Cedar Strip fabrication Step 1

I managed to purchase most of the wood for the canoe this weekend and setup and mill the 4/4 western red cedar down to 3/4 inch thick with the planer.  After the third board I realized that most of the boards I purchased were greater than 12-1/2 inches thick.  Rather than pull out and setup the jointer to plane the edge I clamped the boards in my Skil utility table and pulled out my handy smoothing plane to cut the edges.  The old school tool use took some time but and the end of the day it was about the same as setting up the jointer.

This week I also ordered the caning supplies for the seats.  The challenge right now is remembering which of the boards I bought is ash and which ones are basswood.  I bought the basswood to use for highlight strips.  Once I remember the which boards are which I will mill them as well.  As you can see from the pictures milling 4/4 boards produces a ridiculous amount of waste in wood chips. Two 40 gallon trashcans full to be exact.  The bright side is that I am not short of wood chips to support a Scout activity making fire starter.