JClearwater
Wooden Canoes are in the Blood
I am currently working on a 16' Morris. It has short heart shaped decks, thwarts and seat frames made from Mahogany. Inwales, 'D' shaped outwales and gunwale caps are spruce. I'm not sure that the interior, ribs and planking were originally stained dark as Kathy and Dennis suggested most Morris canoes were. I stripped the interior to remove the old varnish as well as gobs of yellow paint. The ribs and planking are now nice and clean. If there was originally dark stain it came out with the stripping. Dennis came up with a formula mixing Minwax stains that he and Kathy figured closely matched the original Morris color. Does anyone have a picture or two of a restored Morris that was stained using that formula? I would like to see what it looks like before I proceed on our canoe. My intention is to stain the Mahogany parts as well as the gunwales but I hesitate to do the interior without seeing how another canoe turned out.
You can see in the attached photo that the existing varnish was filthy dark, old, dried and flaking in spots. In the areas where the varnish flaked off the wood underneath does not appear that dark to me, suggesting it was never stained.
Thanks, Jim
PS: This canoe was extra special. It came with a bird nest under one of the decks and heaps of mouse poop under the other. I guess the critters came to an agreement - birds to the bow, mice to the stern.
You can see in the attached photo that the existing varnish was filthy dark, old, dried and flaking in spots. In the areas where the varnish flaked off the wood underneath does not appear that dark to me, suggesting it was never stained.
Thanks, Jim
PS: This canoe was extra special. It came with a bird nest under one of the decks and heaps of mouse poop under the other. I guess the critters came to an agreement - birds to the bow, mice to the stern.
Attachments
Last edited: