Hello from Maryland

[jlraley]

A friend is gifting me her childhood 14' canoe which she's bringing back from toronto in a month. It needs some repair to a stem and to be canvassed. glad I found you to ask questions of when the time comes.

In the meantime can anyone direct me to a good tutorial on canvassing a canoe? From reading on here its clearly much different then the Skin-on-Frame boats that I build.

Thanks!

John

 

[mccloud]

Hello, John, and welcome. There are other wooden canoe folks in Maryland - I'm one - in Frederick. There is the Upper Chesapeake chapter WCHA, and the the Chesapeake Wooden Boat Builders School at the museum in North East. And there was supposed to be a canoe re-canvased at the museum tonight but maybe the weather will interfere. No shortage of advice around here Tom McCloud

 

[jlraley]

Thanks Tom,

I'm down in Salisbury now, but my parents live in Rising Sun. Maybe next time I'm up there I'll call ahead and see if anyone at the museum is available to pick their brains. I'll also look up the upper chesapeake chapter.

I've got some photos and I'm trying to get the serial number now. I'll post it all when I have that.

It will be spring or summer by the time it comes down, but for a canoe in pretty good shape that I'm trading a day of labor for(plus I fixed their washing machine, installed their dishwasher etc..) I can wait. I'm building a skin-on-frame version of Saint Francis right now to keep me occupied!

John

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Welcome, John. There are some good books that describe canvassing a canoe. "The Wood and Canvas Canoe" by Stelmok and Thurlow is considered "the bible" of canvas canoe repair and is available in the WCHA Store-- and on Amazon and eBay and probably the public library. I think there are some videos on YouTube too. But finding someone who has done it before and will help out is a huge plus. This is one of the many advantages of this group, and of WCHA chapters.

Also, we love following each other's "projects"--- so pictures of your skin-on-frame are very welcome!

Kathy

 

[jlraley]

Thanks Kathryn,

I found the book on the wcha site last night, and it seems like a great resource. One of the guys over on the kayak building forum also sent me his tutorial videos on restoring wood canvas canoes. I do prefer books though.

Restoring these is definitely a labor of love! I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one of these.

I'll post pics of my skin boat build also at some point. It's teaching me the love of steam bending.

John

 

[shelldrake]

John,

I'm just up the road near Oxford and have re-canvassed several. Feel free to PM me.

Matt