skin on frame kayak leather seams

[Guest aru]

Im looking to build an inuit style kayak with leather, I cant find much info on these. I figured pine pitch could be used to seal the seams since i dont have anything long enough to do it without seams. anyone have links or videos? preferred type of stitching etc

[chuck123wapati]

On 8/9/2021 at 11:13 PM, Guest aru said:

Im looking to build an inuit style kayak with leather, I cant find much info on these. I figured pine pitch could be used to seal the seams since i dont have anything long enough to do it without seams. anyone have links or videos? preferred type of stitching etc

 Seal skins or whale i've read are what was used, how they were processed it to be water proof is the real question. Regular veg tanned or any modern methods of tanning leather wouldn't be something i would  put between myself and possible hypothermia or death it is in no way waterproof enough. I love to help folks but this is to dangerous for me to help with sorry i wouldn't recommend trying it with leather and certainly not pine pitch i would recommend much more research. 

[aru]

I was the one that posted this, I didnt realize I wasnt signed in. I dont have plans of using this kayak on frozen waters, its warm here. I was only thinking pine pitch for the seams. I have done research, its hard to find much. The only real bit of info i found was that they used sinew stitching since it swells when wet, to seal the holes.Im going to give it a shot, even if it sinks, it will be a neat thing to have. I figured oil tanned leather would be waterproof enough, if coated in beeswax or something, ive seen cloth boats sealed with a beeswax mixture. I may need to look at kayak forums for info. unfortunately I dont have seal skins :/