canoe needs help
- Thread starter Treewater
- Start date
Steve Ambrose
Nut in a Canoe
Yikes!
If you carefully work with a tack puller on the heads and rock it around you will feel the tack start to rock out. Rock it out with the curve it took when it clinched over and you'll do minimal damage to the planking. Once you get the hull back together a little work with a fairing block will knock down any high spots. Small divots caused by digging out tacks will be bridged by the new filled canvas. Best of luck with your project!
If you carefully work with a tack puller on the heads and rock it around you will feel the tack start to rock out. Rock it out with the curve it took when it clinched over and you'll do minimal damage to the planking. Once you get the hull back together a little work with a fairing block will knock down any high spots. Small divots caused by digging out tacks will be bridged by the new filled canvas. Best of luck with your project!
You should be able to save both as Steve mentioned but I would preserve the rib if forced to choose. Tim Hewitt had a big canoe like that once and his wife started calling it the "whale carcass" after it spent too long in the garage. Good luck,
Benson
Benson
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OP
OP
Treewater
Wooden Canoes are in the Blood
My intent was to salvage the wood for other projects. I'm not rebuilding this canoe.
When one pulls the tacks from the outside there is a gouging of the plank around the tack head. Most all tack heads are recessed and we must tear wood just to get the tack puller under the head. Very unsightly.
The other way is to use a Dremel and cut-off tip. The clinched end of the tack is ground off by gouging the rib considerably but when cut off, a flat tipped punch is used to drive the tack head out enough to grasp it with the puller without gouging the plank. This works great for saving plank but destroys the rib. In replacing a broken rib on a good canoe this is okay but I want to salvage ribs and planks so this is not okay.
I gather most just gouge the planking and live with it.
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When one pulls the tacks from the outside there is a gouging of the plank around the tack head. Most all tack heads are recessed and we must tear wood just to get the tack puller under the head. Very unsightly.
The other way is to use a Dremel and cut-off tip. The clinched end of the tack is ground off by gouging the rib considerably but when cut off, a flat tipped punch is used to drive the tack head out enough to grasp it with the puller without gouging the plank. This works great for saving plank but destroys the rib. In replacing a broken rib on a good canoe this is okay but I want to salvage ribs and planks so this is not okay.
I gather most just gouge the planking and live with it.
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I found a Swiss made EREM micro diagonal plier at a yard sale for $.50. Self I says, this could work great removing tacks from the planking side. And it does with minimal to zero damage to planking. The diagonal jaws I filed a tad so that they get under the tack head sides with no or only slight disruption to the planking wood fibers. Heavily set tacks with deep hammer blossums are the hardest to avoid wood damage but it is insignificant compared to what a tack remover does. Just slide a piece of aluminum flashing under the diagonal after you have acquired the tack head positively and you get no depression in the planking as you roll the diagonals back to remove the tack. The angle of the micro diagonal jaws aids greatly in doing that angular twist to one side or the other while extracting the tack once you see which way the clench is angled on the tack. This minimizes interior damage to the ribs from the curved, clenched end of the tack as it is pulled out thru the rib.
I did a computer search to see if I could purchase new micro pliers by the same Swiss company in case I lost these. Found them and OUCH, at (as I recall) over $50.00 a pair, I'll use extra care taking care of and treasure my yard sale find!!!
I did a computer search to see if I could purchase new micro pliers by the same Swiss company in case I lost these. Found them and OUCH, at (as I recall) over $50.00 a pair, I'll use extra care taking care of and treasure my yard sale find!!!
OP
OP
Treewater
Wooden Canoes are in the Blood
I think you are right Ed. The key element in pulling tacks is getting a tool strong enough and small enough to minimize damage. I've used a small wire cutters ground down to a point but the steel in a Lowe's cutter is not surgical steel. Sounds like you got lucky at a yard sale.
