12) Closing "the Football"

Stripping the rest of the bottom, or "closing the football" was more time consuming than laying regular strips. Each strip had to be dry fit, cut, and dry fit again before gluing. I cut each strip with the chisel, the cuts were actually a compound miter. Admittedly, I messed up a few strips but I just tried to get as close as possible.



In order to fit last few strips, I made a template of the bend in the bottom on a scrap piece of wood (my trusty old infeed table). to make this template I measured the distance from the centerline to the last strip I placed (on the canoe) over each station mold. Next, I transferred these measurements to my piece of scrap wood and hammered nails into the scrap at the end of each measurement. Finally, I laid down some plastic wrap and bent the remaining strips around the nails. I am not sure if this description makes sense, hopefully you will get the idea from the pic. After this piece dried, I cut the cenerline and stapled the whole thing on the bottom of the canoe.

The final staple! I estimate that I put around 2300 staples in the hull (only one into my hand!). I think it is safe to say that I don't want to use that staple gun again for quite some time.