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I saw the recent post about cypress. I was looking in boat building and saw the thread on canoe gunwales - would cypress be a good option - I know it is rot resistant but does it bend. I had always assumed it was too soft but the last time I had a chance to thumbnail some cypress it seemed pretty dent resistant. A couple of comments please?
Sorry - don't know about cypress being a Mainer. Have used ash or white oak - both excellent choices.
Cypress is great wood for canoes. In South Carolina we build the entire boat with cypress. It is not as light as cedar but is light enough. It bends easily especially if flat sawn. It smells great and machines very well. It is soft so it will dent, but unlikely to crack or split.
After having wrapped one canoe around a rock and rebuilding it, the strength of the canoe is in it's gunnels. The Best wood is ash.
The only thing I can say about cypress is it is soft. A year ago I made 24 cigar pens from the bottom planking of a 1938 boat. About once a year I get a request from a boat restorer to make pens for his clients from their boat he is restoring. Those cypress planks were the most difficult to turn even thought they were quarter sawed. It did not take much to dent the pen while applying a CA finish, just a gentle scrape of my thumb nail and I had re-sand over again.
I made a jimmy skiff and use mahogany for the gunwales.
You might reach out to someone like Schuyler Thompson (Norfolk, CT) who has built and rebuilt an estimated 1200 canoes. For me, the sample size of what I've done is too small to comment meaningfully on the hardwood/softwood debate.
Softwood doesn't make much sense for a gunnel, except... Some top end canoes these days use foam for the inwale, that they cover with glass or carbon. Then they place a decorative/rub rail on the outside, say 3/8" cherry. This improves the ease of paddling, reduces weight, reduces maintenance. The inwales are normally a large triangular section, in wood the section could be a lot smaller. One difficulty is that for a clear finish, getting the gunnels wrapped in glass creates some finishing challenges. If one wants to put the canoe first rather than the wood, paint is always an option, but it is possible to do a clear finish also.
Cypress is a wood of the south, and Canoes are a product of the north... I would bet that it hasn't been tried much.
I don't know about cypress, but, I've used ash or yellow birch for gunwales. Both were easy to work with, and I'd say that the yellow birch lasted longer than the ash ones did.
Len
Just make them wider and thicker than they would be in hardwood, and softwood can provide gunwales that are just as strong. While I've mostly used ash for gunwales, I have also used sitka spruce, because at that time (early 1970's) it was cheaply available in 20' lengths.
It is true that thicker gunnels will rapidly pick up strength and stiffness, though stiffness picks up a lot faster and as a result you may need to laminate them. One also doesn't want to add to the reach over to get to the water.
I made a very light weight solo canoe, but the gunwales were not an area I wanted to compromise strength. I went with cherry mostly because I already had it and it is pretty light for its strength. If I went from scratch, I'd either use sitka spruce if I wanted light weight and some measure of durability or ash for a solid, durable option. While it is true that the stiffness of the gunwale goes with about the cube of the thickness (e.g. double thickness, get 8x the stiffness), most less dense woods also dent easily compromising the appearance and the strength.
I've used Sitka on several projects and while I really enjoy working with the wood, in this application I feel Ash would be a better choice. I feel it's much tougher, bends nicely and weight wise, it's very close. I have a nice supply of SS in 16 rings per inch or better, it's strong although imo, too soft for this job.
Mac
Yeah strength isn't a problem I have spruce gunnels on my trimaran, but on a canoe, they can get beat up, they add to reach for paddling. I can't think of any real upside.