: What is the best way to deal with the rough
: surface - power planer, hand plane, or sanding? Prior to ripping or
: dealing with individual strips? I was planning to bevel the edges with a
: plane or a rasp and not doing C&B.

I'm assuming you don't have a surface planer (or you would just plane down the unplaned side before ripping the strips). Using a handheld power planer on a wide board will not give as good a result. However, if you have a 3 or 3 1/4 inch wide power plane you might consider constructing a small jig that you can rest the plane on so that it cuts materials to a 3/4 inch thickness. Support the front and back of the plane, and leave room uner the cutters for them to spin freely.

Rip your stock to 2 to 2 1/2 inch widths and run these through your jig. The spacers under the power plane should keep it from planing the board too thin, so hopefully it will end up perfectly even in thickness along its length. Then you can rip your strips from these narrower and thinner boards. If you make a 1/4 inch version of the jig for your power plane you can get it to work like a surface planer and to clean up your strips.

If you have a router but choose to not make bead and cove edges, then use a straight bit to remove the fuzz.

Alternatively, you can run the strips through your saw and let it cut off the fuzzy edge. Boards that are planed on just one side may be a bit thicker, that is they may be 7/8ths rather than the usual 3/4 inch thickness. Ripping off the fuzzy side brings them down to size. The wood is so soft there is hardly a strain on the saw, so this goes rapidly, but with the generation of much sawdust. Use fingerboards to hold the strips tightly so they stay straight as you rip off the fuzzy edge.

If you have a disk sanding plate for your saw, you can use that to clean up the strips. It is a bit slower than the saw, but gives a little neater finish, and finer sawdust. Wear a respirator or dust mask.

You can use the disk sander to smooth the wide sides of your strips, too. The disk sander will help in getting your strips to be equal in thickness, and may smooth them a bit. This may cut off time in fairing the boat later on.

Otherwise, use the handplane. Slowest method, but if youplan to custom fit or bevel each edge you'll be spending the same time, so you might as well work on the fuzzy edge.

Hope this helps.

PGJ