Advice rescuing old Veazie decal

[Howie]

Has anyone had success rescuing old decals?



This one is on a Veazie that has to be over 100 years old, and it's barely visible. From the looks of it I'm thinking it was varnished over at some point. Today's eco-friendly strippers are slow to work, and I'm wondering if maybe that would work to my advantage. I'm thinking of smearing on a thin layer of stripper, let it work for maybe 5 minutes, then access the results. Then maybe try again after letting it work for 10 minutes, then 15, etc., and stop when (hopefully) it looks better.

But obviously I don't want to ruin it.

Am I crazy? Anybody have ideas?

 

[floydvoid]

I have a RBMCo boat with a 100+ year logo that the previous owner varnished over to help preserve. I was thinking of wet sanding it down very slowly by hand until visible. I would worry that paint stripper would act unevenly on the surface and penetrate in only specific spots where the surface has a pore.
Otherwise I’m interested to hear other ideas too.

 

[MGC]

Actually, the decal is at least 110 years old.
It is also the only known Veazie coaming decal in existence so a failed experiment to "improve" it would probably destroy it. That would be a real shame.
What I have done with other similar decals is to simply work around them while I am sanding, stripping the surrounding area. When I varnish the finished work, I also varnish over the decal. It does pull it up a bit. Shy of replacing it with a new one, there is no way you can restore what is there. It is incredibly thin.
These were made with gold gild and colorized. As they fade and wear, the pigments and gild fade away.
Here's a closeup of that decal.

 

[Benson Gray]

Some people can do an amazing job of removing varnish while preserving a decal. The image at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/9994/ shows the faint shadow of an early Old Town decal under many coats of varnish, grime, etc. Rollin Thurlow was able to remove the junk as shown at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/9995/ and preserve most of the remaining decal. This is still far short of the example shown at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/24420/ but it is nice to save what you can. I believe that alcohol with patient gentle rubbing was used but he can probably provide more details when he checks in here again.

Benson

 

[Howie]

Mike - I remember you telling me that this is the only Veazie coaming decal known to exist. So... what about it WCHA people? Anybody have one? Anybody know of a picture of one? If I can get a decent digital image of one I/we could work on making a new decal.

By the way... can anyone make out what the decal says? I think I see...

VEAZIE
CANOE Co
MANUFACTURER
Veazie(?)
Maine(?)

 

[Benson Gray]

My guess is that some of this decal is missing. It appears to say:

VEAZIE
CANOE Co
MANUFACTURERS
BANGOR,

There are two known Veazie catalogs but neither one shows this decal. My guess is that the full decal might have included more of the letters and/or words shown below.

I have tried to guess at missing elements of decals before and not been successful. Good luck,

Benson

 

[MGC]

I spent quite a bit of time looking at that. I blew the image up to a pixel level before Veazie jumped out at me.
It reads exactly as Benson suggests. Veazie, Canoe Co. Manufacturers, Bangor
Personally, I would not consider putting a copy of a decal on as a replacement. I always think that faux decals make a canoe look hacked up. What Rolling did with the 1905/6 decal is far more appealing even though it does not have the detail that is present in my copy of it. It's risky though. There is very little varnish over that decal so attempts to resurrect could be a one and done affair.

 

[MGC]

Mike - I remember you telling me that this is the only Veazie coaming decal known to exist.
Howie, yes, I did say that and I'll raise the bar.
To the best of my knowledge, that is the only long deck A grade Veazie canoe that has been accounted for in the so called Morris/Veazie database or discussed here in this forum. If there are others, I have not heard of them. All other known Veazie canoes have either keyhole, coved or heart shaped decks.
The only thing that identifies that canoe as a Veazie is that decal. Without that this canoe could be mistaken for an A grade Morris with an inexplicably low serial number.

 

[Howie]

Mike: I'm laughing... You are so polite. If it were me I'd have written in bold letters or italics. Likely both. Relax: I'll not tamper with the decal unless some guy replies with a surefire way of removing the varnish that covers it. But you can't find out unless you ask.

 

[Dan Lindberg]

I tried exposing a Penn Yan decal many years ago, it was just barely readable when I quit.
I was not able to find a NOS or repo to replace it.

 

[MGC]

So much for my aspirations as a social media influencer. I'm going to cancel my order for the Carrera.
I am definitely suffering from a severe case of post partem depression and separation anxiety....
I did say it's yours to with as you please so use your best judgment. I think you will find that the decal will "pop" a bit if you wet it. Varnish over the top of it would have the same affect.
You may proceed with brass tacks on this one.
Mike

 

[samb]

Just an idea, but have you considered sanding the wood away from underneath?

 

[Howie]

Samb: Huh? "...from underneath"???? O - I see... my issue is that the decal is essentially unreadable due to old crackly opaque varnish that covers its face. So I'm wondering if there's a way of cleaning the face of the decal to get rid of the old varnish while not destroying the decal in the process. I do not want to chip away at the wood behind the decal so that the decal could be relocated somewhere else.

 

[dtdcanoes]

OK, Howie......I'll bite, though not without some fear in doing so. I know your and Mike's concerns as I have been dealing with this issue for over a decade, of wanting to save and/or replace a compromised original. My boat is a restored 08 Old Town 16-Ideal and totally original with open gunnels no less. I tried everything to save what was left of the decal, a red version of the 07 ( in blue as I recall ) with beautiful scroll work and gold leafing within their black outlines and further embellished with some delicate black lining over the leafing. ( think Faberge' egg work ) . There is no question in my mind that these early OT decals were essentially works of art and were done by artisans for OT . They may have been employed at OT at the time or independent craftsmen as gold leaf was used as a mark of the highest quality everywhere. Remember the OT canoes with courting canoe designs and initials in gold leaf. Alas , gold leaf in decals were to expensive to use and they were eliminated before too long, maybe by 09 or so. The bad news is you will never find an NOS or even a repro that would be correct to use by any stretch in these early canoes. Better to preserve what is left and maybe consider a non-yellowing varnish to coat what you have. The good news is that an historically correct repro can be done and the skills to do so are available. You would have to accept the cost to get you there, sort of like the owner of a rare 1850's carriage who will accept nothing but an indistinguishable copy of the original artwork on the enameled panels . As Zorba, the Greek said..." if I were a young man ..." Good luck with your resto. I would save what you have and search for the correct, perfect replacement. I agree with Mike , unless you go for perfection.
Have fun, Dave

 

[samb]

Just an idea, but have you considered sanding the wood away from underneath?

Ooops - failed English humour!