Hey /diy/, I'm thinking about building a wooden canoe this

>>1062271
The old ways were notching and overlapping wood so tight that it was waterproof, or stuffing cordage in the gaps, and then coat the bottom of the boat with pitch/tar. Even with these methods, people needed to bail water out of boats fairly often.

Wrapping a canoe body in skins or canvas and putting polyeurethane or lead paint on them also worked. Most of the "not medieval but still effective" methods are toxic as fuck and usually prohibited.

http://www.angelfire.com/ego/lewisboatworks/html/Tipstricks1_a.htm This site is ghetto as fuck but has pretty good budget advice on self made boats.

If you aren't making the boat from Water World, why even try?

>>1062271
>It seems that most people use some sort of epoxy or coat it in fiberglass but that's pretty cost-prohibitive.
Not really.
The decent wood you would use (if you were reasonable) would cost a lot more....

>Anyone know of any alternatives or more traditional methods?
The traditional way is you coat it inside and out with a couple coats of varnish, and then you don't leave it in the water when you're not using it. If you are not in it paddling around, it must be kept DRY.

You also have to be careful about handling it tho, because the varnish coat can get scratched through or punctured pretty easily by dragging it around on the ricks or by hitting underwater stuff.... Which was why people went to using thicker & harder coatings like epoxy.

Also We Note: normally when you bother to build a boat out of pretty wood, you use some kind of clear coating to show off the pretty wood that you used.

>>1062271
Of you do a stitch and glue boat, and aren't overly concerned about longevity, you can just cover it with cheap epoxy paint, polyurethane, vinylester resin (that's the cheap "fiberglass" resin they sell at the hinge store), or even just exterior latex enamel. Depending on the design and care, a plywood boat with just latex paint could last for years. Or just for the weekend.

If I was just testing the design ideas, I'd probably do plywood, liquid nails (long curing time, but good), and a few coats of polyurethane. If I wanted it to last for a few years, but still be cheap: you can get cheap fiberglass cloth on eBay, use cheap resin from the home store, and top it with a UV blocking polyester or even house paint. You can also get fiberglass tape (not drywall tape, but i sometimes wonder if it would almost work....), and just fiberglass the seams. You still sheath the whole thing in resin, so it's not like that saves you a ton.

That said, building even a cheap plywood dinghy is a lot of work. You'll be pouring whole weekends from May to September building it. Your time if worth something. Fiberglass and resin aren't that expensive.

File: IMG_1275.jpg (217KB, 750x1334px) Image search: [Google]

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OP here, I've actually already built stitch and glue boat (pic related), which turned out great but now im looking to upgrade to something alittle more durable.

Its going to be a cedar strip style canoe (made of poplar) with a rear transom to mount a trolling motor. Its mainly going to be used in a creek so the finish has to be durable. I will probably end up putting some sort of stainless runners on the bottom. I just hate fiberglass its such a pain in the ass. Too bad its good for just about everything

>>1062425
The bottom of a pretty stripper canoe will get torn up real quick in shallows without fiberglass. Sorry :/ is the only way. Besides it will be beautiful, even through the fiberglass.

>>1062482

You could always put a layer of two of rhino liner on the bottom.

>>1062290
You mean LAPSTRAKE and CORKUM? maybe you should fucking actually know about what you're talking about you stupid fucking cunt.