Placing the final cedar strips

Rounding the bilge of the canoe with cedar strips can be a little challenging as you're trying to make a strip of wood bend or curve/twist in two directions at the same time. Thankfully, the wood is thin and flexible enough to manipulate the strips into place and secure them with staples and wood glue. 

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While it may get a little more difficult to place the strips while rounding the bilge, the good news is, they get shorter and shorter, which means fewer butt joints if you've got some longer strips clear of knots. As you round the bilge, the strips no longer bend along a single axis as you start to encounter the canoe's rocker - the curvature along the bottom of the boat, which is opposite of the curvature along the sides of the boat. 

Once you're beyond the bilge and basically placing strips along the bottom, you'll need to custom cut the strip ends to match the strip angle it butts up against. Continue this until you've reached the center of the canoe's bottom side. Any gaps between the strips should be filled in with filler.