Posted by mitchell on November 15, 2002 at 07:06:16:
In Reply to: What wood to use? posted by Jon Sellhausen on October 23, 2002 at 16:20:22:
Are you building Hornet?
There are lots of plans to choose from so choose wisely.
1st, get a book on boat building woods or a book that discusses suitable boat lumbers.
As far as lumber, old plans call for oak frames because they hold fastenrs well (back in the day before the invention of good adhesives) but oak does not Glue well. Fir is a good framing lumber too.
Cherry is dense and does not work easily and would not be the best choice for planking material. Cedar was specified because of weight. You may want to consider building this thing cold molded instead of traditionally planked. Whether you you plank or cold mold, I would use mahogany for outersurfaces. It is pretty, of reasonable light weight, stable, and tools easily.
I just built a 23 foot mahogany runabout triple cockpit cold molded using mahogany outsides on fir frames and spruce stringers.
Feel free to correspond if you like. I also have other traditional Hacker Plans for runabouts, and racing hydroplanes and leads on lots more.
Regards, Mitchell in CT