Morris completed

[Howie]

I've just completed this Morris I got back in May. It's a 17ft Model C type 1, #14067, circa 1916. In this Morris the ribs fit into pockets milled into the inner rails, but happily the rails do not have the cracks at these pockets that often bedevil Morris's. It has a floorboard rack as well as (what I assume is) a Morris paddle.
Original mahogany seats, decks and thwarts. I had to make new rail caps and sides - they are cherry. I used matte varnish for all the interior items except for the mahogany parts which have a gloss finish.

 

[MGC]

You did a nice job on that one Howie.

 

[Todd F]

Well done Howie. Great choice on the matt finish, looks nice.

 

[ALCEDO ATTHIS]

nice job Howie

 

[Michael Grace]

Beautiful, Howie! Is that one of the Epifanes greens, like Dark Green, Deep Green or Malachy? It has that distinctive look, olive in certain lights, black in others... And I'm curious about the bow seat. Is there a mast step under it? And what's going on at the seat frame ends? Curious about the inserted wooden slat there.

 

[Howie]

Michael:
* Yup, Epifanes Deep Green (Jamestown Dist #MU3123750). I like their Deep Red too.
* Again, yup, the front seat has a hole for a mast, although the hole was only half there when I got it. I used the pic below to reconstruct it somewhat accurately.
* Also, in the 1st pic you can see a rectangular screw pattern centered about two keel screw holes located directly below the seat's mast hole. This has to be where something was screwed in to secure the bottom of the mast. The floorboard has an opening for this part as well. I don't have this part, and since I don't have the mast itself, I just used some scrap rib material to take up the space.

* As to the slats along the sides of the front seat...good eyes Michael! The front seat was originally firmly bolted to the bottom of the rails. But since the canoe is going to a fella who intends to actually paddle it I wanted the front seat to be 'dropped' a tad to help improve stability. Unfortunately, the 4 sides of the seat did not align with ribs, so I added these two slats so if the seat became 'wobbly' it wouldn't poke into the side planking.

 

[JClearwater]

Nice job Howie!
Question - on your fourth picture, the floor rack is held down with a piece of brass stem band in the normal fashion but with a screw through the center as opposed to a escutcheon pin like I have seen on other Morris canoes including mine. On my canoe an escutcheon pin goes through the brass and the block under it and is rudely bend over underneath. I have no reason to presume it wasn't original. Did yours always have a screw?
See attached picture. The picture needs to be rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise. You'll have to turn your head to see it correctly.
Jim C.

 

[Michael Grace]

I've seen the bent-over escutcheon pin too, though I can't recall if it's on all Morrises I've seen or just some of them. I wouldn't call it rude; just a solution to an issue. More "rude" right be the way Morris made seat and thwart bolts by bending rod 90 degrees and hammering the foot down into the gunwale, but even then I see an interesting solution to a problem. I probably wouldn't do this myself to nice new gunwales, but it worked for them and the bolts do't turn when you turn the nut!

 

[Howie]

When I got the Morris it didn't have the blocks that hold the brass retainer bars. So, you may well be right in thinking that the brass bars were held by bent escutcheon pins. But between you & me, I don't care: I figure with a screw I can adjust the tension on the brass bar any time as may be needed.

As I say, the original blocks are missing, but I could see the telltale screw patterns on some of the ribs, as well as the outline of two of the blocks, so I knew the block's size and that it was held in by two screws. Now, I know that you folks know that Morris used keel screws in every rib, and what I noticed was that everywhere the block was located the keel screws were located off-center of the rib. Now, at this point I'm dying to say that there was also an old screw hole centered on the rib and next to the keel screw which would have held the retaining bar screw... but honestly I don't recall! I'm amazed - I think I would have noticed! So again, it's likely you both are right.

By the way, I believe it originally had only two blocks and swivel bars. I think that's nuts - that's too few to keep this long floorboard from flapping about when being transported upside-down IMHO. So I put in 4 or 5.

 

[JClearwater]

On my Old Towns that have a floor rack the toggles are held in place with a screw which as Howie pointed out is a better way of doing it as it allows the toggle to be tightened or loosened as needed. My 1914 Morris only has two toggles, bow and stern, which would have been fine for that time period. My 1906 Rushton Indian Girl also only has two. Rushton used a beefy wingnut rather than a short piece of stem band. The interstate highway system was 40 years in the future so driving down the road at 70 mph with your canoe on the roof was unheard of. Like Howie I added a third toggle in the center of the canoe on both boats even though it was not there originally. Even with a third toggle, on the six hour drive home from Clayton last August with two canoes on the trailer I removed the floor rack from the bottom of the canoe and tied it the the underside of the seats and thwarts so it wouldn't rattle around. One less thing to worry about. Sorry for the thread drift.

Howie, you did a real nice job. Enjoy using it.

Jim

 

[MGC]

Actually, my favorite sort of drift.
Some of us learned something new and there was confirmation of another Morris build oddity.
Canoes with floorboards are not meant to be transported far, by car. Maybe by horse carriage? I would never want to portage a canoe with floorboards installed. Not only are they added weight, but you can almost guarantee that the damned things will come loose and land on your head. Even just taking a canoe so equipped across the yard they do that. I am in the habit of removing them on canoes that I use. I have a stash of them sitting on top of my form in the garage. My Carleton is the only canoe I currently own that has the floorboards installed. Thinking back, my centerboard canoe had some kind of crazy floorboard setup. But no escutcheon pins.

 

[Benson Gray]

my centerboard canoe had some kind of crazy floorboard setup.

The picture below shows the unique 'single sided toggles' on the floor rack for an Old Town centerboard sailing canoe. I've never seen these on any other model.

Benson

 

[Howie]

Funny... when I wrote this post I figured I'd catch flack from you sharper eyed folks for using ring nails to attach the outer rails - short ones for the tops, longer for the sides . I know copper (or maybe brass?) escutcheon pins were used originally. I tried to use them a few years ago but failed miserably - for every pin that went in properly i had 2 or 3 that bent on me. I tried every small diameter drill I had (and I had a lot) but either the pin bent or it went in but had no holding power . My hat's off to you guys who have used them successfully. I remember another canoe i had used 3/4" copper pins on its outer rails. I have no idea how they did it!

 

[Michael Grace]

Howie, I believe the answer is when these canoes were built, the lumber was fresh with more spring and resiliency than it has now a hundred or more years later. Smooth-shank fasteners went in easier and had more holding power in that new lumber. The wood in your (our) old gunwales is much less giving, may have very hard spots, and so on. So getting escutcheon pins to seat properly and have holding power is, as you know, challenging at best. On careful, historic restorations I've got so far as to make little burs all along the shank of the escutcheon pins to give them holding power.

 

[Howie]

Thanks for the explanation Michael. I feel a little less inept!

 

[JClearwater]

Howie, You may be more correct than you realize by using flat head common nails, or in your case ring nails, rather than dome head escutcheon nails. We all seem to use escutcheon nails these days, myself included, when steel common nails might be more correct, especially on our old canoes. Attached is a picture of the gunwales on my 1903 Old Town showing the common nails. This canoe came to me in 1991 with the gunwale caps intact and most of the nails. When I restored it I saved the original steel nails and reused them. On the 1914 Morris I restored it had brass escutcheon nails originally so that is what I used on the restoration. The Brodbeck I'm currently working on, which dates from prior to 1900, came to me without gunwale caps or nails. I'm not sure what I should be using but because it's an early canoe I'm thinking steel common nails might be more correct. I have a ways to go before I get to that point so I have time to figure it out. I would be curious to know how it was originally done on other old canoes.
Jim

 

[Benson Gray]

Rollin Thurlow had a similar nail issue when restoring a circa 1905 Old Town for me. The pictures below explain the problem and his solution. The link at the bottom has more about this canoe.

Benson

Thread 'Ot 15-2781'

Nov 15, 2007

The seller says it's circa 1920, and I would simply say the number is wrong, were it not for the remnants of a decal like the one on the catalog CD dated 1906 (attached below). The seller says the canoe comes with a catalog, and maybe this catalog is circa 1920... not the boat.

Anyway... nice little fifteen footer on eBay... is the record available?

Thanks!

• Kathryn Klos
• Replies: 27
• Forum: Serial Number Search

 

[Howie]

Wow. Putting ring nails on a lathe to turn down the head diameter is really going the distance! That's about 200 nails! And a really good idea. Thanks Benson.

 

[Howie]

Howie, You may be more correct than you realize by using flat head common nails...
Jim

Yup. I had a 1921 18ft Old Town Mollitor a few years ago that used short common steel finish nails to attach the outer rails.