Can you slip a razor blade between hull and deck, where the hot glue's holding the two substructures together?

That's how I'd approach this, but not with a razor blade to 'sever' the glued areas. Rather something as thin but not sharp, more like a painter's flexible palette knife.

Hot glue's usually some kind of polyethylene formulation, and in that it's really never 'hard' like epoxy it can be worked apart by fricton using a thin blade-like tool.

If you had access to both sides of the seam I'd suggest thin fishline used to "saw" the joint apart, but as it looks from those pics you have to be content working from the outside.

Too, a lot depends on whether you managed to lay down a continuous bead of glue or only did a spot-weld kind of join. The latter ought to be easier to separate than the former.

Another thought is to use a heat gun or even a hair dryer to warm the areas adjacent to where you're working, then use that palette knife to separate the hot-glued halves once the glue softens a bit.

Good luck with completion of your long-term project! Let us know what you eventually find effective getting the hull away from the deck portion. 

Hi Barry, 

thanks for the pictures and it looks like very nice work. 

i have built a number of strip built boats and my first comment is i don't see any issue here that is not common to this kind of building.....so don't worry.....in fact, i am impressed at how stable everything looks after 8 years.

it is very very common that once you pull the staples out that the hull and deck will spring away from the forms a bit....and so how to approach sanding can appear to be a bit mysterious.

so first, work on all the sanding adjacent to the seam.  that is plenty of work.  then as you have to finish it up and sand the seams, you can simply use some packing tape to hold the two parts together tights and in alignment and sand and then reposition the tape to address the section that was under the tape.   you can also use your hand to hold the area you are sanding as you typically only need a small sanding block to work this area and when you apply the sanding block it will push both sides against the forms so not a big deal.

also, when you do glass the top to the bottom later in the construction process, you can always clean up any minor misalignment/sanding issue prior to the applying the outer glass tape that secures the deck to the hull.

so congratualtions on your work and bringing it to a close.  i am itching to start a new project myself as a good way to spend the time.

h

Just want to thank you for the feedback. I'll post an update as I get through this. Thanks again!

-Barry