Shoptalk

[yellowcanoe]

Csnvas off..the previous owner sawed off the keel. We have no plans to reinstall the keel. Ergo the external stem bands can go too.

A little epoxy on the inner surface of the one broken rib and one planked cracked along the grain. It seems you start by taking most things off though the gunwales will stay till the siding cleaner and stripper part is done to get rid of old varnish.



We don't know who the original maker was. So in the face of no history we feel free to digress a little. No id.. save for the pencil marks 2106 on the outside of each stem on the planking.

Interesting plank pattern.

Yup its the original canvas





Narrow planked at the bottom and rather wide on the sides.

 

[Robin]

Canoe looks in good shape, what is it's length and width?

2106 might mean Feb 1 1906? or Feb 10 1906.

My canoes are being patient, been busy playcarding boundary's for the local Land Trust and deer season starts tomorrow.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Length 16 feet. Beam 35 inches. Depth 13 inches. This afternoon we had a session with siding cleaner. We found two wavy stamps on its only thwart. I can't quite figure out if the JR is there but we do see Robertson in a wavy line over a straight line.. Auburndale Mass. The stamps are at the very ends. Also burned into the top plank inside on one side is the number R5. No idea what that meant.

I typed in the numbers we found on all four quadrants in pencil wrong. The number is 2161.

 

[Mihun09]

So you are going to remove and leave off the outside stems? Then when refinished you only need to add brass stem bands.

 

[yellowcanoe]

We think so. It might ergo not be historically accurate but the ends are so fine and that clunky outside stem and keel just seems to detract. I understand that JR Robertson made canoes for liveries on the Charles River and in a rental boat both external stems and keel made sense.

 

[Mihun09]

I have never re-installed a shoe keel that came with a boat... yet.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I have never re-installed a shoe keel that came with a boat... yet.

Do you remove the screws and install wood plugs in the hull? The boat came to us with the keel sawn off and we are thinking of just shinying up the screw tops and epoxying them in place.

 

[Robin]

I just leave the screw holes there, and hope when I crack any ribs, they are screw hole ribs. I saw a Chum, the one the guy wants $2200 for with plugs where the screws went through the ribs to hold on the keel. I'm not sure if I liked it all that much with plugs. He said he restored the canoe twice, the first time he replaced the keel and it always leaked with tripping use. The next time he install the plugs with no keel.

I like the screw heads epoxyed back into the holes where the screws originally where idea.

 

[Mihun09]

I would pull the screws and leave the holes. If in the future you decided to add a keel, it would be very difficult to remove the epoxied screw remnants. Not sure if that would decrease the value if you ever decided to sell it.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I would pull the screws and leave the holes. If in the future you decided to add a keel, it would be very difficult to remove the epoxied screw remnants. Not sure if that would decrease the value if you ever decided to sell it.

True but the screws are in every other rib. If someone really wanted a keel I would think they would have sufficient room to install it. The boat is circa 1900 but not that carefully made. We have in mind fixing it for us, and thought about, and discarded the investment angle.

 

[Robin]

I am all for the "fix it for ourselves" angle, you are paddlers and it's great to see you fixing up an old canoe with your own ideas.
I'm not really good at installing leak proof stem bands, so I left them off my restored Chum on my trip to LaVerendrye this past August. I wondered what folks thoughts would be in the pictures of my trip reports here and elsewhere, no stem bands on a Chestnut, but heck, it's my canoe, my trip and I enjoyed the way my canoe performed, "out on the trail". with no leaks. I had so much rain, it didn't make much difference but I have no problem putting an incorrect canoe in the water these days, especially when I'm solo and out there.