Primary Sources for Shellac Use

[AldenWitham22]

Hey all, as someone who works in wood finishing (historic preservation in particular) the topic of shellac comes up often in my life. More than any sane or normal person. As someone who likes to use ands restore old canoes the topic of shellac below the waterline is a natural extension on that. As someone who works in wood finishing professionally, who is under 60yo, something as controversial as using shellac on the bottom of a boat gets me laughed at. I've had the old guys tell me I'm just wrong or that the sources I reference are wrong and that they mean something else when they say "shellac". My own experiences are glossed over, even when I show a boat that was in the water with no issues.

Give me some ammunition here history buffs, please! I would think that my own first-hand use would be enough, considering it's something that I have more experience with than the guys I have this debate with, but apparently not. Can you give me some good first hand accounts of this to knock the compression socks off those boomers?

 

[Rob Stevens]

Search here; "shellac canoe bottom"
Several threads come up; https://forums.wcha.org/threads/shellac-for-canoe-bottoms.9074/
More if you Google those same search terms.
"Lowangle" on Canoe Tripping Net claims his shellaced bottom is faster;

Shellac vs. paint for boat bottom

I've been paddling my new 20' EM White by Island Falls for about 6 weeks and have come to the conclusion that a shellacked bottom is faster. My impression when I first slid the boat in the water was that there was a lot less friction and it moved noticeably easier on land. Sliding through the...

www.canoetripping.net

(I think the speed could be related to the length of canoe ie. basic hydrodynamics)

Rollin Thurlow/Northwoods Canoe Co. has been using shellac for canoe bottoms for nearly half a century.

Popular Custom Options - Northwoods Canoe Co.

Additional Popular Options Keel ..........................$225 Outside Stems ......... $275 Floor Rack ............... $425 Half Ribs .................. $325 Trim Rails ................ $425 Two-tone Paint ........ $325 Hardwood Trim (Mahogany, Cherry, Walnut) ..... $350 For extended decks...

www.wooden-canoes.com

https://www.wooden-canoes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/14-E.M.-White-10.jpg

Join the discussion at Assembly;
Bottom Painting (Thurs 10:30-11:30) [Craft Tent]
Rolling Thurlow (Northwoods Canoes) shares techniques for marking, masking and painting a two-tone waterline with the option of shellacking the bottom.

 

[samb]

Rolling Thurlow (Northwoods Canoes) shares techniques for marking, masking and painting a two-tone waterline with the option of shellacking the bottom.

It would be good if this could be videoed.

 

[MGC]

Rollin and Jerry have both shared the shellacked bottom with the broader canoeing community, but if you ever spent any amount of time in the region where they are both located you would recognize that a shellacked bottom was once the norm. I recall seeing my first White canoes on Moosehead in the late 1960's and they had a few things in common. They were painted (almost all of them) grey and many of them had shellack on the bottoms. My father, who had guided there in the 40's told me that was the norm for the canoes that they took over the NE Carry.
I have since owned one tripping canoe that I shellacked and I have the following to note.
First, it is a very easy finish to maintain. Annually (depending on usage) I spend about an hour prepping it and freshening up the shellack. Obviously, paint would take a lot longer.
Next, it does indeed seem to resist sticking on things you might hit in the water, rocks, sticks etc.
Finally, if you ever haul a loaded canoe over a beaver dam, you will immediately notice that it is easier with a shellacked hull, and the damage you might get on a painted boat (scratches) is minimal and as noted, easy to sort out.
I suppose the ultimate test might be What would Rollin do? Good question. His own personal canoe has a shellacked bottom.
I recall talking to a ranger at Michaud Farm years ago and his comment was "I can always tell when Rollin is coming down the river by looking at the paint job." He noted "I can spot it from a mile away". Yup. I won't say what he said about Jerry, but apparently, he is equally easy to spot.

 

[Benson Gray]

The period postcards of canoes at the North East Carry and Moosehead Lake area shown in the links below appear to have some shellacked bottoms. Most of these were hand painted over black and white photographs so the colors may not be correct.

Benson

North East Carry, Maine | Wooden Canoe Museum

woodencanoemuseum.org

North East Carry, Maine | Wooden Canoe Museum

woodencanoemuseum.org

https://www.mainememory.net/record/80756/

https://www.mainememory.net/record/14057/

 

[Dan Lindberg]

I am curious, who would be these "old guys" that think shellac is wrong? Do they know anything about W/C canoes?

I've had the old guys tell me I'm just wrong

 

[1905Gerrish]

The period postcards of canoes at the North East Carry and Moosehead Lake area shown in the links below appear to have some shellacked bottoms. Most of these were hand painted over black and white photographs so the colors may not be correct.

Benson

North East Carry, Maine | Wooden Canoe Museum

woodencanoemuseum.org

North East Carry, Maine | Wooden Canoe Museum

woodencanoemuseum.org

https://www.mainememory.net/record/80756/

https://www.mainememory.net/record/14057/

Benson,

Do you have you any info on old catalogs mentioning shellac for an exterior finish from the Maine builders? I cannot recall any in my limited info.

Zack

 

[Benson Gray]

Do you have you any info on old catalogs mentioning shellac for an exterior finish from the Maine builders?

The short answer is no. A search in 508 old canoe catalogs from 96 builders found 19 documents with 25 instances of shellac but all of them described uses on wood work. The builders where these references were found included Morris, Rushton, Kennebec, Old Town, and Rice Lake. None of them referenced any application on canvas. This does not appear to have been a common factory option. Sorry,

Benson

 

[floydvoid]

I think the Racine manufacturing company says that the canvas was “ironed into shellac” which I have wondered about.

 

[Benson Gray]

I think the Racine manufacturing company says that the canvas was “ironed into shellac” which I have wondered about.

Can you provide a copy of this Racine catalog? I have their catalogs from circa 1880s, 1881, 1905, 1922 and 1924 but haven't found a reference to shellac in any of them. Thanks,

Benson

 

[floydvoid]

I have a page from the RBMCo catalog for the canvas canoe on my computer that I thought said it unless I’m remembering this post:
Post in thread 'Shellac'
https://forums.wcha.org/threads/shellac.11847/post-60935

 

[Rob Stevens]

And while we are thinking of historical sources on the use of shellac,...
I painted my Atkinson Traveler maroon, with grey below the waterline. Could I apply shellac over the gray paint for the functional advantages provided by shellac? That way, annual maintenance (of shellac) might not need to be annual.

 

[floydvoid]

Here is the catalog page Benson in an old post :
Post in thread 'Racine Boat Manufacturing Co. Canoe'
https://forums.wcha.org/threads/racine-boat-manufacturing-co-canoe.15517/post-78453

 

[MGC]

And while we are thinking of historical sources on the use of shellac,...
I painted my Atkinson Traveler maroon, with grey below the waterline. Could I apply shellac over the gray paint for the functional advantages provided by shellac? That way, annual maintenance (of shellac) might not need to be annual.

I have not put shellac over paint, but I do recall reading a thread that Rollin responded to where he did say that you could apply it over paint.

Post in thread 'Rustoleum Paint?'

Jul 27, 2024

The shellac wants to be the 3/lb cut shellac, sometimes called "orange" or "Amber" shellac by different manufacturers.
You do not want to use the more common "clear" shellac. Once the clear shellac gets wet it turns a milky white and becomes very soft.
The 3lb shellac can be put directly over the filler but it can equally be applied over most paints. The shellac is not clear but more of a simi-clear orange that you can see the color underneath. It does seem to turn funny colors when put over colored paints so the basic filler gray seems to be what most people use. The shellac does not...

• Rollin Thurlow

• 

He offers sage advice (hey, it's Rollin, so as expected) about being very careful about runs and cleanup. And, he has said several times that shellac is its own thing and not paint. I don't know anyone who can achieve Pam Wedd perfection with shellac. Let's say it can have character.

 

[1905Gerrish]

The period postcards of canoes at the North East Carry and Moosehead Lake area shown in the links below appear to have some shellacked bottoms. Most of these were hand painted over black and white photographs so the colors may not be correct.

Benson

North East Carry, Maine | Wooden Canoe Museum

woodencanoemuseum.org

North East Carry, Maine | Wooden Canoe Museum

woodencanoemuseum.org

https://www.mainememory.net/record/80756/

https://www.mainememory.net/record/14057/

Benson,
I guess I assumed over the years that this was a two-tone paint job on these canoes. Original or additional maintenance paint applied to where it is needed most. I have painted some of my Gerrish's out this way. Seems odd that if shellac was used, we cannot find any info on it anywhere.

 

[MGC]

I recall seeing mostly grey paint jobs and some that were probably shellac on Moosehead back in the late 60s. I did not see any canoes with two-tone paint, not then or in the 70s.
The canoe used by the drive coordinator (happened to be there before the last drive) was actually green. He gave us a tow from the put-in at NE Carry to the first logging camp, a few miles. He was getting things ready for the drive and let us stay in the camp. He also let us camp on his lawn when we reached Chesuncook..
There have been several posts here about shellac. In one of them I posted a picture of a White 20 that was for sale up there about 20 years ago. It looked like it had pine tar applied to it giving the appearance of two-tone. Looking at it again, its so cloudy looking, I wonder if it is shellac?

https://forums.wcha.org/attachments/1722088656698-jpeg.56521/

I think my father said the canoes they guided with were mostly grey, and the ones he used when he worked for the forest service were green. He never mentioned shellac on those, but we saw it in use around the lake.

 

[Benson Gray]

I have a page from the RBMCo catalog for the canvas canoe on my computer that I thought said it

There were a variety of Racine builders who made canoes including the Racine Boat Company, Racine Boat Manufacturing Company, Racine Hardware Manufacturing, Racine Yacht & Boat Works, and others. Their building styles were not all the same and I haven't gotten all their catalogs loaded into my searchable database yet. The Racine Boat Manufacturing Company catalogs from the first few years after 1900 include the “ironed into shellac” description. This was changed in 1905 to say "Canvas in one piece securely cemented on and thoroughly filled and finished in white or green enamel" as shown below. It appears that they may have been using shellac (and heat) to adhere the canvas to the wood. This is different from the Maine canoes where shellac was used on the outside of the canvas below the water line. Let me know if you have other questions. Thanks,

Benson

 

[floydvoid]

I should have specified what Racine I was talking about

I’ve wondered about that ironed into shellac description, I don’t know when my RBMCo boat is from, but the canvas is not adhered to the boat and I don’t see shellac remains in the hull outside. The filler of the canvas seems very smooth, not sure how to describe it, still pliable more than an original OT canvas. I think it is original to the canoe.

 

[Rob Stevens]

The stable/rack of canoes used by Maine Guide David Lewis

 

[1905Gerrish]

These two E.R Starbird photos show a few canoes with two-tone finishes from 1896. Both photos taken in the Moosehead Lake vicinity and who knows, maybe these are some of the same canoes in the postcards Benson posted above. These men pictured were some of the famous full-time guides of the lake and their names are well known.

The solo canoe appears to be a White, note the bolted under the rail thwart already, which I don't think has a shellac but rather two-tone paint. I have seen other photos of this similar two-tone finish.

The five-canoe photo on shore show 2 canoes with two-tone finishes. I always assumed these were paint as well as nothing historical can be found with shellac being in use this early. One has a few inches higher up finish than the other. Looks to be three different builders in the photo. I have some guesses. What do you say?

Zack