Yes, I did it all. From cutting and routing strips, to weaving seats, making paddles, and adding all of the hardwood trimmings. 220 hours later - she's done.
This 14' cedar strip canoe is my first ever - actually it was my second, since my first was a 10:1 scale model of this canoe. I never imagined that it would be as much fun and that I would be learning so many additional skills to complete this canoe. I must add that without the Bear Mountain Boats builder's forum, I could not of done it so well. Thanks guys. Special thanks to my Wife and her patience - I think, to Gill Gilpatrick for his book - Building a Strip Canoe, to John Michne's very helpful website and his answers to my emails, and to Grant G for his extra pair of hands when I needed them.
Sure, I made mistakes along the way and it's not perfect, but for me it was a major accomplishment and I'm sure it will bring me hours of enjoyment in time to come. All I have to do now is learn to paddle...
All the lumber I used to make the strongback was scrap that I picked up from renovation sites. No money spent here.
The strips are 1/4" thick and 5/8" wide with bead and cove edges. My boards ranged from 6' to 11', so I did a lot of scarfing for full length strips.
I decided to go stapleless and am really glad I did - despite it being more difficult. The longest strip was 15' and the last one was 18". The feature stripe is made from strips of dark western red cedar and a strip of yellow cedar.
the last strip... 
Thank goodness for orbital sanders. And scrapers. But there was still lots of elbow exercise here.
This is the part I dreaded most. Turned out quite ok - besides a couple of small blunders.
Ok, so I forgot to take pics fiberglassing the inside.
The frames are white ash and the cane is 3.5mm plastic cane. These turned out way better than I had hoped for.
I made the first pair entirely from left-over cedar strips. They look great but lack in strength - in fact one of them broke on our maiden voyage. My second pair I made from white ash and cedar. These are much stronger, a little narrower. and just as pretty.
Weighing in at 25 Kgs (55 lbs), it is quite manageable and carries nicely on my shoulders.
All I can say is "Awesome". Let the fishing begin...
