Adding screws

Our Swift Kipawa is about 13 years old. I re-finished the wood back in 2003, but now some of the screws in the gunwales weren’t holding properly. Tightening them didn’t work and when I would sit in the canoe or carry it by the yoke there was a noticeable shift between the inner and outer gunwales. That meant I had to add some screws, so I added a handful on either side spaced between the existing screws. I haven’t gotten a chance to try it out and see how it works yet. I wanted to order some square drive (what those crazy Canadians use) to match, but ended up using phillips because I had the proper screws on hand. I figure since there are phillips elsewhere on the canoe anyway it wasn’t going to inconvenience anyone.

Removing the cane and spline.

Our Penobscot takes a beating, but that is why I bought it. I wanted something to be an everyday canoe and take some of the wear off the more expensive boats. When we bought it 3 years ago the bow seat had a hole in the cane. When I replaced the center seat with a yoke I used the center seat to replace the one in the bow. Soon the stern seat had a hole in the cane and I replaced the cane with webbing. Well now the bow has a hole. So I pulled out the original to continue the game of musical canoe seats and set to work.

First thing I do is use a chisel to take off the cane and level the spline that holds it in. Then I fill in the gaps around it with an epoxy/sawdust mix. I like a bit more comfortable seat so I used a spokeshave to put more of a radius on the edges of the seat (both because the seat gets

Filling in the holes with thickened epoxy.

sat in both ways). Then some scraping to get the varnish off and a bit of sanding.

There are two types of canoe finishes: oil and varnish. I am in the oil camp for most canoe related things. I prefer the feel of oiled wood, and the ease of repair. Varnish has to be stripped and then re-applied, and can trap moisture in the wood. I use Pure Tung oil diluted with mineral spirits. A couple of coats and the seat is ready to web.

Vice-Grips helping out.

The first step to webbing is to figure spacing. I have a big roll of 2″ poly webbing that I use for sewing projects. any width could be used though. I start with the short direction and 5 widths of webbing leaves a bit too much gap, but 6 works with just a bid of side overhang. I cut my strips to length, leaving a bit of extra to pull on, and use a flame to seal the ends.

All done, and ready to be attached to the canoe.

Attaching the strips is pretty simple, but can be like

wrestling a bear. I staple the first end and use a small pair of Vise-Grips to pull it as tight as I can and another set of Vise-Grips to hold the webbing in place while I staple it in. Keep going in that direction and then figure out the spacing for the next direction. I used 3 strips with about ¹/₄” between them. Weave them in and then staple.

In the fall I put a canoe downstairs so I could do some work on it over the winter. We bought an Old Town Penobscot last summer for about $500 to use as our everyday (or everyweekend as it sometimes is) canoe to limit the wear and tear on our more expensive tripping boat. It was in good shape. There was some fixing up and changes I wanted to make to it. The wood seats and thwarts were a bit neglected but a sanding and refinish was all they needed.

The only change I wanted to make on it was to remove the center seat and put a yoke in. Some people would do the opposite, but we have solo canoes. A yoke allows the canoe to be carried comfortably by one person. Comfortable is relative. Portaging is never comfortable, but can be made less miserable. Flat yokes are a thwart that has a place for your neck. They are better then a regular thwart, but for long carries your shoulders start hurting fast.

There are different schools of thought on this and I have tried most of them. In the BWCA foam blocks that sit on the shoulders are popular. They are ugly, get dirty soggy with use. They work best when used with a flat yoke so there is more room for your neck. I am a believer in the Canadian school as far as yokes go. Take a big hunk of wood and sculpt it to fit nicely on the shoulders. They look beautiful. On our Swift Kipawa the best looking wood is the yoke. So after looking around for the perfect yoke I decided on a shadow yoke from SlipStream.

Card scrapers are nothing more then a sheet of metal with a burr on the end. It is what they use before sandpaper was invented. They aren't expensive, a set of different shapes and a burnisher to sharpen them will cost you well under $50. The best part is that they can replace all the course and medium sandpaper you use.

In the canoe work most of wood is covered with old varnish which can clog sandpaper quickly. A scraper just scrapes of off.

Working in the basement they are wonderful. There is no sander noise to wake the kids up at night. Dust isn't flying everywhere and there are no discarded sheets of sandpaper all over. Sharpening has taken some trial and error, but in a evening I started to get the hang of it.

Here are some of the videos and articles that helped me out:

From Fine Woodworking #147
Fine Woodworking Video
The DoveTail Kid

So we have been down to three canoes, the problem is that only one is a tandem. If we want to go with another family/couple we weren't able to. We have been looking for a good second tandem for a while now and whenever we find one someone else gets it first. Today I got a chance to get all my news read and say a Old Town Penobscot (the ideal canoe we were hoping to find) in Ypsi. I went to look at it this afternoon and bought it. It needs a seat reapired and is ready for skid plate

Now we are back to a 1:1 people to canoe ratio. Eli is excited.

<%popup(20080707-IMG_1900.jpg|640|480|)%>