Gunwale Work

[frozentripper]

For deck plates, I'm trying to figure out what kind of wood to use. I hate to put something really nice on there and immediately start chewing up the pointy ends from the pivot move used to pick up the canoe to portage it. Anybody put any anti-abrasion treatments on the noses of their deck plates?

Aluminum T-bar is durable, won't rust and easy to work... and can be shaped to a nice form if you want good looks. The aluminum polishes to a nice pebbled surface with a wire wheel. Base is held in with SS bolts to the deckplate (in my case mahogany and ash that gives you something to look at on long boring paddles)... with the vertical part of the upside-down T drilled to take the painter line. Takes bangs from rocks and the wood underneath is protected from being damaged. Maybe there's a pic somewhere.

 

[CanoeTerry]

frozentripper - I like it! I nicely rounded piece wouldn't need to be very big to suit the purpose. Thanks for the idea.

 

[CanoeTerry]

And, for what it's worth, I got most of the polyester resin (I'm guessing that's what it was) removed. A combination of a heat gun and a putty knife removed the bulk, followed by xylol for final residue, did the trick. Too much xylol/rubbing would eventually start removing a bit of color from the vinyl (enough to see in the rag, but not enough to notice on the hull). It was nice to avoid having to sand it all off. The xylol removed lots of other color transfer marks, too. Nasty stuff, though.

 

[dougd]

Using an OR sander with 220 sandpaper I took care of any imperfections from the planner. Smooth as a baby's butt. Next is a dry fit to make sure I cut all the ends to fit. One baby step at a time.

 

[Roybrew]

I'm looking forward to seeing the end results.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[dougd]

Well, just did a dry fit with the inwale. There is just enough sweep at the ends that the flat edge of the gunwale won't sit flush, ping there goes a clamp, ping there goes another. Only off by a little but the bow end has a high curve to it. Ran into this with the Satan Boat. Looks like I'm going to have another go around with steaming the gunwales to get them to fit right. dang! I don't mind doing it, kinda like steaming wood but this is gonna add extra time to the rebuild.