Canoe Project - 7

And the stripping continues, as everything takes shape I can see the beautiful curves of the emerge as the strips of creamy basswood begin to skin the backbone of the canoe.  At this stage a picture says a thousand words.

The beginning

The skeleton

Two strips

Accent Strips Added

Six more strips added - notice it's dark now

Yup, I've officially lost count.

Now that looks like a canoe!

More stripping to be done, I'll update you all soon.

Canoe Project - 6

I can sit back and imagine the water at last.  Well, actually I hope I don't experience the water in this way.  The molds are completely cut out and mounted to the strong back; curves are fared and the stems laid out.  The upside down shape of the canoe is now revealed.  With this step completed, I can finally start to imagine its final shape.

The Upside Down Canoe - NOT the desired position for actual use

And the Stripping Begins

Canoe Project - 5

Date Night!

Saturday Night in the Shop

Not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined Amelia would have gone for it, but hey it was worth a try.  So I took the leap and suggested that we go on a date to my shop and work on the boats.  Wonders of all wonders, she agreed!  Well, maybe we have a new definition of Saturday night dates in the Stehouwer household, either that or she is scared of becoming a "boat widow".  All kidding aside, with temperatures in the upper 90's and no air conditioning, my shop quickly reaches 110 degrees every day, so evening work sessions have become critical in my quest to stay ahead of my students on our boat building projects.  So Saturday night was spent with a hand plane and chisel, shaping the inner stems in preparation for stripping.

Steam-Bent Walnut Stems - Glued and awaiting shaping

Inner Stem - Shaped and Ready

Canoe Project - 4

The canoe seats.  Yes, I know it's a little early, but I figure with four seats to be made, finished and caned, I better get started.  So it was time to cut up the beautiful piece of black walnut sitting on the shop floor.  After cutting, planing, sanding, and finishing, they are now ready for caning.

Finished Seat Frames

Up, down, up, down ... Left, right, left, right ... Up, down, up, down, ... and now that's enough for tonight. Based on the first evening of work, I am glad I started early. Maybe by Christmas, I will have four seats ready to install. But they sure look beautiful.

Caning Started

Canoe Project - 3

Well even the most patient people sometimes can't wait.  After two weeks of waiting for the computer-generated, full-size plans to arrive, I couldn't wait any longer. So, now for my first stab at lofting.  After reading Canoe Craft and multiple Internet searches, I reached the naive conclusion that this couldn't be that difficult.  "I'll be done in a couple of hours, dear."  The words still ringing in my ears after an entire weekend spent at the kitchen table (Sorry, Amelia!), I had my very own set of full-size plans.  Finally I could start building the molds. On that exciting note, I left for school Monday morning hoping to spend the evening building the molds.  Well, after the almost forgotten staff meeting, 110 degree day and unfinished work, I left exhausted without cutting a single mold.  And guess what was awaiting my arrival home . . . the long-awaited plans.  Well, I guess it was a good exercise in boat building skills, and I have a cool set of line drawings.

The Prospector 16 - Table of Offsets

2" Full Scale Grid Drawn - Now time to start plotting points!

The Completed Drawings

Canoe Project - 2

From This ...

To This ...

120 board feet of select grade, southern grown sassafras and basswood. You should smell the shop after milling all of the sassafras.  4 passes through the planar: now two smooth surfaces and a perfect 3/4".  After innumerable passes through the table saw, we now have a pile of rough cut strips.  2 more passes through the planar, and now we have approximately 175 perfect 3/4" x 9/32" milled strips and 125 gallons of sawdust and wood chips.  Now awaiting the arrival of a new router table and then another two passes through the router, and I will have enough strips for two canoes: mine and a second one built by my students as a class project. Now I understand why they charge so much for the pre-made strips.  But it was all worth it . . . I love the smell of sawdust, just not sure if I like this much of it.

1950s Wagemaker Wolverine - Boat Restoration 1

Well some might think I am crazy, but here it goes again: another project.  This one is for all of my Michigan family - and my former boss Everett Marshall, who owns the boat and was kind enough to let my students work on it as a class project.  We are now embarking on the restoration of a very cool mahogany outboard runabout, an early 1950's Wagemaker Wolverine manufactured in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Isn't she a beauty?  Okay, I completely see her potential.

This Wolverine model is a cold-molded mahogany hull, constructed using technology developed during World War II to produce strong lightweight nose cones for airplanes.  The hull is solid with only a few small soft spots near the transom.  The front decking, front cockpit area and seats are in desperate need of some TLC.  While the initial survey seems positive, there is no doubt that there will be many surprises.  I floated the boat today with no major issues or leaks, so we can be reasonably sure that the hull is stable and in need of only minor repairs and a good refinishing.  Enjoy the pictures, and I will keep the updates coming as the project progresses.

Canoe Project - 1

The Prospector 16, courtesy of Bear Mountain Boats:

I have been dreaming of building wooden boats for years.  Finally, I am going to actually build one!  I figured I would start small, so I chose a 16' wooden strip canoe and obtained the plans from Bear Mountain Boats. My personal boat will be built out of basswood with black walnut accents and trim pieces. As a way to bring new and exciting projects into my classroom, I will also be having my introductory students build a second boat right alongside of mine.  Their boat will be built from sassafras with black walnut accents.  So now the adventure begins as I try to stay one step ahead of my class.

First three hours of work: Building the strongback, basically a platform to hold all of the molds.  Three hours down, countless more to go.  Two sheets of plywood and many board feet of lumber to cut and install.

Strongback Completed - Ready for the forms

                The Material - All cut and ready to go

Bookcase for Madelyn Grace

It's the furniture that makes a room, isn't it?  This beautiful piece was created for the soon-to-arrive Madelyn Grace Tarvin.  Scott (Daddy) and I have been working hard to complete it before her arrival.  Amanda (Mommy) gave Scott a picture of what she wanted, and I got a call to figure it out.  So, I designed this bookcase from a photo, and Scott and I got to work.  The temperature in my home shop (i.e. garage that I don't let Amelia park in) was over 100 degrees . . . This little girl is already very loved!

Vermont Vacation - Summer 2010

Now if I am not mistaken it is supposed to be cool and breezy all summer in the Mountains of Vermont.  So with that in mind, I never gave it a second thought when Dad asked me if I wanted to come home for a couple of weeks and do some work on his house. In particular, re roof the original house. Oh sure was my answer.  As far as I was concerned it was going to be a great chance to escape the southern heat, do some work for my Dad (back where it all started) and enjoy a couple of weeks in the Mountains.  As we headed out for our adventure we enjoyed a couple of days in NYC, with great tour guides.  Thanks Sarah, Luke, and Dana.  Then on to VT for the 4th.  Apparently mother nature didn't get the message.  On the 4th of July it was actually hotter in VT than it was in AL.  And I had a roof to strip and re shingle, but onward we pressed without looking back.  I think I averaged 2 gallons of water a day.

As we were working and talking, it dawned on me that Dad was 2 years younger than I am right now when he installed the original roof.  Wow, how things come full circle!  Who knows who will be installing the next roof.  Now that is some food for thought.  And yes I was cooking up there on that roof.

In addition to the roof a new stove and range hood was installed in the kitchen.  Finally Mom has more than one burner and three ovens to replace the one convection microwave.  I guess cooking for five kids took it's toll on the original appliances. Now she has some beautiful new and modern ones.

While all of this was going on Ann, Sarah, Aunt Thelma, Dad and I tackled refurbishing the deck.  I seem to recall Dad remarking that the deck was just a little dirty and all we had to do was give it wash and some new stain. So...  It started with a garden hose with some sort of attachment that immediately became an uncontrollable whirling stream of water, suitable only for little kids, which promptly soaked the girls as they tried to contain it.  After this brief moment of entertainment out cam the wire brushes, bleach and sprayers.  These barely touched the grime, so no for the real toys.  The pressure washer, promptly commandeered by aunt Thelma, finally did the trick.  However, this quickly revealed that what we assumed was dirty stain was in reality mildew on bare wood, so off we went on a complete refinish.

DAD - Promoted to Supervisor

The Little Red School House

I am quietly sitting at home watching TV when Amelia comes in from a Habitat for Humanity board meeting and, in her usual energetic manner, informs me that "we" are donating a playhouse for the upcoming silent auction.  So as you can image, "we" means, I volunteered you.  So off we go again.  Using the popular kids crooked houses as an inspiration the Little Red School House was created, and it was a resounding success at the auction.

CUSTOM ORDERS AVAILABLE!

Our Dogs' Home

After purchasing our first home I embarked on the task of convincing Amelia that it needed a new coat of paint.  Yes I actually volunteered to paint the entire house. Well once convinced, we now had to decide on the colors.  As Amelia frequently says; "I am a visual person, I need to see it."  While I am willing to paint the house, I don't want to paint it three times trying to find the right color combiniation so I now present my solution to the problem:

Build a model of the house and test the colors.  So the dog house is born.

Welcome to Benchmark Woodworks!

Well here it goes; I am going to enter the new and ambiguous world of blogging. As a novice blogger I suffer from a self-deprecating spirit that tells me, why would anyone care about what I am doing? All reservations aside, I am going to try to enjoy sharing many of my past and current woodworking projects with you.


Dad, I must credit you with starting all of this. As long as I can remember, and according to many of the pictures around the house, even longer, carpentry, woodworking, and construction has been a way of life for me. I guess you can say it is in my blood. Starting with that very first “tree house”, built by dad, building anything and everything has become an ever growing passion of mine. On a resent trip home to the glorious green mountains of Vermont, returning to the site of many “tree house” adventures nearly twenty years later brought back all of those great memories.

As our ever growing family outgrew the small house originally built by my father’s own hands we embarked on my very first true construction project, doubling the size of our house. My own bedroom at last! I can vividly remember the excitement of that prospect. Not that I didn’t love my two younger brothers dearly, but I was a teenage boy! Now back to my real topic (sorry about the rabbit trails). This was my introduction to the world of residential carpentry, and I fell head over heals in love with all of it. As I graduated from high school and contemplated the next phase of my life, I couldn’t shake the desire to create things. This desire guided me in my decision to move all the way south to Auburn University to pursue a degree in Engineering. Long story cut short, I ended up with a degree in Mathematics and married to the love of my life, Amelia.

At the ripe old age of 21, while I was still in college and married, Amelia and I found ourselves working for Lee County Habitat for Humanity as office manager, volunteer coordinator and construction manager. Officially kicking off my career in construction, thirteen houses later and a new college graduate, I worked for a couple of companies managing residential, commercial, retail and light industrial projects until I decided to follow the family calling. I am now starting my fourth year as a high school teacher.

I get to combine my passion for true craftsmanship and a love for educating today’s youth as a building construction teacher at the Chambers Country Career Technical Center in Lafayette, AL. Here I am given the privilege of passing on all of the skills and information given to me over the years of working with Dad and later developing my own skills through all of the many projects I seem to inherit.

Now that you have suffered through all of my ramblings I am honored to share my projects with you. I hope you enjoy them, and I look forward to all of your comments and critiques.