The Emerald Mile, book review.

Hey all,
I read a lot of books about rivers, river running, river history, well river everything. So i have decided to start putting book reviews into the blog. There are a bunch of books that i want to try and get back to, i have a huge backlog of great books that every river rat should be familiar with. Because Lea and i are getting ready for another move the work in the shopreage is slowing down as we pack up. I am however reading more and more during this time so ill try to belt out a dozen or so reviews to keep some content going. (Not to mention to keep me involved in something non stressful.)

Lets start out with The Emerald Mile a book by Kevin Fedarko.  This book stands out among river narratives for its twin story lines and historic significance. Any Grand Canyon aficionado will know instantly about the Emerald Mile and the historic speed record she and her crew set in 1983. What many including me where only mildly aware of was the drama unfolding at the dam upstream that opened the door for such a run.
Fedarko takes these two threads splashes them with just enough back story and allows voices and memories of the past to combine in one fantastic book. Unlike the vast majority of river lore out there The Emerald Mile is a book anyone with a literary eye for adventure will love, Enjoy!

How to fix a dinged chine.

If your paddling a wooden boat in whitewater your going to damage a chine. Especially if your boat is of the experimental type that does not have chine guards. (Ill be putting those on in a few weeks. What? I wanted to see how the performance would be without them.) Anyhoo i crushed in a five inch section of my chine while i was asleep at the wheel drinking hot tea. 

You can see in the above photo its nicely bashed in. So here is how you fix this little problem. First using a scraper (not sand paper!) Scrape back the paint and whatever bottom coating you have applied to expose the clear fiberglass layer. This will give you the chance to assess the real damage.

Here we have it three inches of captain crunch. You have two options your first is to paint on un-thickened epoxy allowing it to sink into the broken part of the glass. The other option is to cut away the broken glass and replace it. If your going to do this get a sharp utility knife and score around the whole broken assed area. After you've cut through it get a sharp chisel and pry out the bad glass.

Once you've exposed the plywood you need to take the scraper and create a scarf joint all around the cut out glass, i prefer the scraper once again. The scarf needs to be about a half inch deep all the way around.

Finally i like to clean the whole area with alcohol, denatured if you've got it but this i'll do. OK the next step lacks pictures because its hard to take photos when working with epoxy. First cut out the number of layers that you want to replace, for me it was four.  First paint un-thickened over the exposed plywood and stick on the first layer. Next wet out the cloth, you don't need to wet out the cloth past the scarf. You can leave the edges of the patch raw.

(These photos are after the fact.) Once you have all the layers in place and wet out you can use a vacuum bag if you have one, i don't. Or you can use freezer paper. Cut the paper into strips so that it will contour to the bend. Tape them at one end first then pull them tight. Cover the whole patch with the strips.

Next tightly cover the whole thing with painters tape and let cure.

When you remove the whole thing it will not look like this. the main part of the patch (over the wood and scarf) should have bonded nicely. Now the excess just needs to be trimmed off. I used a x-acto knife and a really sharp chisel. After the edges are trimmed lightly sand the area, then it will look like the above picture.

Finally coat the exterior with whatever coating you had before. and Ta Da!

Now the chine is all set to be crushed in again, super.

Edensaw Woods

The year was 1984, gas was a meager dollar ten a gallon and Louisiana was hosting a Worlds Fair, (yeah I didn't remember that either).

Steve Jobs was busy releasing the first Apple Macintosh, a clunky looking cream colored box that was destined to change the way our world operates.

The Ghostbusters made their big screed debut, and President Reagan couldn't help but salute.

While all of this was going on Jim "Kiwi" Ferris and Charlie Moore were starting Edensaw Woods in Jim's Driveway with a bunch of blue tarps and a used truck.

(Charlie left and Kiwi right.)

From these beginnings Kiwi and Charlie never stopped growing. Soon the Tarps were replaced by a warehouse and the used J.C. Penny truck was replaced with a big rig and staff driver. Soon enough Edensaw Woods added a warehouse in Tacoma to hold among other things a huge selection of veneers.

So what does it all matter? Why am I talking about them on my blog? It's a simple matter of: if it's wood you need, it's wood they have. For example lets say you want a 14"x 20" Purpleheart timber, and want it legally harvested under the Forest Management Guidelines supplied by the Guyana Forestry Commission?? Yeah they have that.

I hooked up with Kiwi a few days ago to take a look around and get a better sense of where I've been getting all the wood for my projects.

We started in the warehouse. It's huge, really huge. Piles and piles of domestic and exotic wood neatly sawed and stickered awaiting  a second life in boats, buildings, furniture, instruments, and cabinets.

It is impressive. In fact it's really hard to take in. There is wood in here from all over the world. They even stock flitches with rough edges.

As we wandered through the rows and rows of wood we came to their selection of panel products. Once again this place isn't your usual local lumber yard. Shelves are stacked high with choices well beyond the usual. Not only do they have marine grade in a variety of thicknesses, they have several different types of marine grade panels. 

From there we headed to the mill room to have a look at some of their equipment. They can mill up just about anything custom in house, flooring to handrails.

They have a Extrema double sided planer, very chic. 

Also in the arsenal is a laser guided rip saw for putting a clean strait edge on their products, their original planer and re-saw band saw as well as a bad ass thickness sander.

Next stop on the tour the big on-site mill. This guy is used to re-saw much of the local timber they process for sale.

Finally, we ended up in the showroom. Here you can find a decent representation of what's in the warehouse just cleaned up. Also in the showroom are smaller cuts of wood for craft projects and wood turning.

Not only do they stock this ridiculous amount of wood they have the North West's largest selection of wood veneers, and they ship all over the world.

As if all this wasn't enough here is why I really love this place. They support some amazing projects around the community like...

The Schooner Adventuress,

The Community Boat Project,

and the Edensaw Community Cancer Foundation. The foundation was established in 2006 founded by the employers and employees of Edensaw Woods, LTD. Their goal is to raise funds locally to help individuals and their families in East Jefferson County who are affected by the diagnosis of cancer. Nearly all of Edensaw's employees donate to the ECCF. Edensaw Woods picks up all overhead costs, which allows 100% of their fundraising to go towards their cause.

As i said before if its wood your looking for you can find it at Edensaw Woods. Check them out on the Web, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or if your in the area,
211 Seton Rd 
Port Townsend Wa, 98368.
(360) 385-7878

Cheers
Stuber