pressed seat removal, lacing replacement

[Ben Fuller]

Need to remove broken pressed seats. What is best way to loosen the glue? I've cut the seats out and cut the pressed wood flush. I'm tempted to leave it in place as I plan to replace it with showshoe/ babiche webbing which I find much more comfortable.

 

[Dave Osborn]

I use a heat gun and a customized screwdriver to soften the glue and pry out the spline. I also use a very narrow chisel to clean up the kling-ons.

 

[MGC]

Pretty much the same as Dave if I do the repair. I also curse quite a bit.
For pressed cane I've taken to using the seats from Essex rather than torture myself if it's for a modern canoe.
For restorations I generally make new frames for hand woven cane.
If I were planning to do babiche, I would probably add those frames to my growing seat pile and make new ones.

 

[Dave Osborn]

Essex Industries makes great seats. They don’t cost much more than it does to order woven mat and spline. Buy them if you don’t care about originality in your canoe. Or do what Mike and I BOTH do and curse while you replace the cane.
Truthfully replacement is not that bad. However I do curse sometime when a big chip comes off the seat stile or the heat gun scalds the wood, or the temporary wedges fall out, huh Mike!

 

[Worth Gretter]

I replaced pressed cane once. A friend loaned me a narrow chisel, perhaps 3/16", and it worked so well that I went out and bought my own.
But putting in new cane and spline was a bit of a pain, so next time I just bought new seats as Dave and Mike suggest.
However, if you are planning to re-do the seat with babiche or webbing, another option is to flip the seat frames over. You have to flip each seat side-to-side, not front-to-back, so the frame still fits the gunwales.

 

[Ben Fuller]

Thanks for the idea of flipping the seat. I want to try babiche/ webbing since I tried it on an Allagash trip last year, found it much more secure and comfortable than cane seats. I'm thinking about just flush cutting the pressed cane insert, which would leave a nice even light colored streak. I did need to get a metric tape to make it easier to layout babibiche. I'm going to go for inexpensive snow shoe webbing to learn how before I go for babiche.

 

[Dave Osborn]

Ben
Check the seat to see if the joints are tight. I knock em with a hammer…..
It’s your one and only time to re-glue the joints if they need it.

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

Rather than re-posting old stuff, you will want to read this old thread. It has general info and even some lacing patterns.
content="thread-16048"]https://forums.wcha.org/threads/working-with-rawhide.16048/

 

[Ben Fuller]

Todd, thanks for the old thread. I saw the same pattern in the book on restoring old canoes. Seat joints are indeed tight as the canoe dates to the late 80s, made of that modern stuff....

 

[Ben Fuller]

Does anyone use something like a net needle onto which to wind the babiche or lacing to keep from having to overhaul yards of lacing? Does suchja tool exist?

 

[ALCEDO ATTHIS]

rawhide from "buffalo street junk sofa" , I cut many lengths , and do many hiden node under the seat
we aven't rawhide in France so I put the leather lengths in washing soda to age and change the color
I 'ts simple , but many mistakes on the weaving

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

Does anyone use something like a net needle onto which to wind the babiche or lacing to keep from having to overhaul yards of lacing?

Generally, not needed. The rawhide usually comes in random length pieces from 3' to around 6' long. As you work, you splice pieces together to make continuous lengths. The typical splice is made by cutting a small (1/2") slit, lengthwise into both pieces, around 3/8" to 1/2" from the ends of the strips. Then you pass the strip ends through the slits of the opposite piece and interlock them. This is where the installation can get tedious. The finished splices are strong, but not visually beautiful and they're stiff enough once dry that you certainly don't want to sit on them. So, you need to plan the lengths of the strips as you weave so that your splices end up at the wooden frame and generally the underside of the seat.

The photo showing the backside of the frame of a snowshoe rocking chair shows all the splices lined up along the wooden piece with those stiff little tag ends of the splices sticking out. The same sort of thing should be done on the bottom of a canoe seat, though if your strips are long enough, you may be able to have fewer splices. However many splices it takes, they need to be over by the frame and out of the way. This often means cutting the strips a bit shorter to position a splice.

There is always one more, somewhat less aesthetic, but practical approach, and that would be plastic lacing. Some of the places that make lawn furniture actually have some pretty decent lacing. I used some to wrap the gunwales of my fur trade canoe because I was worried that mice in the garage would eat the original rawhide wraps, and I was fresh out of split spruce root.

 

[Ben Fuller]

Todd, thanks. Good information on handling the splices. For my first go I'm going to use tech deck nylon snowshoe lacing as a relatively inexpensive learning tool. So the lacing would be continuous, a down side. Up side is that I've spend a bunch of time on artificial lacing seats and found it comfortable. Having fishing net experience I wondered if there was anything like a net needle tool. With rawhide doesn't look like its needed.

 

[Ben Fuller]

With the help of the diagram posted by Todd, https://forums.wcha.org/threads/working-with-rawhide.16048/, I spent election day lacing a seat with nylon snow shoe webbing. I figure it will stretch a bit and I'll tighten then hit it up with the varnish brush. Needed about 50' for the stern seat, overhauling it was a real pain and I can see working with shorter lengths in babiche will be much easier. Putting it on wet then letting it shrink would also be much easier than trying to keep the weave tight.

 

[Dave Osborn]

I found that snowshoe webbing wanted to slide around and loosen up.