ChetPunisher
Curious about Wooden Canoes
Just picked this canoe up. Can you tell me anything about it? Thanks.
OT serial request 148574-16
- Thread starter ChetPunisher
- Start date
The Old Town canoe with serial number 148574 is a 16 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Yankee model with red Western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, and a keel. It was built between April and June, 1947. The original exterior paint color was orange. It was shipped on February 24th, 1948 to Battle Creek, Michigan. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link behind the thumbnail image attached below.
This scan and several hundred thousand more 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 other questions.
Benson
This scan and several hundred thousand more 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 other questions.
Benson
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ChetPunisher
Curious about Wooden Canoes
Thanks. Any idea how I would go about finding the orange paint color?
A standard Old Town color was named Princeton Orange, as in the university. You will find sevveral posts on these forums with that name, and photos in Wooden Canoe magazine, for example vol.35 #5, Oct. 2012. But a good wintertime project will be removing the outwales, keel, and stem bands, saving hardware, get the old canvas off, and repair the wood with scarfs to inwales, outwale tips and the deck tip. You may find other repairs are needed once canvas is off. Perhaps stripping old varnish and re-varnishing. Once that work is done, new canvas, filler, lots of sanding, priming, and at long last, painting. Then replace the outwales and brass stem bands. My choice woul be leae the keel off, at least until you've had the opportunity to get the feel of it when paddling. Tom McCloud
Greg Nolan
enthusiast
Welcome to the WCHA.
Your canoe needs more than just a new canvas -- any recovering done by the previous owner was done long ago (and several coats of paint ago), and it was left out in more than one snowfall. That said, with a bit of restoration work you will have a very nice canoe. Tom has outlined the basic approach you might take. Be of good cheer -- the work is all manageable, and it looks harder than it actually is.
When considering any work on a wood/canvas canoe -- maintenance, repair, restoration, and whether you plan to do it yourself or to hire a professional, there are three good sources of information that you would do well to get, or at least look at, before making any decision about how to proceed:
The Wood and Canvas Canoe: A Complete Guide to its History, Construction, Restoration, and Maintenance by Rollin Thurlow and Jerry Stelmok
Building the Maine Guide Canoe by Jerry Stelmok
This Old Canoe: How To Restore Your Wood-Canvas Canoe, by Mike Elliott
The first is often called the "bible" of canoe repair, restoration, and maintenance; the second is an excellent study of the wooden/canvas canoe and its construction. The third was just recently published and has gotten some good reviews.
Of course, you can always ask questions here on the forums -- don't be shy, even if your question seems simple. We have all faced situations where we weren't sure what to do, but others have faced the same situations and figured out how to proceed.
You might also want to look at The Old Town Canoe Company by Susan Audette and David Baker, a great history of the Old Town company and its canoes.
These books are all available from the WCHA store, and are often on eBay, or available from Amazon.
Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. And while we here all focus primarily on wooden canoes, many of us also have canoes built of other materials -- fiberglass, aluminum, and various plastics, and may be able to help out if you have any maintenance/repair issues with your plastic boat.
And again, welcome to the WCHA
Greg Nolan
President, WCHA
Your canoe needs more than just a new canvas -- any recovering done by the previous owner was done long ago (and several coats of paint ago), and it was left out in more than one snowfall. That said, with a bit of restoration work you will have a very nice canoe. Tom has outlined the basic approach you might take. Be of good cheer -- the work is all manageable, and it looks harder than it actually is.
When considering any work on a wood/canvas canoe -- maintenance, repair, restoration, and whether you plan to do it yourself or to hire a professional, there are three good sources of information that you would do well to get, or at least look at, before making any decision about how to proceed:
The Wood and Canvas Canoe: A Complete Guide to its History, Construction, Restoration, and Maintenance by Rollin Thurlow and Jerry Stelmok
Building the Maine Guide Canoe by Jerry Stelmok
This Old Canoe: How To Restore Your Wood-Canvas Canoe, by Mike Elliott
The first is often called the "bible" of canoe repair, restoration, and maintenance; the second is an excellent study of the wooden/canvas canoe and its construction. The third was just recently published and has gotten some good reviews.
Of course, you can always ask questions here on the forums -- don't be shy, even if your question seems simple. We have all faced situations where we weren't sure what to do, but others have faced the same situations and figured out how to proceed.
You might also want to look at The Old Town Canoe Company by Susan Audette and David Baker, a great history of the Old Town company and its canoes.
These books are all available from the WCHA store, and are often on eBay, or available from Amazon.
Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. And while we here all focus primarily on wooden canoes, many of us also have canoes built of other materials -- fiberglass, aluminum, and various plastics, and may be able to help out if you have any maintenance/repair issues with your plastic boat.
And again, welcome to the WCHA
Greg Nolan
President, WCHA
You may be able to come close if it has the original canvas and you want to conduct some paint archeology. Find an area that wasn't exposed to a lot of direct sun like under the keel, stem bands, or rails. Tom's suggestion of Princeton Orange may be a good place to start. The site at https://www.princeton.edu/communications/services/image/graphic/color/ specifies this as Pantone® (PMS) 158 if you want to get it exact. The information at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?7345 may give you some other ideas. I would encourage you to just pick a shade that you like. Please post some pictures of it here when you are finished.
Benson
ChetPunisher
Curious about Wooden Canoes
Thanks guys.
