Peterberough Restoration

[erbinsky]

Hi all. It's springtime up here in eastern Ontario,the grass is growing.the leaves are almost out,the chipmunks are ripping the *@#!! out of the flowerbeds and I'm thinking of paddleing.I've built several glass/epoxy cedar strip canoes as well as some stich and glue boats but the time has come for me to restore my 15 ft.Peterberough stripper. A little history on this canoe... it was given to me by my father who bought it about 40 years ago. I've owned it for about 15 years and have put a lot of miles on it as well as some scars. Dad bought it from an elderly gentleman (elderly 40 years ago) who said he worked for Peterberough Boat Works and built this particular canoe for himself. When I had this boat appraised for insurance purposes the appraiser said it was " an excellent example of Peterberough contruction"....but it lacked the documentation. He also dated it from the late 1920's to early 30's. We can all believe as much of that as we like,but it makes for an interesting tale.Anyway , after years of use I would like to try to restore this canoe at least on the outside. I have lightly sanded and revarnished the hull every season and now there are areas where the cedar is extreemly dark as well as areas where the original finish is intact and the colour is very light. My question is ...is there a way to return the entire hull to the lighter colour? Sanding the dark spots doesn't change the colour and I don't want to remove too much material or nail heads...Any advice would be greatly appreciated... Thanks.....Cheers Jeff.

 

[Mark Adams]

Hello,

I had much the same problem with my Pete cedar strip. I used a 2 part teak cleaner which seemed to do the trick. You could also try oxalic acid though this seems to be more effective on really dark stains such as rust.

HTH.