Working With Chairs

"And now for something Completely Different"...A 70's joke 😏
I acquired some old kitchen chairs, and decided to try my hand at weaving rush seats. They were in need of refinishing, so I cleaned & painted them.
Of course, found a video on YouTube. 

I painted this one with glossy polyurethane paint. The weaving was much more confusing than expected-many back-up-and-do-overs, and redo's seemed to redouble my confusion. I had a problem keeping the laps square, so I ended up with a nasty space toward the middle.

Second chair. This one is painted with a more sensible Rustoleum spray paint. This time I got the whole thing covered. I learned how to unravel the material a little bit & make it wider to fill spaces, and finally got a feel for the weaving pattern.

Third chair. A little better. I got the strands in a little tighter on the edges and fewer noticeable gaps in the weave. I now realize that it takes more than three chairs practice to get the weave looking  neat. 😏

Redux of the first chair. I learn a few more details every time. This time I discovered that I can wet the material more than I previously thought, for "molding". I kept the tension on the strands  throughout the process.

Sawing

Interestingly, it seems that all of the wood for this build will be plain-sawed.

Sawing a cedar 2 x 4 in the driveway. The 14' board was too long & heavy to control on the table saw, so I tried this arrangement. This is the first time that I actually used that edge guide for the circular saw to good effect. 

Cheaters in Pawlonia

I ran the usual full-length strip out to the ends of the form. I got it all the way out to forms 2 and 16 before letting it run out. The 3/16" x 5/8"   pawlonia strips are more flexible than cedar.

On the stern, I only needed two cheaters to fill in the gap. It seemed easy to plane & sand the pawlonia. As far as matching the strips for scarf joints, etc. goes, it all seems to be about the same color, except for some brownish grain pattern.
The pine and pawlonia are almost the same color. I'm hoping that they will contrast  more after finishing and ageing.

Filling in between the sheer and waterline strips. I think that the waterline strip may be visible where the differently-grained pawlonia strips end at it. 
Pleasantly surprised that the pawlonia responds to heat bending even better than cedar. The only theory I can think of is that it contains less lignin than cedar, and "less lignin" is easier to heat up than "more lignin"? 

First Strips

I found some leftover pine and milled 3/16 x 3/8 strips.

I was surprised/pleased to see that the strips fell on the sheer & waterline strips almost perfectly fair, with very little need for adjustment. I also repeated last year's technique for aligning the keel strip.
My pawlonia wood also came in. Nice stuff! The boards are a full  1" thick, planed, not the usual "one inch" that's really 3/4". I looked at it a while to figure out how to work it. I decided to plain-saw the boards, then saw to 5/8". The grain pattern isn't really that strong from either side.
The boards I ordered are 8'. Its going to be Scarf Joint City. 😉

Setting Up

I assembled two sections of Box Beam, with an extra 1' space in between, to make a 17' beam. I almost forgot how heavy and cumbersome it is to set up, but I got it done. I sanded the top and gave it a coat of white paint to aid in marking.
These plans call for the use of an internal beam, but I decided to improvise a little and do it on a ladderback. I found the form with the greatest distance between the waterline and the bottom edge, and marked that distance on a ruler. 

I aligned that form directly to the top string, and every form that same distance from the waterline to the string. The rocker falls into place naturally. Interestingly, the forward half of this kayak has considerably more rocker than the aft.

I somehow found the finagling & leveling easier than it used to be. 5/8" MDF would have been easier to handle than 3/4", but I couldn't find any.

I found this easier also. After measuring the rocker, I eyeballed the "knife" edge to the string. The waterline mark is really short on this form, so I leveled by placing the level vertically on the "blade" part of the assembly, and the station form. As usual, I used a mini-bracket to support the weight and align the tip of the form to the string.