White oak?

[Chris Romberg]

Is it ok for solid stock to use 1/4 sawn white oak? I have a good supply and would like to use it if possible.

[Greg Luckett]

White Oak is excellent wood for boat building.

[Chris Romberg]

Thanks Greg, that is good to Know, The next boat I build will be a white oak lapstrake boat! (...Dreaming....) . Anyway , thanks for the info>

Chris

[Tom Williams]

White oak can be tricky to epoxy... it can resist bonding. Where I used it on my boat, I roughened the bonding surface with 60 -80 grit paper on my belt sander. I tried to sand across the grain to roughen the surface and create lots of crevices for mechanical bonds. I've had no debonds so far.

You might want to bond some test pieces to satisfy yourself you've got a good technique before diving into the boat. I bonded some scrap to plywood panels and broke them apart. I was happy when I had the plywood failing and not the epoxy joint.

Good luck

Tom

[Greg Luckett]

Thanks Greg' date=' that is good to Know, The next boat I build will be a white oak lapstrake boat! (...Dreaming....) . Anyway , thanks for the info>

Chris[/quote']

I wouldn't use white oak for the lapstrake boards myself. I prefer Merianti or Okume marine grade plywood for that. White Oak is better used for framing and details and especially keels and stems. For that matter, I like Sassafras best of all for general lumber use. Cherry is great too when I can find some. I suppose I would use the oak or other dimensional lumber for repairing an existing lapstake hull....?

[Chris Romberg]

Where can you find Sasafrass? I had no Idea it was ever used in boat building.

[PAR]

White oak is far to heavy for planking stock in small craft, even in 1/4" thicknesses. It's a wonderful wood, great for bending and structural members, but an oak hull would be very heavy.

In your neck of the woods Chris, white, black, soft pine or one of the good cedars should be available. Southern yellow and Douglas fur would be available too, but heavier then the other pines. It's hard to beat a white oak framed, cedar planked, lap hull for strength per pound and lightness.

White oak is difficult to epoxy. I've switched to live oak for this reason and because it's a better wood that's available around here. The laminations should be thin, no more then 3/8". The wood should be prepped with a very rough "toothing" and washed down with acetone just before the epoxy goes on, to remove the tannins. It still will have epoxy as an adhesive issues, but much lessened with the above steps.

If you're married to the use of white oak, think about another adhesive to eliminate the problems associated with epoxy and this wood.

You also don't have to clench or rivet the planking, you could use the "glued Lapstake" technique, which will produce a very strong, frameless hull that will likely never leak. This method relies heavily on epoxy in the laps, so you'll want a lumber (or plywood) that will not have issues with this adhesive. Most traditional lap hulls can be converted to glued lap, but the scantlings need to be adjusted by a designer, with experience in these two methods. I have several lap designs of both configurations, if you'd like to drop me an email.