Gary Willoughby
Boat Builder
All of the Penn Yan canoes I have worked on have had Dacron covering on them. Did they ever use canvas? If so what year did they start using Dacron?
Penn Yan
- Thread starter Gary Willoughby
- Start date
I have just quickly looked through a collection of Penn Yan catalogs from the 1920s to 1960 and didn't see any references to Dacron covering. This is probably not too surprising since Dacron was not offered as a canoe covering in the Old Town Canoe Company catalogs until 1965. The circa 1926 Penn Yan catalog only mentions canvas. The 1933 and following catalogs mention "pyroxylin processed" canvas. The 1948 catalog says "the canvas is then filled with a pure plastic" but without any details. The 1952 catalog expands on this by saying "pure xcelite plastic reenforced with canvas" (sic). The spelling error was corrected in the 1954 catalog. The name was changed to "Plaston" in the 1958 catalog but it was still described as "xcelite" in the text. The "Plaston" name remained in the 1960 catalog but the "Xcelite" was capitalized. Someone with more experience restoring Penn Yan canoes may be able to offer additional details.
Benson
Benson
The 1948 catalog also marks the shift from using No. 8 canvas to 8oz (lightweight) and 15oz canvas. This probably corresponds to when they were using aircraft dopes as filler, an offshoot of Penn Yan's wartime efforts.
A bit of googling suggests that Dacron was available to the mass market about 1951, so it is certainly possible that PY experimented with the fabric. I have not see it personally on any Penn Yan canoes yet.
A bit of googling suggests that Dacron was available to the mass market about 1951, so it is certainly possible that PY experimented with the fabric. I have not see it personally on any Penn Yan canoes yet.
OP
OP
Gary Willoughby
Boat Builder
I thought they used Dacron because it did not look like canvas. did they use airplane dope with canvas ? if not what did they use?
They are known to have used lightweight canvas with the aircraft dopes. Somewhere I have a modern schedule for recreating what they did, which involves nitrate and butyrate dopes, in taughtening and non-taughtening flavors, with aluminum powder. Randolph is one brand that was still available last I looked. The cost was far more than canvasing and filling using traditional techniques so I never tried it out. Plus, the dopes are highly flammable, and probably not all that good for you.
OP
OP
Gary Willoughby
Boat Builder
Dan check your PM please
H.E. Pennypacker
LOVES Wooden Canoes
I can't tell you when they went to Dacron, but the use of proxylin and related chemicals has been around for a long time. Nitrocellulose is made by processing cellulose (cotton, for example) with nitric acid and sulfuric acid. Nitrocellulose in alcohol or ether produces the plastic proxylin. Proxylin is fast-drying and forms a film, which has many uses. It has been around since before the Civil War, when among other things it was used as a covering for wounds. Since then, these substances have been the basis for artificial leathers, laquers, automotive finishes and explosives. It is the basis of guncotton and flash paper (well known from the magician's toolkit). "Airplane dope" includes things like nitrocellulose, cellulose acetate or other similar chemicals.
Dacron is DuPont's trade name for polyester fiber and the fabrics made from it. Mylar is the same thing, just in film form.
So if you're very diligent you can have a beautiful, resilient, AND explosive Penn Yan!
Dacron is DuPont's trade name for polyester fiber and the fabrics made from it. Mylar is the same thing, just in film form.
So if you're very diligent you can have a beautiful, resilient, AND explosive Penn Yan!
