Splined Seat Conversion

Brly

Brly

Enthusiastic about Wooden Canoes
A buddy at work has a royalex canoe with sheet caned seats that are toast. The frames are fine, just need refinishing.
I have a bunch of cane leftover from when I rebuilt my wood canvas canoe and would prefer to drill holes and hand cane them. Trying to save him a buck by using what I have already.
I'm assuming the best way to go is dig out/rout out the groove and glue in a solid piece of ash to fill the groove, then drill holes, finish and cane.
Is there a better/preferred way?

Thanks,
Ben
 
Turning the seats over might help. The only way that works is to flip them side for side. Obviously end for end will result in a shape that no longer fits...
 
On most of the modern Old Town canoes I own or sell, I simply replace the seats. A few times saving the old frames and replacing the cane convinced me that it's simply not worth my time or effort to do anything more. There are multiple sources of ready to go seats. The one I have used for a very long time is in Vermont, Essex Industries. https://essexindustries.org/
Essex is a not-for-profit business that offers employment to people with intellectual disabilities, so a good cause for us to support while avoiding the wretched job of repairing splined cane seats. Frankly, it is easier to make new caned seats from scratch than to do that repair.
You might want to give Essex a call since their current web offerings are missing the standard cane seats they offer. I do not recommend webbing for seats even though it does hold up quite well. In a rapid or on a rough lake, you need to lift yourself off of them to change position, with cane, you can easily shift... Cane is (my opinion) cooler.
 
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