My only experience with "milling" cedar strips was a comically inconsistent attempt at a rip jig for 1x2s for my circulat saw. I got enough strips to fill the transom of my Kaholo, anyway! The only useful advice I can offer is to chdck out Nick Schade's videos on YouTube if you haven't already. He goes into great detail. Alternatively, you could check out one or both of his books or the one by Ted Moores. I feel like I remember at least one of them stating that they prefer boards with one rough face (and vertical grain orientation for the strips).

Sorry - meant to post this link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3-g6pxVvp1I&pp=ygUSTmljayBzY2hhZGUgc3RyaXBz

hi jscott,

it's a bit tough to tell how rough is rough....but my initial reaction is that if you are going to further work the strips with cove and bead, then i would not bother planing it.  i would, however, orient the bead side to the rough side and the cove side to the smooth side as the cove side with its thin outer walls will be more sensitive to a rough finish (any blemish on the face of the bead is likely to be buried in the cove)

you should also understand that there is nothing 'magic' about standard 3/4 inch wide strips and if planing the rough side down make the strips a little slimmer, they will work just fine and can make certain stripping activities easier, particularly if there is a lot of curving and twisting going on.  and this is not just width, but depth.  the more important thing is consistency.

fwiw, i am currently building a kayak with 3/16 thick and 3/4 wide strips, but i also have a handful of 1/2 inch wide strips that i will use for the turn of the bilge which makes it easier.

h