Building Family Ties

Wood and wisdom create canoes and memories

Staff Photo Annette Beard Zeke Whitaker, 5, grins about helping his father and grandfather with the second strip canoe the men are building. Zeke and his father, Josh Whitaker, took the first one out on the White River last weekend but didn’t catch any fish.
Staff Photo Annette Beard Zeke Whitaker, 5, grins about helping his father and grandfather with the second strip canoe the men are building. Zeke and his father, Josh Whitaker, took the first one out on the White River last weekend but didn’t catch any fish.

Using strips of Western red cedar, cherry and walnut -- scrap lumber from building their houses and kitchen cabinets -- Rick and Josh Whitaker have spent hundreds of hours of father-son time together making two canoes they will use for more family time.

The patriarch of the family, Rick, 65, has been working with wood for more than 50 years. His son, Josh, 35, quipped: "I was drafted into indentured servitude when I was about 14."

The third generation, their son and grandson Zeke, 5, "piddles" with the wood now, moving throughout the wood shop with ease as well as caution, employing his plastic tools mimicking his elders' work. Occasionally he is called to task and delivers a pinch clamp or strip of wood when asked.

"He's a pretty good hand," his grandfather said, tousling the boy's hair.

Rick is a firefighter retired from the Bella Vista Fire Department. Josh is a paramedic/firefighter for Bella Vista. The families live in Pea Ridge.

The two men have worked together with wood for years, building furniture, building their homes, refinishing furniture and restoring furniture. Now, the elder Whitaker is retiring.

Using a book as a guide for this new project of building a strip canoe, the two men built a main beam and "stations" which lay perpendicular to the beam. The sides of the stations are taped, preventing them from sticking to the strip canoe built over the stations.

"Dad retired, and I had Christmas off last year," Josh said. "We decided it would be a good Christmas vacation project."

It took until mid-July to complete the first of the two canoes they built -- a 17-foot version.

"We were just piddling," Rick said.

"We worked on it nights and weekends," Josh said.

After building the frame, the strips of wood are cut from a raw plank of wood. The strips are 1/4 inch thick and 3/4 of an inch wide. Beads (a ridge) and coves (indent) are cut using a machine. And for each piece that isn't long enough for the entire length of the canoe, the end is cut at an angle -- scarf -- about three inches back from the end so the two ends can be glued together forming a strong bond.

Then, one by one, alternating sides, the strips are laid across the stations, building up one by one by one. Glue is placed in the cove, and the bead of the new strip is set in the glue, the men pulling the strip into place and then stapling it into the station. Each strip is a different length, and the ends are mitered.

"Lay one up, glue it into place. Glue the other side," Josh said, explaining that there were about 250 strips of wood.

"Every one has to be individually fitted because every angle and every length has to be fitted .... Have to do it all by hand," Rick said.

Pinch clamps hold scarf joints together until the glue dries.

The two usually would place about a dozen or so strips, then move on to another project and return to the canoe later.

Once all the strips are glued in place and the glue has dried, the staples are removed and the dried glue on the outside and inside is scraped off and the wood sanded. On the 19 1/2-foot canoe, there are two strips of walnut on each side.

After the wood is sanded, epoxy is rolled on and then allowed to dry. Then, a Fiberglas "blanket" is laid over the canoe and more epoxy resin is rolled or squeegeed on. "It makes that stuff turn transparent," Rick said.

Three layers are placed on the stems, two layers on the bottom and one layer on the inside. Then, the canoe is unscrewed from the stations and the "furniture" is built as are the decks, gunwales, thwarts, seats, cross braces.

"It's fragile without the Fiberglas. Once you put the Fiberglas on, they're strong boats," Rick said, explaining that wood absorbs water and will swell when wet and shrink when dry, but the epoxy and fiberglass prevent that.

"It's a rockered canoe," Josh said, explaining that different hulls designs meet different needs. "They're not all for the same purpose," he said. "Both of our boats are rockered -- banana shape. That allows you to pivot the boat back and forth in moving water easier than a straight keel boat, which is better on still water like a lake."

Each end of the boat is three inches lower than the center when upside down, and there is a one inch "tumble home," Josh pointed out. That affects the way the boat handles in moving water.

"If it's damaged, it can be repaired," Rick said, explaining that the damaged area can be cut out and replaced. He said that a plastic canoe cannot be repaired but must be thrown away.

"It's neat because you get to take a wooden boat and cover it with a modern finish. It's the best of both worlds. You get the warmth and aesthetics of wood and the durability of Fiberglas," Josh said.

"Building the hull is the easiest part, although its the most complex because of the angles and everything. The part that takes the longest is building all the furniture," he added.

The 17-foot canoe weighs 79 pounds, and the longer canoe weighs 95 pounds. Josh said the longer canoe is a "tripper" and is suitable for overnight canoe and camping trips.

The two men's work styles complement one another.

"Dad is much more utilitarian than I am," Josh said. "I'm probably more perfectionist than he is. Dad isn't concerned about the aesthetics, but that it works properly or efficiently. I tend to be a bit more detail oriented."

"I got in trouble," Rick said, eyes twinkling, as he pointed out a spot where he didn't match up the strips as well as Josh would have liked.

"I like everything to be very well crafted," Josh said, "but when it all boils down to it, if a boat doesn't float and handle like it should, it's just decoration.

"We've been talking about floating the Buffalo this fall, from one end to the other."

While the two men are talking, Zeke picks up an unfinished paddle and pretends to saw on it with his plastic tools.

"I'm experimenting with those," Rick said, pointing to the paddles. "We haven't found much information on making those."

"The thing that I really like the most about these wooden boats is that wood, especially a handcrafted wooden boat, even if you don't do it yourself, is such a personal item, instead of a generic boat you buy from a big box store ... There's a story behind it. There's no story behind those (store-bought) boats, no character. They're just cold, disposable items.

"Wood boats are very unique and, especially to us, since each one of our boats will have history of being a father, son, grandson project."

"I helped," Zeke said. "I helped Daddy and Grandpa."

NAN Life on 08/13/2014

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