I wanted to ask my questions again about stain?  Anyone have any experience using a solid stain on a hull?  Thanks.

Unfortunately, you are right, it will bleed under masking tape.  I've used it by painting it on "to a line", drawing a faint pencil line where I want it to stop and then very carefully laying down the stain to that line with a good brush.  At that, it's really difficult to control the stain as it tries to follow the grain in the wood.  Take your time.  You can do it but it might be nerve wracking to do a whole kayak.  Recommend practicing on some scraps first.

I don't have much experience with stain, but I remember seeing some pictures from either a past catalogue or okumefest pages of a few boats that had been stained.  If I remember correctly, the wood was slightly scored along where the stain was to stop.  This is supposed to interrupt the grain (I think) so that the stain doesn't continue to leach past where you want it.  As has been said, try out the process on some scrap first to see if it works.

Aayrick

My understanding is that the epoxy between the panels will stop the stain from bleeding into the ajoining panel.  So, I plan to stain 2 deck panels on each side of my boat after it has been stitched and filleted.  (The boat I am building has 4 panels for the deck.) Using electrical tape at the "glue line" of the panels to help contain my brush strokes and rag wipes should do the trick.  Outside of that, I would think it will be quite hard to stop the bleeding in the middle of the panel.

I read somewhere (possibly here or in my instruction manual) to use 3M's paint tape, pressing very well along the paint line.  It's touted as the best for preventing the bleed you're concerned about.  It's what I plan to use for 2-part epoxy poly, just to be sure....

Good luck,

Larry

I've been lurking this site learning from your discussions - I'd like to build a kayak some time early next year. Not sure if  this idea is applicable but I'll throw it out there. You may be able to modify it somehow to make it feasable.

 When doing regular paint jobs on a rough surface, like a textured wall in your home, you would do the following. Let's say you have a white wall and want to paint a black line - and don't want the black to bleed under the tape. Further suppose you want the white on the left and the black on the right. You tape the wall and paint along it with WHITE paint - on the side where you'll want the black. The white paint bleeds under the tape and "seals" the tape. After the white dries you re-paint with the black color. Pull off the tape and you have a straight sharp line becaus the first coat of white has sealed those areas under the tape where the black would want to go.

 Hope that makes sense. Not sure what you'd use in place of the white, since you also don't want to seal the wood but I'd bet there's something that you  could use that would accept the stain.