Old Town 146074 13

[Daniel Childers]

I am in the process of purchasing an 13' Old Town 50#er. I plan to join WCHA soon. I believe the SN is 146074 13. A couple of digits are in question. Very curious about build information for this boat as I hope to start restoration soon after acquisition. Thank you for your help.

 

[Benson Gray]

You will need to let us know which digits are in question (or attach some pictures) since the Old Town build record for serial number 146074 shows a round bottom rowboat that is 15 foot long. There aren't any 13 foot long canoes shown shown in the 14607x range either.

Benson

 

[Benson Gray]

I've looked at the image of the serial number that you sent to the webmaster account and checked all of the build records in the 146x24 range. My guess it that you have the Old Town canoe with serial number 146124. This is a 13 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, fifty pound model with open spruce gunwales, ash decks, ash thwarts, ash seats, a keel, and outside stems. It was built between July and October, 1946. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on November 6th, 1946 to Milwaukee, Wis. A scan of this build record and a copy of your image showing the number 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.

Benson

 

[Daniel Childers]

I was truly amazed by the promptness of your research and assistance. Thank you. I do have a couple of additional questions.
1. Decals - Did this canoe have decals on both decks or just the bow? And did it have "Old Town" painted (or decaled) on the side?
2. Decks - I have attached a picture of the decks and they are just semi-circular rather than the normal Old Town double ogee. Any ideas why?
3. Inwales - I assume the the open spruce gunwale refers to the outwale. Newer trappers seems to use Ash for the inwales. Island Falls lists two option for outwales (spruce or , but only one option for inwales. Any idea what species the inwales would have been?
4. Deck hardware - Were deck rings an option or standard equipment? If it didn't have deck ring then how would one attach a painter? ...possibly an opening or arch in the stem band?...or a single hole in the deck?
5. Thwarts - The Old Town Spec page says that thwarts depend on the model and can be seen in the photos. In its current condition my canoe has no thwarts and pictures I have seen of newer Trappers have a yoke but no thwarts. Any idea if this canoe had a yoke or thwarts?

 

[Benson Gray]

1. There was usually a name plate on the bow deck with nothing on the stern deck. The side decals did not appear until the 1950s so this canoe probably didn't have these.
2. The deck was semi-cicular as shown in the image attached below and this was probably done to save weight.
3. The inwales and outwales were both usually made of spruce on CS grade canoes during this era.
4. Painter rings were an option but none are listed on the build record for this canoe. You can easily pass a small line through the open gunwale holes along the deck if you need to secure a canoe without painter rings. Some builders would make an arch in the stem band or drill a hole in the deck for this purpose but Old Towns didn't typically come from the factory this way.
5. This canoe would have been built originally with a traditional straight thwart. The yokes were an option at that time.

Good luck with the restoration,

Benson