Pegging Gunwales

With the inwale asssembly all set up, the time had come for carving out the outwales - a much easier job than shaping the inwales from before. I had saved some appropriately split Red Cedar stock and quickly worked them with the block plane to form the 3/8" x 1" outwales. After soaking in the lake overnight, they were wetted some more with boiling water and clamped into position following the mild sheer of the inwales.


Soaked outwales; Clamped up
With a 1/4" drill bit, holes were bored every 2nd lashing spot. Left-over square dowels from the miniature canoe build were sharped to a point and pounded into the holes with my birch mallet. Square dowels pinch tightly in a round hole and held the gunwales


Drilling the peg hole; Square dowel peg


Pounding home with the mallet; Pegs all in

Soon it'll be time for the dreaded lashing phase where the gunwales will need to be stitched with spruce root at 2 inch intervals.