Time for some more traditional fare. Boat building with epoxy.

How how the years have gone by. My past good friend, David Hopkins, who I worked with in Sausalito and went to school with at SF State, used to preach about the magic of epoxy. I didn't listen much as I was too busy talking, but I see the light now that I am considering building a Feather canoe. I picked up this mold from a person who was clearing out a garage. The mold is small and it looks well made. The only boats I've built from scratch before were from on a mold, so I think I can pull this off. Also, years ago, before there was a real internet, I researched and purchased some thin veneers of Canadian Maple and I still have some. Originally I purchased the wood for making a bullet proof, unbreakable, skateboard. Dave added the ingenious touch of using kevlar and we attempted to sell it at the ASR, Action Sports Retailers, tradeshow, but the cost were too high. I still have some of the wood and am looking forward to trying to mold these veneers in a criss cross fasion to make a composite structure that may or may not resemble the intended Feather canoe. Epoxy comes into the picture as the bonding material to bring this project to life. I visited West Marine today to look at their specialty Boat building epoxies. I think they may have the right stuff because my current epoxy mix seems to get soft and flexible when exposed to sunlight. Hopefully some specialty epoxy will be stiffer and less flexible. I wouldn't want a sagging boat. Ideally the wood, once laid out, will hold it's shape and provide much of the strength to keep this canoe together. Of course there will need to be some structure to keep the veneer skin together, but I really want to minimize that.