I am rerailing a 1977 Mad Riveer Kevlar Explorer. The edge cut is very rough. I am not planning to use rabbited rails because I like to get the screws further in from the edge of the hull. I am tempted to leave an eighth inch or so of hull exposed and plane and sand it down flush after installing the rails. Any tricks to trim the Kevlar cleanly or other suggestions?
I just use a finishing sander to begin
and finish up by hand sanding with a sanding block.
If the hull edge is very irregular you might want to even it up a bit before putting the rails on.
I think finishing with a sharp sanding
block, that is, fresh 120 grit paper, will cut the Kevlar fibers that survive machine sanding.
One trick I tried when de-fuzzing a worn Kevlar hull was to use a propane torch to melt the heat resistant Kevlar fibers back to nubs. Then sanding caught the nubs and cut the fibers more easily. I think I used a single edged razor blade scraper for the final cut. Hope you don’t have to try torching.