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? I'm contemplating a little mini dynel skid plate there. Haven't found any mention of others doing anything like that, but maybe I'm not looking for the right terms.
I think you have the right descriptive terms, and I think you may be on to something. I have the same wear areas on the tips of my deck plates, wood and plastic, especially at the stern.
With the heavy soloized RX tandems (and considerations for my blown disks) I just pick up and invert the bow end, and walk back into the yoke. While the stern deck plate grinds against the ground.
Add in loading from the rear of the truck, or the higher roofline van, where I walk the canoe up / and rest the hull on the back roof rail before ducking out from underneath, and the occasional stern banging ooopsies when I do clumsily portage down some f*$@#^g hill, and the back deck plate takes a special beating.
Better that chunk of wood or plastic than my back; a deck plate is lots easier to repair or replace.
On wood regunwale canoes I have simply* installed top mounted deck plates. I like some deck plate overhang, protecting the harder to repair/refinish outwale ends from my abuse, and to that protective end make a top mounted deck plate dimensioned a little out past the gunwale edges.
That deck cap, secured atop the wales using brass screws and finish washers, looks attractive enough to my eye, especially after the brass develops some patina.
Canoe stems seem as prone to dampness, dirt and bacterial rot as the butt ends of the thwarts or yoke, even with a drain hole at the deck plate tip. If I need to inspect, treat or repair anything up there I can zip out a few brass screws and the deck cap is off. I can then easily get to the inwale & outwale stems, and deck cap is easy to repair and retreat as a detached bench top project.
Aside from a slightly more elegant look I do not see the advantages of making an inset deck plate.
*Simply. OK, I will admit that an inset deck plate can be more elegant, especially with skilled craftsfolk laminating different woods for contrast.
Yeah, nope. I got no exotic woods, nor the skills to pull off an inset deck plate.
To the original question, I see no reason that Dynel, peel ply and epoxied wood deck plate tips would not help further protect wood stems.
Plain milky-opaque Dynel would not be that attractive. Maybe tape off deck tip triangles <I or diamonds <> at each tip, with graphite powder and a dab of black pigment in the epoxy mix to deeply saturate the Dynel.
