Cherry gunwale stock

JClearwater

JClearwater

Wooden Canoes are in the Blood
Friends,
I will need to make new cherry inwales for the Rushton Indian Girl that I am working on. It's a 16' canoe so I need cherry stock a bit longer than that, say 17' to be safe. I found a source in Buffalo, NY, Noah's Marine Supplies, that can provide the wood but Buffalo is a solid six hour one way drive for me. We are in the Hudson Valley, Cornwall, NY. I have tried a number of more local mills but none can provide the length. I would rather not scarf the inwales if it could be avoided.
It's possible that the board could hitch a ride on a race horse trailer on one of their trips from Canada to our area in NY but I would need someone to pick up the board at Noah's and meet the trucker on the Thruway. Alternately if someone is coming this way for Christmas maybe you could pick it up and bring it with you. Failing all that or another idea, there will be a road trip in my future. Thanks,

Jim
 
Ask if a local mill will custom cut long lengths for you. Milling costs are cheap and that's easy to do, if they get in long logs. That way, you get fresh, un-kiln dried stock. Perhaps a lifetime supply if they want you to purchase the whole log.
 
Pat Smith, West Hollow Boat Co. in Naples cut 18 foot cherry for me last year.
He may still have some wood from that log or another log available to cut. The nice thing about getting the wood from Pat (other than visiting his shop and having a nice chat) is that he will cut exactly what you want. Not many folks buck up a 16 foot log and even fewer will give you 18 feet. Most saws don't have the extension that is required.
Naples is a bit closer but it might take just as long to get there.
 
Thanks Mike. I spoke to Pat this afternoon. Unfortunately he doesn't have any cherry at the moment and does not expect any in the foreseeable future. Good idea though.

The search continues. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Jim
 
JClearwater said:
Thanks Mike. I spoke to Pat this afternoon. Unfortunately he doesn't have any cherry at the moment and does not expect any in the foreseeable future. Good idea though.

The search continues. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Jim
Click to expand...

Bummer. He cuts it off of his property. Sometimes you need to wait a while for him to get a log cut, bring it to his shop and load it on the saw. I think I waited almost a year to get it from him. Part of that wait was that he needed to add the extensions to his mill to reach out to 18.
One of my neighbors has a tree business. I had asked him to put any decent charry he cut to the side. He has a mill and can cut up to 16 feet.
I'll check with him. That lady needs some rails.
The bird will be in the oven by 11:00.
Mike
 
Michael Thanks for the tip! I found a great hardwood dealer that I didn't know about and he is almost in my back yard!
 
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Yes, I tried Condon Lumber early on. They have cherry but only in 16' length. I need it a little longer. I did find a local guy who said he might have a log long enough and I'm waiting on a call back. Fingers crossed...
 
I like splicing them. A nice 4 inch splice , glued and I put it where a fastener will go through. I put only about 4 feet or so of each outwale or inwale end into the steam box. Then I put the splice together after both ends are bent on the canoe. I measure carefully and mark where the splice goes so when I put the hot steamed piece on it lays in the correct location.
 
The girl has rails!!
So I sourced some cherry stock locally but it was only ten feet long so I scarfed the inwales in the middle as Dave suggested above. Attached is a picture of the inwales and decks installed. The pocketed inwales were a test of will but I prevailed.
Jim
IMG_4806A.JPG
 
Thanks Dave. The inwales on this Indian Girl are 1" wide and 7/8" thick. They taper from the full width t0 3/8" where they join the stem. There is a mortise that runs the full length about 1/4" deep that overlaps the top edge of the planking and eventually the canvas. I cut the mortise on the table saw and then steamed and bent the ends. I soaked the ends of the rails for several days in a PVC pipe, steamed for one hour and then bent them (two at a time) over a form I made. They bent easily with no issues. I left them four days in the form. I made the form so the rails would be "over bent" expecting some spring back but actually there was very little. Because there was no spring back it made it more difficult when I was making the joint with the stem. I wanted to re-install the original decks which did not have as much upsweep as the new inwales had so I ended up reshaping the decks a bit and pulled down on the inwale tips. The decks actually look better than they originally did with a bit more curve and a slight domed cross section. I hope JHR would approve. The attached photo of the stern deck really doesn't show it unfortunately. I'm working on a video of the whole inwale process. My daughter is knitting together the various parts, adding some still pictures, and removing my cuss words. When it's done I'll try to post it somewhere. The pockets for the rib tops were cut with the drill press and finished by hand with a chisel. All of which is covered in the video. The goal is the have this canoe back on the water for Assembly in July.

Jim
IMG_4804A.JPG
 
I have asked Jim to contribute the video of making rib-pocketed inwales for an Assembly "Construction" presentation. He said it might only be 5 minutes long, so will endeavour to bump it up to a video of the full restoration of a Rushton.
Thanks for your openess and generosity, Jim.
 
I like Dave Satter's suggestion for splicing shorter pieces to make both the inhales and outwales. If you cut 4" - 6" scarfs, watching the grain match carefully and glue with slightly colored and thickened epoxy, you won't see the splice until you're less than a foot or two away–and even then only if someone has told you there's a splice somewhere.

I live in an area with lots of hardwood forests. A small independent logger used to keep an eye out for 20' limb-free white ash saw logs for me. Rarely, my logger would tell me of a long black cherry tree. I now completely skip the hassle of having 20' logs delivered to a mill that can saw 20' stuff, sawn, stacked and stickered, and maybe kiln dried besides. I just look for 8 1/2 foot straight-grained, clear boards. KISS.
 
Just an update for those who might be interested....after the inwales were installed I finished up the planking at both ends and sanded the interior until my fingers bled. I even taped up my finger tips ahead of time but they still got abused. I then worked on stains to get the old wood and the new wood to blend together. I experimented on scrap rib stock and planking with different color stains until I was satisfied. I ended up using Golden Pecan on all the old wood. I used Early American on the new ribs and planking. After I was done I decided the new wood was too brown so after lightly sanding I went over the new wood again with Puritan Pine to add in some yellow. I went with darker stain on the whole canoe than I would have normally wanted because, despite my best efforts at stripping out the green paint, there was still a little left in the tiny cracks and tack holes. I figured the darker color would hide it better. Not sure that I succeeded but it's done now. The wood does match pretty good though. The attached photo was taken right after the third coat of Epifanes Clear Gloss while still very wet. The final coat will be Epifanes Matte.

JimVarnish5A.JPG
 
JC,
Great job matching color of some very old ribs. Is the canoe an early Morris with closed gunwales? The narrow decks and sharply recurved ends look Morris-like, but I can't see the stems to positively identify the canoe. Are the striking cherry gunwale caps original or did you make new ones by splicing shorter cherry pieces together?

You definately did a very old classic canoe proud!
 
Looks good Jim ! I'll tell you my secret to color touch ups , but you can't tell anyone :) https://www.mohawk-finishing.com/products/wood-touch-up-repair/aerosols/tone-finish-toner/
their colored lacquers . Their great after you stain and your not happy with the color. As long as your stains dry just a light dusting of these in spots over ribs or planking you can blend colors in beautiful . I always keep a few colors in stock. Their colonial maple seems to work nice. They also sell a marker called pro-mark it's great for touch ups dries quick , like if you have a spot here and their of old paint to cover. I'm painting that blue and white #45 design this week. I'll let you know how I make out. Dave
 
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