Installing Brass Stem Bands

[Howie]

I remember having with stem bands on the first canoe I ever restored. This was back in the early 80s. I know I ordered the bands from OldTown and they were predrilled. I had terrible luck with them - I think I broke each twice trying to install them. Ended up going with aluminum - also available from Old Town at the time. Anyway, I remember distinctly that the metal made a crinkley noise while being bent. I thought at the time that they had been annealed - or needed to be annealed - but not being a materials guy I didn't know. This was long before the internet so I couldn't get the help from this Forum. I wonder now if the stem bands were made of another material. Bronze perhaps? Did Old Town use ever use materials for stem bands other than brass or copper or aluminum?

 

[Benson Gray]

Did Old Town use ever use materials for stem bands other than brass or copper or aluminum?

These were their primary materials for stem bands but other metals were used occasionally. Galvanized steel was common during the Second World War when other metals were in short supply, for example.

Benson

 

[Scott Rowe]

Regarding stem surfaces being made concave, could you make the outer surface of a stem concave to allow the canvas to sit more flat on a single stem canoe? I have laminated my stem to clean up old nail holes and it seems that it would be easy to shape it prior to tacking/stapling the canvas to it.