The Old Town canoe with serial number 83108 is a 17 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, Ideal model with red western cedar planking, open mahogany gunwales, mahogany decks, mahogany thwarts, mahogany seats and a bang plate along the full length of the keel. It was built between February(?) and April, 1924. The original exterior paint color was blue with a half inch gold stripe and Greek ends. This may have been similar to the image shown at
http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/designs/design17.gif which was known as design number 17. It was shipped on April 29th, 1924 to Camden, New Jersey. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.
This scan and several hundred thousand others were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at
http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See
http://www.wcha.org/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and
http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.
It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the refinishing,
Benson
