TexasKayakFisherman.com

Found an article about a boat builder in FL while reading an issue of Gun and Garden, thought you fellers might appreciate his work, so passing it on.

Here is his website:

http://www.cypresskayaks.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

From the name I was hoping to see that he uses cypress to build kayaks. Didn't appear to have that kind of information though. Cypress is generally heavier than WRC but it has possibilities. At the least for accents. I KNOW it works well for beehives.

His website is a little sparse when it comes to models and other info specifications. Nice looking wooden yak though.

Here is the article from Garden and Gun:

http://gardenandgun.com/article/water-born" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ok. In the article it does mention an "..all cypress" canoe. I'll have to give cypress a shot one of these days. Now if I can just find a good source of paulonia....

gerald wrote:From the name I was hoping to see that he uses cypress to build kayaks. Didn't appear to have that kind of information though. Cypress is generally heavier than WRC but it has possibilities. At the least for accents. I KNOW it works well for beehives.

over at the other site, there used to be a thread on a kayak made of sinker cypress (with photos). I looked but couldn't find it. I believe it was the Kurt from Baton Rouge that made it, but I'm not sure about that. (it was a very, very pretty boat).

Kurt Loup is a friend of mine, lives over at Baton Rouge, has used cypress in a few of his boats. Spanish cedar is another one he likes. The guy is a wizard of the home wood shop, amazes me to no end with his plane collection, antique power tool restorations, bamboo fly rods, etc., etc. He's also the guy who talked me into building first the Cormorant, then the Outer Island, then the Merlin. Too bad (for me) he's focusing more on family and not paddling so much lately, I was hoping he'd keep building boats so I wouldn't have to think about nuthin', and just build whatever he tells me to build -- LOL. Seriously, his advice fits me to a tee every time, it's really cool. But with a name like Kurt, it HAS to be good, right?

Mister Loup is one of the three people I call my mentors in boat building. The other two are Gerald, and John C., lately of the DFW area, now living in Fiji (!).

I used cypress for the first time on my canoe, made my inwales and outwales out of it. I was pleasantly surprised at how light it was and how smoothly it machined. It's very nice looking wood too, which certainly doesn't hurt on a canoe. I'll use it instead of ash for accents now, I think.

Gerald, can you give a brief "sales pitch" for why you're looking for paulonia? And who'd you make beehives for -- yourself or were ya jobbing?

Kurt Loup's web site ---> http://www.loup-garou.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers, the other boat building Kurt

I seem to remember being told that Cypress splinters a bit more than cedar. Am I remembering correctly, or should I go take a nap?

If it does splinter more, is it enough to worry about?

Well as a matter of fact . . . Cypress came to town as a direct result of my trying to find a good lightweight wood to use for my gun'ls, and it was the best of a bad bunch. As some on this board may be somewhat aware ( ), I'm a freak about keeping my boats as light as humanly possible while maintaining the structural integrity necessary to survive my usage. And that's where the trouble started (as usual ).

"Traditional" cedar strip canoes most often call for hardwoods to be used, to wit, ash for the gun'ls, though oak and mahogany are commonly seen as well. But they just plain weigh too much for my tastes, and I am a big believer in cedar as the boat builders' wonder wood. But getting a good long clear usable length of it was nigh unto impossible, and scarfing up a blank resulted in a big ol' scabbed-together-looking contrivance. Then the router tore it to shreds trying to machine in the sexy scuppered inwales I wanted. Kept splitting crossgrain at the ends of them. Next I tried pine, but it didn't like Mr. Router either, couldn't even get a decent round-over to start with without earth-shattering tear-out. Talk about splintering, oh man. After fighting a long losing battle I finally drove across the Houston mess-o-plex to Houston Hardwoods, and started handling boards with a weather eye. The first cypress board I hefted sang a song to me; it was lightweight, looked good, and just felt right to my finger bones. So I came home with a good 16-foot chunk of it, and was delighted to find it took the saw, and then the router, without complaint. The rest is history.

That's pretty limited experience, but that's all I got. I think the moral to the story may be that cedar machines well *with* the grain, witness the cove-and-bead thing, but perhaps not so well in cross-grain attempts. Cypress handled it much better, at least my chunk did.

ah, interesting. I think I can get tons of Cypress around here (at least I used to could).

And where would that be?


By the way, I think it's worth mentioning for the record that we builders use western red cedar so often not because "that's the way we've always done it", but because there are lots of good and valid reasons. To wit, it's cheap, readily available, machines and tools well, looks good, happily accepts glue and 'poxy, is plenty strong, is easy to sand, and is light weight. Not trying to dissuade anyone from using other species, just making the note.

Pogo wrote:And where would that be?


By the way, I think it's worth mentioning for the record that we builders use western red cedar so often not because "that's the way we've always done it", but because there are lots of good and valid reasons. To wit, it's cheap, readily available, machines and tools well, looks good, happily accepts glue and 'poxy, is plenty strong, is easy to sand, and is light weight. Not trying to dissuade anyone from using other species, just making the note.

They used to harvest it (a lot) on the river delta around here (Mobile, Alabama). I'll have to research and find out if it's old growth or sustainable, and if they're still doing it. Actually it wasn't so bad until they brought in the helicopters. Once they did that, what they left behind looked kind of like Fern Gully after the big machine.

Hmmm, I may have to go WRC, come to think of it (unless they have some way of replanting what they take out).