odd looking serial number???

[dlsduane]

I had an elderly neighbor give me his old canvas canoe that he had used many years ago as a scout leader and canoe instructor. He has since died and I didn't get much information from him before he passed on. It is very termite eaten. The gunwales and decks and stern seat (slatted, not caned) are a mess. They will all need to be replaced. The canvas is too old and will need to be taken off. The keel is in two pieces and some of the ribs are rotted at the tips. However, the rest seems to be in better condition and looks like a good prospect for restoration.

I have looked for a serial number and have found on the 5th rib from the bow an etched series of numbers and letters - SC 2015 LW 0777. The inner portion of the canoe was painted eggshell white. Maybe the serial number is under that paint if the above info does not help.

Any help would be appreciated.

Duane

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Pictures may help the most--- deck, profile of bow or stern, interior showing rib style (tapered, beveled, screw in every other, etc) and thwarts and seats... even with a simple 5-digit serial number, it helps to see a picture. Besides, we like looking at canoes!

Kathy

 

[pklonowski]

Besides pictures of the canoe from various angles, and showing lots of detail, look at the inboard ends of the stems. Take a heat gun to them, using a narrow scraper to remove paint. Use a pulling motion, as pushing tends to dig into the wood. This may help reveal any serial number on the stems. Old Town Canoe Co put their SNs there, and they made a lot of canoes, so this may reveal a lot of information for the effort.

Of course, you may find nothing there, but that tells us it's probably not an Old Town...

 

[dlsduane]

odd looking serial number

Yepper...I went out and sanded the paint down and found the number 146621 on the stem board. I don't know what that crazy numbering is all about. Perhaps the owner used it to identify his canoe being that he didn't know the serial number was hiding under the paint. Thanks for your responses. Now I will need to find out the age and history.
Duane

 

[pklonowski]

That sounds like an Old Town serial number. Ther are probably two more digits to it, separated from the first six by a couple inches or more. The additional digits indicate the length, so it they're "17" it's a 17 foot canoe, etc.

Now for the really wild part.. I own Old Town # 146611, which is a 17-foot Otca model, built in 1946. Just ten SNs away from yours! So yours is a 1946 model as well! Somebody should be along soon to post the original build record.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Cool Coincidence

Old Town 146621 is a 16 foot CS (common sense or middle) grade Otca model canoe that was completed September-December of 1946. It has open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts and ash seats, and a keel. Original color was dark green. The canoe was shipped to Walthour and Hood Co., of Atlanta, GA, on January 7, 1947.

Slatted seats are consistent with a WWII era Old Town canoe--- the cane supply disappeared during the war and wasn't available until some time in 1947. The Otca of this era would have a 20" deck with coaming and not the short deck that is typical of other Old Town models, which has also been used on the Otca since the late '50s.

If the details of this canoe don't seem to match your canoe, we can keep looking. Your scan is attached below-- click on it to get a larger size.

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/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/join.php to join.

Kathy