Canoe Accessories

[JClearwater]

I recently acquired an Old Town canoe chair so I thought I would post a picture of it along with some other seat backs and a White Canoe Co. chair. Attached is a catalog cut from a 1920 Old Town catalog that Benson posted a while ago in a thread about flag poles that shows the three Old Town seat back and chair that I own. The chair I bought is the same as the left one shown in the catalog. It needs to lean against a thwart. The back is not self supporting. It has the shadow of an early Old Town decal on the back. The rectangular seat back is the same as the catalog shown at bottom left. It has an Old Town decal and is dated 1921 with a former owner's name. The fan back seat back has an Old Town decal and dates from the 1950s or 1960s. Even though its newer than the catalog it remained basically unchanged in design. The pictures are shown in the Morris canoe I am currently working on. The caned seat I'm told is a White Canoe Co. seat. I restored it and caned it two years ago. I posted a thread about it at the time.
As Benson would say, "It's all neat stuff."

Jim

 

[patrick corry]

Cool "collectibles". That's a particularly interesting cane pattern. Does it have a name? Looks like 3 groups of 3 canes, then single strands which form hexagons... very fancy! Nice work.

 

[JClearwater]

It's called the "Star Pattern". You need two different size cane. It was a PIA because it's complicated but made even more difficult because the holes through the frame were too small for the number of strands that had to go through them. It originally had the standard seven step cane pattern that you see all the time. I never gave the hole size a thought before I started.

 

[patrick corry]

Well, you managed to do it so kudos to you! I've only caned 5 canoe seats so far, in two different patterns but still the standard 7 step style. I cheated after the first seat and enlarged the holes by a 1/32nd to accommodate the cane with less fight. I'm about to do seats for my current build with the New England Porch Rocker weave. Could be cool.... could be a disaster! I just put the 6mm cane in water to soak.

 

[Rob Stevens]

WCHA member Ralph Kohn (RIP) was a master at complex caning. shown here on a curly maple serving tray. Possibly the same pattern, though with 1mm strands.

 

[JClearwater]

I believe the photo that Rob posted of Ralph Kohn's cane job is called the "Daisy Pattern". I did that pattern on the seats of my Crandell a few years ago. Attached is a photo. If you enlarge it you can see the seat better. The trouble with most fancy cane patterns is that the typical canoe seat is too small to show off the pattern well. Attached is a picture I took of a chair in an antique shop with a unique cane pattern. Someone can try that pattern but it would have to be a fan back seat or big canoe chair to have the full affect.

 

[Dave Osborn]

Ralph Kohn….what a guy! He gave me this piece of cane work. So tiny! Wow!

Ralph, Chris Pearson and I at a Midwest Mini Assembly.