Help With A Serial Number Please.

This is an interesting one. The Carleton canoe with serial number 12394 started out as an Old Town HW model with serial number 39414. It shipped as an 18 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Carleton guide model with red western cedar planking, closed spruce gunwales, birch decks, birch thwarts, birch seats and a keel. It was built between July, 1915 and June, 1916. The original exterior paint color was gray. It shipped to New York City on June 18th, 1916. A scan of this build record and the related Carleton financial information can be found by following the links at the attached thumbnail images below.

c-12394.jpg c-12394-a.jpg

These scans and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to renew.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match the canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson
 
Thank you! I think you have it correctly identified as the build record matches a lot of what I found during the restoration. I purchased it from Rolf Warneke (AKA - yeolwoodsman) in northern New Jersey I thought it was odd that they took almost a year to complete the build, any idea as to why that would be so?

I will be renewing my membership, but thanks for the reminder. I also have to renew my Michigan Chapter soon.

I have three more canoes sitting in my rafters that I will be getting to soon (one at a time though). One is 143346-18 which I believe is also an Old Town. It is in pretty bad shape and broken in half at the middle thwart so I will surely test my (lack of) skills in that restoration. Another has been glassed and I don't have the serial number handy. The last is a J.B. O'Dette & Sons built by my great-grandfather JB. (I am named John Baptiste after him.)

Again, thanks for all the information. It is greatly appreciated by all of us in the WCHA.

John
 
The Old Town canoe with serial number 143346 is an 18 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, HW model with red western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, a keel and a floor rack. It was built between December, 1945 and February, 1946. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped to New York City on March 6th, 1946. The back side indicates that there have been previous requests for copies of this build record in September of 1980 and November of 1986. Scans showing both sides of this build record can be found by following the links at the attached thumbnail images below.

143346.jpg 143346-b.jpg

Good luck with the restorations,

Benson
 
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