1935 Old Town HW

Brian Kretschman

Curious about Wooden Canoes
Time to bring something back to life…

My name is Brian and I am starting a journey to restore this canoe. No fancy attachment to the canoe. I picked it up for free to rescue it from years of neglect. Got a lot of work to do! Let the journey begin!
 

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Pulled off a sponson. It is in bad shape and needs a lot of new planking to rebuild it. I am still contemplating if I will restore it to like new condition or to my tastes (no sponsons). I have started collecting supplies for the build. I have an 18ft plank of mahoganyesque wood. I will be replacing the inwhales and outwales. I have some cedar for planks but am still looking for rib stock. I will be replacing most of not all of the rib tips. I have at least 12 ribs that I will be replacing if I do not try the underside patch technique for several. Once I get past the glob of wood filler/epoxy I will be able to determine if I can keep the stern deck. If it ends up needing replacement I am contemplating making decks from black locust that I have on hand. The bow needs some work… Black Locust stem splice is the plan for both bow and stern. I hope to keep updates coming. I will be spreading the costs of the repair over several months but should be able to make decent progress. I hope the forum enjoys the updates. Feel free to offer suggestions and tips. I have been doing some research and gathering resources so I am not ignorant to restoration but this is my first one so I am sure to be learning as I go.

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Brian,
My OTCA wasn't in as rough of shape as your canoe, but I did replace the inwales and outwales. It's a lot of work and took me most of a year to get it done working a couple hours a night and some weekends. I think I replaced 4 or 5 ribs.
You can buy rib stock from Rollin or others. I only had to replace rib tips at each end of the canoe. For that I used white cedar shims. They work great and you don't have to sacrifice a rib blank for it, although you'll probably have some cut offs to work with when fitting the new ribs. Any rib tips that were remotely solid were slathered with epoxy and wood dust putty. Filled all the holes and made them solid again.
The bow end looks like you may be bending a new stem, that thing is gone!
Have fun! It's a great project to rebuild an old boat and make it useful again.
Ben
 
Canoe stands complete. I believe I am going to start cleaning and stripping old varnish. This is going to be annoyingly awkward due to the cold weather in Pennsylvania and the punky wood. Any thoughts on keeping the integrity of the canoe due to missing part of the inwale and a good portion of the rest being punky wood?
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I only had to replace rib tips at each end of the canoe. For that I used white cedar shims. They work great and you don't have to sacrifice a rib blank for it, although you'll probably have some cut offs to work with when fitting the new ribs. Any rib tips that were remotely solid were slathered with epoxy and wood dust putty. Filled all the holes and made them solid again.

This is helpful info. Thx! We will see how it comes along. I will probably error on the side of replacing the tips to ensure I am not leaving weak wood that will disintegrate around the epoxy. Anything short of epoxy impregnated wood methods leave me nervous that the repair won’t hold up. I will know soon enough as I inspect it closer. The bottom line for me is I want finished product that will hold up well with reasonable care.
 
Hi Brian - You're thinking right about taking care to make the canoe sound again. Shortcuts might easily be regrets later. On the other hand, it can be easy to obsess more than needed. Many people on these forums have been where you are, and many are working through projects right now. Just keep sharing, asking questions, and using the good advice you get.

As for punky wood, if it's really falling apart, it's best to replace. But many times things are repairable. If you don't already know about it, check out clear penetrating epoxy sealer (CPES). It's a low viscosity epoxy that really soaks into wood, deeply, especially into end grain. You just need to figure out how to decide when something can be repaired vs. should be replaced. A similar dilemma regards cracked or broken ribs. Many people swear by backside rib repairs. They can be great, saving the original wood while making the canoe structurally sound again. But sometimes it's better to simply replace an entire rib. We often use both approaches. It's simply a matter of weighing pros and cons in each new situation.

About the canoe losing its shape because of the damaged inwale, just screw one or more temporary but sturdy battens to the canoe wherever you think weakness might be an issue.

Have fun,
Michael
 
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If you don't already know about it, check our clear penetrating epoxy sealer (CPES). It's a low viscosity epoxy that really soaks into wood, deeply, especially into end grain.

I knew this existed but wasn’t sure what to call it. Now I can look it up and source some to have on hand for when the need arises. Thanks!
 
Brian this is an epic project. Good luck to you. I am in the process of trying to restore an old town wood canvas canoe as well. Question for you, where did you find the wood for the gunwales? It looks like I'll have to replace mine as well....I'm thinking ash

Cheers,
John
 
John, I have a local wood supplier that has what they advertise as mahogany substitute decking. It is 5/4 planks that upon digging I found to be Red Meranti. It is a good mahogany look alike but may have some downsides. If it proves troublesome to bend I may have an expensive misstep. It is also a bit denser though no harder than mahogany. Meaning it is heavier a bit while not providing additional wear resistance. It doesn’t have any particular strengths in the decay resistance category but the inwales and outwales should dry out well. I got lucky and they had 12 18’ boards to pick through. Usually they only stock 10’ planks. I am not fully committed to using it if I learn something that indicates it would be a problem. Anyone have any good experience with this wood?
 
Brian,
Many years ago while doing a winter restore of a friend's 1917 Old Town Otca. I bought red meranti to use for the outwale replacements. I found that even after soaking the ends in water for 4 days that it was impossible to achieve the bend on the steep upward outwale ends of the old Otca. Meranti is a very stiff, heavy wood species and is not very flexible/ bendable. Every steaming/bending attempt using a metal backer was unsuccessful. So I secured a cherry log from NJ and sawed it on my sawmill in the spring. The cherry log opened up with beautiful deep red color and I had an excellent, more harmonious outwale bending experience with it. The red meranti burned hot in my shop wood stove, I might add! I strongly suggest that you consider cherry for your rail replacements.
 
I second what Ed said in his post. I use meranti on my canoes for outwales all the time, but the canoes I build have a very gradual sheer line, I would never try it on a canoe with a up sweep at the ends like the HW has, the wood is just too brittle.
 
Ed, That’s good to know before I slice up this meranti. I can use it to build a floor rack, seats, and thwarts. The floor rack has only one broken piece but I would rather have support under my feet that is not brittle so I will make a replacement and keep the original.
 
Question on symmetry… been searching and haven’t found anyone addressing this yet. This canoe has shifted about an inch off its centerline from being stored on its side. What techniques would help address this? Considering I am replacing about a dozen ribs in the center where there is the biggest offset, I am wresting with the order of repair. The damaged tips will probably fall apart when replacing the inwales an thus not provide aid in pulling the canoe back into symmetry. Is it even a good idea to try?
 
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You should have no problems pulling it back to center.
When you repair/replace your stems you will be pulling the planking loose from them. You will also have the decks removed.
As you reassemble those bits you will have an opportunity to put a cross line laser level in the hull and use it to locate the center of the stems.
As you re-plank you will be able to shift that one inch back to the middle. I've had them off by 3 or 4 inches and been able to get them back (almost) to wear they belong. Be careful that your inside rail splices are trued up properly.
 
More cleanup and disassembly. Stern deck removal. Cleaned up the glob of wood filler to get to the deck. This process confirmed for me I am going to replace both decks.

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My to do list is: break out the varnish stripper, build molds for bending the decks, decide what wood to use for decks and rails, mill black locust for stern stem repair, mill black locust for bow stem repair (I want to keep as much of the bow stem as I can to maintain the serial number), make mold for bow stem repair, source white cedar for ribs, make molds for bending ends of inwales and outwales.
 
Got some work don’t today. Not a lot but from the standpoint of getting supplies ready and building understanding it was a big day. I milled up stock for rib tip repairs. I also thicknessed some black locust for the stem repairs. Then I got into rib tip repairs and started on the stern.
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