Worth Gretter
LOVES Wooden Canoes
Not to be a nitpicker, but the builder should not have landed two gores on the same rib!
Waltham Canoe number 1119 - a restoration saga
- Thread starter Dan Miller
- Start date
Dave Wermuth
Who hid my paddle?
My Kingsbury also has gores like that.
MGC
Scrapmaker
That was my reaction as well...that's some pretty mediocre construction to my eye. I have long complained about the somewhat sloppy build of Inc. Rushton's. This makes them look like gems. They never cut a corner on the shear planks.
OP
OP
That would make sense. Kingsbury was working for Waltham in 1901, which is where he probably learned to do that.
JClearwater
Wooden Canoes are in the Blood
I will not find fault with where the gores were placed or where one plank stops and another begins. The fact that the canoe is still around 120 years after it was built is testament enough. There are thousands of canoes with perfect planking jobs that have rotted away to nothing and landed in the burn pile and their demise had nothing to do with where the gores were placed. I will simply be content that another canoe is being saved and that it will receive a first rate restoration by Dan. I will now sit back and watch him bring it back to life. Sorry for the thread drift.
Jim
Jim
Michael Grace
Lifetime Member
Couldn't agree more, Jim. This is a canoe well worth restoring. We can critique with hindsight but the fact that it still remains without problems resulting from its planking method is all that I need to see. Looking forward to the final product. Go for it, Dan!
MGC
Scrapmaker
To point out the obvious, no one has suggested tossing the canoe in the burn pile and no one has suggested the canoe should not be restored. What has been noticed and pointed out is that the shear plank gores are oddly done and also that the builder "landed" the joints on the same rib. That is generally regarded as inappropriate. The canoe has survived in spite of those apparent flaws so maybe that is a non-issue?
What has further been revealed by discussing this is that these characteristics have shown themselves on other Charles river canoes built in that period.
So, from where I sit, this is an interesting discussion that has resulted in (at least for me) a new awareness of this technique.
I have no doubt that it will be nicely restored by Dan, and well worth whatever effort it takes.
What has further been revealed by discussing this is that these characteristics have shown themselves on other Charles river canoes built in that period.
So, from where I sit, this is an interesting discussion that has resulted in (at least for me) a new awareness of this technique.
I have no doubt that it will be nicely restored by Dan, and well worth whatever effort it takes.
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