Talon Woodworks

The Shop

The work shop at Talon Woodworks is always filled with lots of activity....

Building a kayak ...
	Starting to build the Chesapeake 17. The newly cut pieces are stitched and held together with clamps as the glue sets.
	Interior view of the Chesapeake 17 before the deck and interior mounts were added. The bulkhead compartments and deck mounts are already in place at this point
	Laying out the fibreglass fabric.
	Washing off the kayak after a sanding session. This occurs several times during the process of building the boat.
	The inaugural water test. Note the rigging has not been attached yet. To see the finished product click here
Refurbishing a classic ...
	We purchased a well-used boat built originally by the Giesler Marine Company in Powassan Ontario. Hidden treasures can sometimes be found in the old classics ... and with a lot of hard work we know she can be a real beauty. The first step was removing the dried up and peeling fibreglass coating that had been applied at some point during it's lifetime.
	Sometimes working in the shop means taking some time to assess damage and to plan a course of action for achieving the best results.
	After the exterior of the boat was stripped down and given a preliminary sanding, we moved to the interior. A careful inspection told us the story of which pieces could be saved with a thorough cleaning and sanding and which were so damaged they needed to be replaced.
	After sanding and replacing the damaged ribs and strips on the interior the boat is once again carefully flipped over so that new brass nails can be replaced wherever they are missing. Even at this stage the boat appears to be slowly coming back to life ... More photos will be added as we continue to work on this old beauty.
Making something completely different...
	Sometimes a truly unique boat comes along and our "ice breaker" is just such a find. Once this boat was a fibreglass hulled two-man kayak / boat with a flat wood deck. We decided to remove the deck and to replace it with a curved wood strip one.
	Curved wood forms show what shape the deck will have in the future. Removal of the deck also allowed us to remove some of the excess fibreglass that was along the interior of the boat. It was unnecessary and was also adding a lot of extra weight to the craft. More photos will be added as the boat continues it's make-over at the Shop.