My 1st canoe. Paint appears to be cracked down to the canvas. Have removed stern stem band. Want to remove keel with minimum destruction. Have scraped some paint off and can't find screws. Canoe is 1944, 16', OCTA. I see recanvasing in the future and I'm hoping to do some temp. repairs.
Keel removal
- Thread starter Cal Canoe
- Start date
The keel is (mostly) screwed on from the inside of the canoe. Look for the screws running down the centerline of the hull on the ribs. There are a few screws from the outside of the keel into the stem at each end. They may be countersunk and filled with putty.
Dave Wermuth
Who hid my paddle?
And to ad to that, a heat gun is useful at getting stubborn screws to give. Hold the screwdriver in the slot and heat the blade which heats the screw which becomes more agreeable. Heat gun also can help remove paint that may be hiding screws.
Dave Osborn
LIFE MEMBER
And my two cents,..... you have a "war-time" canoe. Brass was used in the war effort and not likely to have been used in the construction of your canoe. Steel tacks and screws are likely. Some times steel screws are hard to remove and make you mumble bad words. Sometimes they make you shout bad words and howl at the moon. Hopefully you get by with a mumble or less!
And don't forget that often times it works to pressure the screw to tighten and then go counterclockwise. The bond can be broken this way and leaves one with just a mumble. Also a little crescent wrench on the bottom of the screw driver blade will make your wrist a whole happier tonight requiring only 2 glasses of Merlot.
Thanks all. I found and removed all the screws with no trouble. So far all screws and tacks have been brass. Keel is off and in one piece. Stem bands are steel. Also there were two bolts with nuts through the keel/hull. My guess they were a repair. I purchased The Wood and Canvas Canoe book, with the book and everybodys input here I should be sucessful in my canoe work.
