Best Wood for Chine Logs

[ancient kayaker]

Spruce is a great structural material, and it takes nails very well as anyone who has framed a house or repaired a fence would know. My local lumberyard will let me rummage for the good stuff as they are familiar with my deviant behaviour of building canoes, and there is another yard only an hour away that I've heard good thing about and has lots of air-dried stock. I will visit it come Spring. In the meantime I will make and break some test samples with spruce, poplar, and maybe oak and fir too, as I like the security of test data over book data.

I very rarely use fasteners so holding problems don't exist for me so long as the wood takes glue.

Thanks for the advise!

[peter radclyffe]

Originally Posted by alan white

Do you know of any historical use of hickory in boats? It would be interesting to see if it had ever been a practical boat wood. Often, availability is the mother of improvisation when it comes to boat woods.
In any case, epoxy encapsulated construction in a light trailered/carried craft is an entirely different matter. There is no historical precedent for epoxy construction, and much experimentation has yet to be done with different wood species.
You'll find that experienced boatbuilders are a conservative lot. They know what works and often let other people take chances. After a few years, if an idea has been successful, then and only then do they consider implimenting a new method, material, or design idea. Mostly because experimentation costs a lot of money.

although not structural i've heard it's good for fairing battens, which says a lot about it's uniformity over the years

[peter radclyffe]

Originally Posted by ancient kayaker

I build canoes using marine ply. To eliminate the need for epoxy and glass I use chine logs to reinforce the seams. My joints fit perfectly so don't try to sell me on the gap-filling properties of epoxy.

Here's the question: the chine logs are stressed only across the grain so a wood with good cross-grain strength is indicated. Which woods would be suitable? I have been using cedar, only because I can get it knot-free but it is not very strong. I understand poplar has good cross-grain strength but some people say it rots easily.

Is cross-grain strength the same thing as split-resistance?

spruce & ash if you seal them, but sealed or not teak is the best, the weight is not a problem,

[Rosamond]

Thanks for all the collective knowledge you guys had in this old post regarding Hickory etc.
I am also thinking of using hickory, for the gunwales of a traditional aleutian skin on frame sea kayak. What made me think of using that wood is simply this: or several hundred years, Hickory was the wood of choice for Nordic skis. A similar situation to a kayak, where springiness is highly desireable, and the wood is put in a wet environment for a day, then dried out again, over and over for years.
I suspect I'll maybe have to treat this hickory with something and also coat it in epoxy...the bases of hickory skis were traditionally impregnated with pine tar....
But the memory of the springiness of hickory in my old cross country skis gives me hope that such an experiment might turn out well. If not, I can always replace them. Wish me luck. I'll let you know.

[shorejob]

Hi guy's, new member here...I felt that I should chine in on this subject lol. The traditional wood used for chines, come's from the ELM tree.

[ancient kayaker]

Elm has great resistance to rot when permanently wet. It was formerly used for pier pilings below low water level and for buried water pipes.

It's also fine when kept dry, but it rots when exposed to both air and water. It has a complicated interlocking grain and the built-in stresses are likely to cause cracking and twisting in small pieces but it is ok in very large logs.

I can't see it is a good candidate for chine logs especially in a boat that is dried out, but it maybe OK under the waterline if you are re-creating a large sailing ship with heavy timbers and continuously wet bilges. That is probably the traditional use you were referring to.

[PAR]

You beat me to it Terry . . .