Penn Yan Rainbow Outwale Profile

[Howie]

I'll shortly be starting on restoring another 1940's Penn Yan Rainbow. Its outwales have significant damage and will need replacing, but there's enough there to allow me to take measurements. And I'm wondering how to make 'em to be like the originals.

In addition to the above Rainbow I also have (HAD - I sold it just yesterday!) another restored Rainbow, from 1951.

I took outwale measurements from both canoes. I used a profile gauge and sketched up what I see. The outwale shapes of the two canoes are somewhat different. Thought I'd share the results...



The little numbered rectangles with arrows show the tablesaw cuts - the #s indicate the order the cuts are to be made.

Guess I'll try the 1951 one - looks a little easier. And safer.

Anybody have a different/better technique?

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Hi Howie,

You're off to a good start. I start at the tablesaw, like you do, shaping as closely as possible. From there I may use the router table to get the profile even closer to what I want, but whether or not I use the router table, I end up doing the shaping of final curves by hand using spokeshaves and sandpaper. With a good eye, you can achieve outstanding results that are very similar to the originals (true for any piece with complex shape - outwales, thwarts, "chubby" outside stems of Charles River-area canoes). The original manufacturers probably had shapers specific to each curve they made, but for the small restoration and/or building shop, hand shaping works very well.

 

[Howie]

Yeah, Thanks. And I'm guessing that as their router bits got dull and were resharpened the profile gradually changed. And when new bits were made they shape changed again. That's explain the differences I see between the two Rainbows. Wish I could see how it was done back then. The engineer in me sees several ways to do it all in one pass - just feed the stock in & get the finished outwale out - plus a ton of saw dust.

 

[David Satter]

Howie I always cut a small section of the old gunwale and set my saw by that and run some scrap through, if I like it then I'll run the new gunwale through. then do the next angle side in the same way. Works well with the feather boards. I was going to check with you today anyway, Penn Yan decals , do you have any , the small almost square ones. I'm looking for two of them. I got them from you before. Thanks, Dave