Wood and Canvas Kayak Building [Paperback]

George Putz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1990

The design of the kayak comes from the Eskimos of Southwestern Greenland, with dimension-sawn wood substituted for a frame of carved driftwood and bones, and canvas substituted for animal skins. The building techniques are simple but elegant, incorporating modern adhesives to reduce the number of screw fastenings and the degree of precision required, while still creating a strong, light boat. Ordinary shop tools and locally available woods will suffice. The two kayaks shown under construction in this book's many photos and drawings--a 17-footer and an 18-footer--were built from the same lines and offsets (included in the book). Putz shows how to scale the boat up or down to any size using a pocket calculator. He also shows how to cover the boat with fiberglass rather than canvas if desired.

Editorial Reviews

Review

``Few writers are as candid or encouraging.'' (Sea Kayaker )

From the Back Cover

Open-water kayaking is addictive. Most people who try it decide they simply must have their own kayak--until they check the price of factory-built models. And then they notice that most of them look, well, plastic. Now there's a remedy to this twin dilemma of overpriced, unaesthetic kayaks: Wood and Canvas Kayak Building offers all the information and plans you need to build two open-water kayaks--simply, easily, and economically.

Author, Curmudgeon, and sometime Walrus George Putz guides even the most inexperienced woodworker through the whole process of building a 17- or 18 1/2-foot sea kayak evolved from an Inuit design, with plans developed especially for this book by naval architect and canoe and kayak builder Spencer Lincoln.

What you end up with is a light, strong, elegant boat built from no more than $250 worth of readily available materials that will absolutely shame those neon-hued store-bought versions that cost more than a monthly mortgage payment.

"If you've been waiting for a book to guide you in building a kayak, here it is."--The Ensign

"Readers can almost smell the varnish and wood shavings."--Booklist

"Putz takes an unusually holistic approach to the process of building that is both entertaining and wide ranging."--Sea Kayaker

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 1 edition (June 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071559396
• ISBN-13: 978-0071559393
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,476,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for what it is, July 31, 2004

By 

Ryan McNabb (Ooltewah, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wood and Canvas Kayak Building (Paperback)

This is not traditional kayak building. It is modern, "Popular Mechanics" style kayak building, which means the boat will be fine for what it is, but overbuilt, too heavy, and basically nothing like the sleek racy craft that it could be. The design and construction is suited for the amateur builder who wants as little of a woodworking challenge as possible, which makes it perfect for a project to build with kids. A parent and child could have great fun building a boat such as this. So, keeping that in mind, it's just fine. For real kayak building in the traditional manner see Cunningham's "Building the West Greenland Kayak", or Morris's "Building Skin on Frame Boats".

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, June 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Wood and Canvas Kayak Building (Paperback)

This is a very detailed book for those of us that intend to build kayaks without a lot of fancy tools. I'm now nearly finished building a kayak based on the instructions in this book, and I haven't yet found any instruction that was amiss or that caused problems in the construction.

The book (1991) describes how to build either a 17ft. or 18ft. wood-frame canvas kayak. It contains nicely drawn plans of a classic design from 1923.

There's a lot of work involved, but none of the steps are overly complicated or require significant woodworking expertise. Other than basic hand tools, the only tools I've had to buy were a jig-saw, a hand-held power saw, and a drawknife. Material costs today would range about $400 - far short of the $1,300 for a plastic sea kayak of the same length.

This book is very well written, and has a touch of humor. I especially appreciate the attention to traditional boat-building techniques. Photos help you in the process. In all a very readable book...Thanks George!

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What fool would build a canvas kayak?, January 25, 2001

By 

"zabrisk" (Moscow, ID United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wood and Canvas Kayak Building (Paperback)

When I first saw this book I thought: "What fool would build a canvas kayak?" I picked it up anyway, along with a half dozen other books on kayaks from the local public library. I eventually chose to build the 18 1/2 foot canvas kayak in this book for three reasons: 1) The lines of this boat are much more pleasing than any of the plywood kayaks I was considering, 2) the author's attitude toward materials matched my own -- build it from cheap stuff and rebuild it in 5 years after it rots -- no okume plywood necessary, and 3) No need for a lot of fiberglass and the mess/smell that involves. Just wood, canvas and oil-based paint.

I've had the kayak for 8 years now and it has not needed a rebuild because I keep it hanging from the ceiling in the garage. I've paddled it around lakes in Washington and Idaho. It's a beautiful boat, but quite heavy. It's hard for me (6' 200# male) to pull it off the top of the truck and launch it by myself, but I can do it in a pinch.

That said, the whole process was a great learning experience and got me started boating in the most peaceful and pleasant way. I've since built two other boats and am currently working on another. I've learned to build them lighter now, using different materials, but I still use the basic lines of the kayaks in this book.

This book was a great place to start, and I still read it often.