Red Merle
Curious about Wooden Canoes
Nice work! Noticing the ring nails along the stem sitting a little proud. You can leave them proud but you will really need to take care to not sand through the canvas. You can drive them in after the canvas is on. But again you will need to be careful not to put holes in the canvas. Or another option, you could try to build up the filler along the stems there. The extra material may buy you some fairing material to cover them. Some guys take filler from the bottom of the pail and sculpt up that area to cover the seam and smooth everything out. I've done it prior to filling the rest of the hull with pretty good results.
Thanks!
Yeah, those are going to be a fly in the ointment. Those tacks were placed by the previous person that installed the new stems and some of them were loose when I removed the old canvas. I thought I had them all tightened back up but it was a rookie mistake to not just remove them and replace them with the ring type tacks. Once I started tacking into the stem, they started to come loose again. It's too late now to do anything about it but I am sure they will expedite a new canvas earlier than it it would have been if I set them right with the right fasteners. Oh well, it's a 106 years old and I plan on paddling the boat extensively so it just doesn't pay to rip this all off and start over. The canvas should prevent the tacks from being able to back all the way out, but if that does happen, I will do it over.
I was able to get two coats of the filler on before I ran out and then I used a canvas scrap to burnish it out to a fairly smooth finish. Just ordered another 1/2 gallon of filler and I am planning on trying to thin the last coat by 10% and apply it with a foam roller and then do a final sanding once it's cured. I think it looks pretty good, overall but you can see the wood filler buttons in some spots but I am not sure how I could have gotten all of those out without botching the cedar. Hoping some of the imperfections come out with the final filler coat and then wet sanding and primer.