wood duck kayak

Well I have finally started to build the deck.

The king plank and the shear strips are the dark colored strips. They are made from purple heart.

The light colored strips are made from northern white cedar.


The purple heart is a hardwood that comes from South America. It is not the type of wood you would normally use on a kayak. I wanted a very dark color and could not find any very dark cedar. The purple heart is as hard as a rock and about as flexible as steel. Bending it around a curve was a pain in my ass and the dogs ass too. It is also way to heavy for a kayak. It will probably add two or three pounds to the total weight of the kayak.

If this kayak turns out looking good I might use purple heart again but if not, I will just chalk this up as a lesson learned.