you'll need to make a box to hold that hot steam around your wood for as long as it takes to soften the wood. In the simplest form people have used sheet-metal vent tubes (or flues) and short lengths of PVC pipe as steam boxes. It is also fairly simple to nail together 4 pieces of 1x6 to make an open ended box--and then stuff rags in at the ends. Feed the steam hose in at the bottom, and wedge it in with some rags. Home Depot, Lowes, and lumber yards may have odd sized cutoffs on a discount lumber rack sort thru this for some inexpensive materials for your steam box. Automotive radiator hose will hold up to the temperature of the steam.

: . . . Obviously people have
: reported fantastic success with it, and it seems like maybe one of the
: safest, easiest ways of generating clouds of billowing steam. Can you
: think of an easier, cheaper way to do it that would be as or nearly as
: safe, versus boiling big quantities of water on some sort of open heat
: source?

If you already have a wall paper steamer, then use it. If not, don't rush out and buy one. There are less expensive alternatives. If you are just building one boat a year, you could rent a commercial-sized wall paper steamer for 4 hours. Rent it an hour or two before the store closes and probably have it overnight for the half-day fee.

Or use a tea kettle on a campstove, an outdoor gas grill, or on a hot plate. If you are in the US, you'll probably find a Walgreen's drug store within 5 miles. Wal-Mart and Walgreen's are the two cheapest sources I've found so far for what is called an electric buffet range. These are single-burner hot plates (not to be confused with heated serving platters) which have 750 to 1000 watt heating elements. I see them on sale for under $10 very often. (the cheapest I've seen them was $7, and the local grocery store had one in their housewares section for $18)

An aluminum tea kettle is about $12 or less from Wal-mart. A resale shop would have one for much less. If you want to go cheaper, get a metal gallon can, such as used for Coleman campstove fuel, or paint thinner. Whatever you use, clean it out and fill with water. Put it on the hot plate, buffet burner, or campstove, and connect it to your steam box with the radiator hose.

There are some electric kettles which will heat water for drip coffee or tea. If you can find an inexpensive one which doesn't have a thermostat on it (which would shut it off) then it will keep boiling water for a long time, and it will be self contained.

You don't want billowing clouds of steam around your wood. That would jsut get it humid. If you see a cloud, then your system is too cold. The clouds are formed by water particles which have cooled and condensed. You want it hotter, so the water is in the form of water vapor, which is clear. If the steam which is coming out of your steam box forms a cloud a foot or two above the steam box, then things are OK. It is hotter in the box, and the escaped steam has cooled. Just don't put your hand between that puffy cloud and the steam box, or you'll encounter some very hot steam.

No method of making steam, in my opinion, is safe. It is hot and hard to see. You must take precautions to not get burned.

And remember that you do not want to contain the steam. Loose connections should be the rule. You do not want to bottle it up under any pressure. Steam pressure can built quickly and to dangerous levels if the steam is contained. That is why we use loose rags on the end of the steam box--so there is NO pressure in the box and the excess steam can escape.

I suggest you work outdoors when steam bending, as the amount of moisture produced will greatly kick up the indoor humidity, make all the windows in your house fog up, and might damage artwork on your walls.

I take it you are building a skin-on-frame kayak with steam-bent ribs. If you want to totally avoid using steam, you can make your ribs from laminations of thinner pieces of wood. Cut the wood as thin as you need it to be so that you can easily bend it when cold and dry. Because the grain of each layer will be running at a slightly different angle, and the ribs are made of laminations instead of being just one piece, you may be able to get stronger ribs. What with the gluing and trimming, they won't be as fast to make, but they'll work very nicely. If you use epoxy to bond the laminations you'll have ribs which are exremely water resistant--but you can just as easily use a white carpenter's glue and then coat the ribs with two coats of epoxy resin to waterproof them.

Good luck with your project.

PGJ