Blue Spruce?

[Steve]

Guys,

Been talking it over with Matt, and he's working out some lines for a strip canoe with wood/canvas style ribbing for me. In the meantime, I've been scouting out the wood for it. Had been wanting to go strictly cedar, white and red, but the white cedar is pretty danged hard to locate here for some reason or another, so a question. . .

I've located a supply of blue spruce with a beautiful, tight, straight grain and a beautiful white, white color to it. Whaddaya think? Too heavy?. . I'm figuring I could use it for the ribs, maybe? I know with a hot bath, or a good steaming, it'll make the bends I'll need it to make. . . that wouldn't be a problem. . . But what about resilience and weight factors. . .

I know Matt's right about white cedar being easier to bend but it's just so hard to find any here. . . Western red is way plentiful. . . just not the Norther or Eastern white. . .

Even toyed with the thought of a spruce hull,using what I've found, with the red cedar as accenting. . . but, it's not a serious consideration. . . at least not at this stage. . . The spruce I found is really straight grained and is about the whitest wood I have seen in a long time, except for some guitar tops I've seen. . . Really beautiful stuff. . .

Whaddaya guys think? A possibility for the ribs? And, would it work in strip use, y'think?

A white canoe? Hmmmm... Would be different.

 

[Wannabe]

Steve,
We all know that spruce makes some danged good plywood. You might look into how brittle or how fexable it would be ripped into 1/4" strips, flatsawn and quartersawn. Dont want any nasty surprises.
Bob

 

[oldsparkey]

If you use Spruce it would let you give the canoe a famous name ..... " The Spruce Goose "

Which leads me to thinking that Spruce has to be a strong wood but light or Mr.Hughes would of never used it to make a rather large airplane where ever ounce counts.

Chuck.

 

[Steve]

But would it be an Albatross like that particular woodie? :lol:

 

[Kayak Jack]

The Spruce Goose floated a helluva lot further than it ever flew. It was so underpowered it's a wonder it even taxied. It was likely the biggest engineering error Hughes ever made.

 

[bearridge]

He likely didnt have hiz mind on hiz work. Miz Monroe.......ya know. [evil grin]

 

[Kayak Jack]

Not Monroe, Carol Lombard, ehh?

 

[bearridge]

Hughes give Norma Jean her first screen test. He wuz head of RKO pichurs at the time. Now, I dont recall when the goose wuz cookin'....so it mite a been anuther head turner.

 

[oldsparkey]

Steve ... Please forgive me for saying anything about the Spruce Goose , I should of know these nuts would go way off track with it. :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Kayak Jack]

OK, instead of talking about spruce - the original train of thought - we'll talk about poop. That oughta be OK.

 

[Jimmy W]

The Wright brothers also used spruce for their planes and it is still used in a lot of home built experimental aircraft designs.

 

[Steve]

Steve ... Please forgive me for saying anything about the Spruce Goose , I should of know these nuts would go way off track with it. :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Heck, Chuck, ain't that the norm around here. . . no place is safe when a door is left open or a foot is inserted into mouth with these guys (myself, included). . . you know that. . .you've lived with them a lot longer than I have. . . :lol: :lol: :lol:

Oh, and, Jack. . . Ol' Howard actually had his eyes on a couple of someone elses. . . ( :roll: if you care to believe some of the stuff they write these days :roll: ). . .some chaps named Cary Grant and Erroll Flynn. . . along with Jane Russell and a few of hte beauties of that era. . .