Canoe deck ID?

[charvey]

Can’t for the life of me find or remember which make utilized this design. Any suggestions? Stem numbers appear to be sanded away and the gunnels replaced in a prior repair job. Canoe seats which appear original are drilled for cane and hung on round headed bolts.

 

[Benson Gray]

Many builders used a broad variety of different decks as the examples at https://woodencanoemuseum.org/decks demonstrate. My guess is that this one was made by a relatively modern Canadian builder. Please let us know if you find a better answer,

Benson

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Depending on the location or how far its travelled, the Hamilton Canoe Company in Hamilton, Ontario produced a keyhole deck like this. One example in a museum in Muskoka had one with a Ditchburn tag, but would not have been built by them. Cant recall if the rails were tapered, but their product appeared to be based on an Old Town model. Mine was too far gone, and met the flame.

 

[Dan Miller]

Here is a Ditchburn. The deck is similar but the rails not tapered to the same degree.

 

[Andre Cloutier]

Thats the one, restored with new rails and a cherry deck, but faithful to the original nonetheless. The depths of your archives seemingly know no bounds.... bravo

 

[charvey]

Thank you for the comments. Canoe spent the last twenty years in the UP of Michigan so there’s a good chance it may have originated in Ontario. It has had prior work done on the inwales, and the outwales have been spliced at some time long ago.