Router Bits Used for Making a Wooden Canoe

When building a wooden canoe, you use routers and router bits to shape trim, put bead-and-cove edging on planking and cut the grove for caning the seats. Although optional, because you can use a block plane, chisels and sand paper to accomplish the same tasks, using a router and router bits speeds up the process of making a canoe.

  1. Bead-and-Cove Bits

    • You use bead-and-cove bits to shape the edges of your cedar strips. The bead bit rounds one edge of each strip and the cove bit cuts a matching concave cove on the other side of each strip. The bead on one strip fits into the cove on another, so the strips lock together. Ted Moores, author of Canoecraft, writes that a bead-and-cove edge "gives you the smoothest, tightest joints with minimal fuss." The alternative to using bead-and-cove bits is to hand bevel each strip with a block plane when stapling the strips to the forms.

    Round-Over Bits

    • You trim the canoe's sheerline, the curving top of a canoe, with gunwales, the wooden rails that run from the front to back along the sheerline and give the canoe strength. Because the gunwales are at knee height when sitting in the canoe, they feel better if they have round edges. Use a round-over bit to shape round corners. Because this is a personal choice, you can vary the size of the corner. Start with a small radius and cut a bigger radius until you arrive at the shape you like. Typically, one quarter-inch radius works best. The alternative to a round-over bit is roughly shaping the corner with a block plane and finishing the surface with sandpaper.

    Straight Plunge Bits

    • The first step in caning--covering a canoe seat in cane, so its surface is like an old caned rocking chair--a canoe seat is to cut a grove around the frame of the seat. To cut this grove, you use a straight plunge bit. For most canoe seats, you use 3/16-inch reed spline, which is a thin reed used to fill the grove and bind the cane into place, so use a 3/16-inch bit to cut the groove. If using a different size reed spline, match the bit size to the spline. The alternative is to cut the groove using chisels.