Restoration Complete!

Mark67

Curious about Wooden Canoes
I just wanted to share with community about the restortation my family & I embarked on this past year.
It's pretty much the same old story, Grandfather bought neat wooden canoe in the mid-20's, and it has stayed in the family since. Generations of us had grown up learning to canoe in this boat at our cottage in Central Wisconsin.
Over that time it had been cared for, repainted, recanvased, fiberglassed (insert gasp here), etc. But during the last several years, time and heavy use had taken it's toll. She needed help, proffessional help.
After some time spent sending photos across the country, and researching various shops, I finally got a response and a lead that I thought was worth pursuing. Dave Osborn (Little Lakes Canoe Restoration & Guiding) had positively ID'd the canoe (a St. Louis Canoe Co.) and was within what I'll call "driving distance".
We brought the canoe to Dave's shop for an introduction, July 7th of 2011. It was there that he explained about his mentoring program. With Dave's coaching, I could do the work on the canoe myself, under his watchful eye. This fit with my desire to have a hands on experience, but also have the knowledge base you only gain from years of experience. I found just what I was looking for.
We started by getting the canoe completely stripped of varnish by a shop in Appleton, Wi. Wow! That is so worth the cost! Then I began the first of 4 weekends I would spend at Dave's shop. Dave was awesome at helping develop a plan, and explain the what's and why's of everything we had to do. He really kept to the whole thing in perspective for me.
I had set a goal of getting this completed by the 4th of July this year. Once it looked like we'd make it, an Aunt & Uncle from Springfield Mo. planned a trip up to be there for the re-launch! And Dave worked with me the whole time to help me achieve this goal.
After some work done back home in Illinois, my son & I raced it back up to Dave's for one last visit, for her final fitting of the canvas. Then it was back home for finishing and painting.
We got her back up to Wisconsin, did all the final fitting and finishing while at the lake. And I am proud to say that we had her back in the water on June 30th. Just 51 shorts weeks from when we started!
She looks AWESOME! And paddles like we all remember. So now hopefully the next generations will get to share this experience and connection with their great-grandparents.
I had a great time working through all of the stages of the restoration. But there are a few things I want to share with anybody facing a similar situation.
First thing, do it! Make it happen! You'll be so glad you did.
Second thing, if you need help, you'll find it here. If you're not comfortable with doing the work yourself, find a shop that will work with you. Take some classes. The experts here are worth their weight in gold. I wouldn't have been able to do this (at least to the level that I did) without Dave's guidance.
Third, create a budget. This is where our family all stepped up. For the last couple of years, we used every gift-giving season as an opportunity to donate to the canoe fund. Without this approach, I know we could'nt have made this happen. So a special thanks goes out to my family for that, and all the support they provided throughout the whole process.
Norm, Al & Canoe, 1932.jpgDSCF0011.JPGDSCF5313.jpgfurther dissassembled.jpgIMG_1620.jpg
 
Congrats on the hard work and wonderful reward. That photo is about the coolest thing ever. Imagine finding old wood-spoke wheels and having a period correct canoe trailer.
Yikes that'd be nifty. :cool:
 
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