1966 Chestnut Canoe Restoration

It's Done!

2012-05-28T01:04:00.000-03:00

It’s done!

After two summers of intermittent work, the restoration of my 1966 Chestnut Canoe (Telegraph Code: Ajax), is finally complete! It’s been a long journey and a lot of work to get the canoe to point it is today. What started out as a canoe rescue (from becoming a flower bed), has been a fun and interesting experience. Throughout the process, I’ve learned many things. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve completed the few remaining items and now have the canoe ready for the water.

The first thing that needed to be completed was the installation of the outwales. Last fall, I shaped, stained and varnished the outwales and set them aside for the winter. The installation began with the trimming of all excess canvas from each side of the canoe. Using a carpenter’s knife, I carefully trimmed the canvas even with the top edge of the planking. Using a number of 2” and 3” C-clamps, I carefully aligned the new outwales and clamped them into place.

Each outwale was attached with #8, 1 ½ inch brass screws, that I recovered from the original outwales. These were still in pretty good shape and worked great. To ensure that the soft brass screw did not break in the new ash gunwales, each hole had to be pre-drilled. I used a #8 counter-sink drill bit for the operation. This ensured each hole and each counter-sink was the exact same depth and it kept the operation down to one quick procedure. The screws were installed through through the outwale and rib top, into the inwale. Screws were placed every second rib for the four feet at each end, and every third rib for the approximate eight feet in the middle.

With the outwales in place, I gave the surfaces a quick, light sanding and applied a couple of extra coats of spar varnish, 48 hours apart. Once set up and dry, I used to some steel wool to polish the brass stem bands to a nice shine.

The last two steps were to install the painter’s ring on the front deck and put new Chestnut decals on the front deck and canvas. Surprisingly, the Central New Brunswick Woodsmen’s Museum in Boiestown, NB has a fairly large display of Chestnut Memorabilia and happens to carry Chestnut decals. I was able to pick up both sets that I required when I was passing by this spring, returning from a fishing trip.

I completed the last couple of steps early this afternoon and took a few pictures of the completed canoe.

Now the get it out and on the water!! Can’t wait to see how well in handles! Here are some pictures from today. I’ll post some pictures of the canoe on the water as soon as that happens!

Paint

2012-02-23T23:19:00.003-04:00

As this point, the canoe is pretty much finished. This past fall, I painted the canoe, left it to cure and prepared the outwales. At this point, the canoe has been in storage since late October. I’ll dig it back out this April to install the outwales, which have been shellaced and varnished and just have to be installed. That step should be completed in a few hours. At that point, the canoe will be water ready!! Can't wait to take it for a paddle early this summer!

The images below give you a good view of the canoe with the new seats installed and new hand thwarts installed at the bow and stern.

It's an Ajax!!

2011-10-06T11:47:00.002-03:00

A little over a year ago, I began the process of looking into the identification of my Chestnut Canoe. I was working off the premise that the canoe was bought in 1967 and therefore, studied and explored the models available at that time. The best potential fit given the dimension appeared to be the 1967 Chestnut Deer.

A few weeks ago, Mike Elliot emailed me with the thought that my canoe could be an Ajax. This was based on the dimensions I had provided, which are: 16” long, 34” wide, 12” deep with 1 ½” ribs spaced the same distance apart. I hadn’t considered this model, as it was made from 1954 - 1966 under both the names Ajax and Pal. The very popular Pal, changed dimension in 1967 to have 2 ⅜” ribs and a wider beam of 36". The Deer was introduced in 1966 with a width of 36”.

I pursued Mike’s insight with a few follow-up questions to my Father-In-Law and his father regarding the age of the canoe. As it turns out, this canoe is a 1966 canoe, that was left over from the previous season. It had been dropped in the Chestnut factory yard, which resulted in couple of broken ribs. During the spring of 1967, my wife’s grandfather had taken drive through the Chestnut yard on York St. and came across this canoe. Being a leftover and with two broken ribs, he was given a price he couldn’t refuse and promptly took it home. It certainly had served the family well over the following 30 years.

Being a 1966 canoe, the dimensions of this canoe match perfectly with that of the Ajax and I feel that we can now safely say that it is properly identified.

This canoe hasn’t seen water in over 12 years and it looks like I’m on track to rectify that early next summer!

Varnish and Canvas

2011-10-06T11:26:00.002-03:00

With woodwork and sanding complete, I have been able to pick away at a few of the remaining items left to be fixed on the canoe over the course of the past month.

While I waited for a few supplies to arrive for canvassing, I took time to begin sealing the canoe. Using a mixture of boiled linseed oil and turpentine, I bathed all the wood in this mixture. I was amazed at just how much oil the wood absorbed with some cedar absorbing multiple applications of oil. The instructions I am following said to put it on until it will absorb no more. I’m sure one board took at least 8 brush loads. With this complete, I left the canoe to dry for two weeks, before proceeding to seal the wood.

While the wood dried, I installed the seats and made hand thwarts. A friend had a couple of scraps of birds eye maple, which were just big enough for the thwarts. I was really happy with how they turned out and should make it easier for transportating and lifting in the future. The original canoe did not have this feature.

With the linseed oil dry, I began sealing the canoe with a coat of thinned Shellac. This dried pretty quickly and provided a nice base for the varnish. I then applied three coats of Spar Varnish, 48 hours apart to finish the inside of the canoe. I took time to lightly sand and clean the canoe between each coat, to provide a nice smooth finish.

Next step was canvassing. This is the only step that I wasn’t 100% sure on how I was going to complete the task. Given that my garage isn’t that big and I don’t have a lot of space, I made due with what I had available. That being said, there are quite a few things I’d do differently the next time around, including, finding a better space to canvas the canoe.

Using a pair of canvas stretchers to make a envelope of canvas for the canoe to fit in, I attached an approximate 20” length of canvas to the wall of my garage, and proceeded to use a come-along to pull the canvas taught. I used some weight at one end and braced the other end against the ceiling of my garage. I would have like to use two braces against my ceiling, but my garage door was in the way. In the end, we got it stretched and secured with an appropriate amount of tension and it turned out great. However, it did take a lot of frigging by two of us to get this setup to work. Like I mentioned, if I do this again, it will be in a different location! The canvas was secured to the inwale, through the top end of planking and throught the rib, using ⅞” canoe tacks.

Once the canvas was secured and the tension was released, I took the next day to tidy up the ends of the canoe at each stem. This involved cutting and overlapping the canvas an securing it to each stem using 11/16” canoe tacks.

This past week, I made and applied a filler to the canvas. The canvas filler is made of a mixture of boiled linseed oil, mineral spirits, enamel paint, spar varnish, japan drier and silica. I applied the filler with a 4” brush and worked it into the canvas to fill the canvas weave. It will take at least 4 weeks to dry and it will form the hard, water proof shell needed on the canoe. Once it has cured, it will be sanded smooth and given three coats of paint.

At this point, the canoe is very close to being finished. I have the remaining supplies need to finish the canoe, including my brass stem bands, and the required 18” lengths of clear ash for each outwale. While the filler is drying, I plan to make my outwales, stain and varnish them and get them ready for installation. When the filler is dry, I will need to install the stem bands before painting the canvas as well.

For each of the steps that I’ve completed above, I have followed the instructions provided by Mike Elliot at Kettle River Canoes. Mike has answered a number of emails for me over the course of the past couple years as I prepared for this project and throughout the restoration. A lot of his advise and instructions have made this process go quite smoothly. The biggest issue I’ve had is finding the time to work on the thing! Mike’s blogs lists a number articles that he has produced over a period of time, and they will cover all most any question you might have about your canoe and/or restoration. Check the blog out for the details on canvassing, canvas filler, painting and varnishing, etc. You can also follow Kettle River Canoes and Mike Elliot on Facebook and Twitter. I prefer to use my RSS reader (Google Reader) to subscribe to all of his articles to keep them in one easy to access spot.

Blog: http://en.wordpress.com/tag/wood-canvas-canoes/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/CanoeGuyBC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notes/kettle-river-canoes-wood-canvas-canoe-repais-and-restorations/

It’s a great time to be at this point in the restoration, with moose season just over, duck hunting, upland game bird and deer season are just around the corner. Along with the impending end of the Atlantic Salmon season on Oct. 15th and the start of a new hockey season it’s a nice time for the canoe to sit and cure for a bit. Now to find time to finish it up..

Scott

Progress... Finally!

2011-08-22T00:11:00.006-03:00

Seems like I’ve been away all summer. Three different trips of a week each, a week of teaching, time at the cottage, a few salmon fishing trips... I think I know where summer went this year. It definitely wasn’t spent working on this Chestnut Canoe. I’ve already got the word that my wife’s car is going back in the garage, so I better find a place for the canoe this winter!

For the first time this past week, I’ve had some time at home and I decided to put it to good use on the canoe. The good news is that I was not too far away from completing the remaining wood work and need to spend some time sanding.

Over the course of a few days this week I completed cinching all of the remaining tacks in the canoe and attached the planking to the front and back stems. I filled a few holes that were present in the remaining original ribs and filled a few gouges in the exterior planking with exterior grade wood filler. The woodwork is done! Everything has been sanded down, inside and out. Every brass tack has been checked by hand and re-cinched if needed. Next up is the a coat of stain!

On the advice of Mike Elliott at Kettle River Canoes, I’ve chosen two different stains, one for the ash and one for the cedar. Hopefully this will go on in the next day or two. Following the application of stain to the interior of the canoe, the entire canoe will be coated with a mixture of turpentine and boiled linseed oil to protect the wood from water damage. This will take a couple of weeks to dry and the hull will be ready to be canvased. A challenge that I’m looking forward to.

Hopefully I’ll have more to update you on soon!
Scott

New Seats - Frames and Cane!

2011-02-07T21:44:00.008-04:00

It has been almost 5 months since I have had any progress to report. With my favourite pass times being fishing and hunting, and the return to teaching in September, I have not been able to accomplish much on my canoe! I did however have a wonderful fall with multiple salmon fishing and hunting trips! I’d have to guess that the canoe is probably about half complete! At this point, my goal would be to get the canoe on the water by August 2011!

As I left the canoe, most of the woodwork is complete! All of the rib replacements and repairs are complete (save one I have to replace again), and probably ¾ of the canoe has been re-planked. At this point, I have trimmed off all of the excess material from my new rib tops and begun to sand down the scarf joint between my old ribs and new tops.

During the past few weeks, I’ve built the new frames for the seats for the canoe. Initially, I had planned to keep the original seats and re-cane them, but upon further inspection, it became pretty obvious that the original seats were very warped and in rough shape. This was especially noticeable on the larger front seat, and is probably due to the years the canoe spent resting on its side.

The new seat frames are made from solid ash and are 1 ½” wide x ¾” thick, as were the originals. To make the frames, I drilled ⅜” holes in the frames at the seat specific widths and inserted 1 ½” x ⅜” dowels into the holes to attach everything together. Once assembled, I sanded all joints out and clamped and glued them with a waterproof glue for extra support.

Using the measurements and holes from my old seats as a template, I drilled 3/16” holes in new frames to prepare them for caning. I then stained and shellacked them to match the old wood.

Using the Canoeguy’s Blog by Mike Elliot of Kettle River Canoes, I was able to replicate the original cane pattern utilized by the Chestnut Canoe Company. It is a six stage pattern that is fairly easy to complete, however, it is very time consuming! Although my fingers hurt for a day or two, and it took a fair bit of time, I think it was well worth it. The seats turned out great and will look awesome in the finished canoe! For anyone interested in replacing slat seats or in need of new cane for their seats, I encourage you to check out Mike’s blog above on the process!

Rib Top Repair!

2010-08-27T23:06:00.005-03:00

With most of August being a write off in terms of accomplishing work on the canoe, I've tried to put a little push on these past few days.

At this point, I have placed all of the new ribs in the canoe and put in most of the required new planking. There is still some planking that will need to be replaced, however I can't complete this task until I have completed repairs the rib tops of the remaining older ribs.

To complete the repairs, I followed the instructions provided by Mike Elliott at Kettle River Canoes. His blog post on this topic is very clear on the process to follow in completing this task.

http://canoeguybc.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/repairing-rib-tops-in-a-wood-canvas-canoe/

In total, there are 59 rib tops that needed to be repaired. On the first day, I was able to do the first 38 of these while keeping the remaining 21 clamped to the gunwales. With the new ribs secured to the inwales with 14 guage ring nails and the other 21 rib tops clamped, the canoe remained secure in its shape. The 38 rib tops that were ready for repair were then cut off with a jig saw, low enough to get beyond the rotted or damage wood at the top. Using my 4 1/2 inch angle grinder with a backing plate and 24 grit sanding disc, I created a 2 1/4 scarf angle on the old rib top. The angle is created so that it runs from the front of the rib to the back. This creates the angle so that the older wood remains higher on the top of the rib, inside of the canoe, and the new wood is back. This allows any resulting glue line to higher and closer to the inwale of the canoe, and hopefully less noticeable.

For the new rib material that will be scarfed on, I used the broken ribs, number 2 ribs that had a knot in them (which I cut out), and the rib tops that I cut off from the new ribs that I placed in the canoe. Each piece was then given a matching 2 1/4" scarf angle and epoxied to the old rib, clamped and left to dry for appox. 24 hours.

You will notice on Mike Elliot's blog post, that epoxy is not recommended for attaching the old ribs and new ribs. I had an extremely difficult time acquiring a reasonable quantity of resorcinol glue as recommened by Mike. I did place and order for some out of the USA, but the shipping was unrealistic. I also had a Fredericton company that could have gotten me some, but again the quantity and price were huge. As such, I chose to go with the very popular West System Epoxy. I'm hoping this doesn't create too much of an issue when the time comes to sand the joints down.

After the 38 rib tops were repaired, I predrilled the rib tops and inwales with a 1/16" holes and attached the them together with the ring nails. The remaining 21 rib tops were completed in the same manner two days later.

After all of the new scarf joints are sanded, the rib tops will be trimmed flush the inwale, remaining planks that require replacement will be done. A good cleaning and re-oiling of the canoe in order.

Rib Installation

2010-08-20T17:56:00.001-03:00

After a great atlantic salmon fishing trip and some time away, I've gotten back to the canoe. This past few days I have removed the bent ribs from my hull and begun the process of installing new ribs.

After examing how I was going to install the ribs and examing which planks I would be keeping, it was necessary to first begin this process by installing a few new planks and tacking them to the ribs that will remain in the canoe. With the remaining cedar stock that I had acquired earlier, I jointed all of the edges of the rough cedar to ensure they were square. I used my table saw to re-saw all of the boards into two rough planks then cut them to the 3 3/4" plank width. This is the width of the current planks on the canoe. Essentially, I was able to make 20 rough planks from 10 cedar boards. These all planed down to 5/32" thickness and are approximately 10 feet long.

Wooden-canvas canoes today, and most older canoes, have a standard size 3" plank, so the size on my canoe is uncommon. My guess is that this canoe, being over 40 years old, was built at a time when it was easier to acquire this width of clear cedar. It may also have been a size of planking used on the narrow rib Chestnut model. If anyones knows why this size would have been used, I'd love to hear from you.

With the planks made, I removed and replaced the two garboard rows of planks in the canoe. This placed two new rows of planks on either side of centre of the canoe. Using brass canoe tacks, I attached the planks to existing ribs that are in decent shape that I will be keeping.

The bottom six rows of planks on the canoe are so broken, rotten and in bad shape that it would be impossible to keep them. I wanted to make sure that when I fasten the new ribs to planks that I would be fastening them to the material I would be keeping. By putting the two new rows of planks down, I can fasten the new ribs to these planks.

With the planks in place, I began removing the old ribs and replacing them with new ribs. There is a section in the middle of the canoe where approximately 10-12 ribs in a row were replaced. To complete this section, I installed 4 four ribs at a time, attaching them to the planks and securing the rib to the inwales with brass ring nails. Once they were all secure, I would move onto the next four and so on. If I removed all of the ribs at once, I would have no old ribs remaining to hold the traditional shape of the canoe.

With these ribs in, I am going to replace some more of the planking to ensure that I have enough planks to complete the job. Then I'll begin the process of repairing any damaged rib tops with new rib material.

No pictures this time around. I should have another update in a few days.

Rib Steaming and Bending

2010-07-23T22:15:00.004-03:00

Just arrived back from a short trip away and decided it was time to shape the canoe's new ribs. I was surprised at just how easily this went today.

You'll remember that my canoe is a Chestnut Deer. The Deer is the 16 ft. "narrow" rib pleasure model that was built by Chestnut. It is identical to the famous Pal with the exception of the rib size. The canoe has 1 1/2" ribs, spaced the same 1 1/2" apart. This made the process of making and bending the ribs very simple as I did not have to worry about the tapers of wider ribs, nor did I have to worry about the the orientation of the rib when bending them. They are all 1 1/2" from top to bottom.

All of the ribs require a 24 hour soaking in water prior to attempting any bending. Because the wood is dry, it does not have the required moisture content to be successfully bent, and will therefore break. The overnight soak brings the wood moisture content back up to the 15-18% mark. To soak the ribs, I filled my Old Town canoe with 8-10" of water and placed some rocks on the ribs to keep them submerged overnight.

To steam the ribs, I came up with a pretty simple solution. I purchased a 5 ft and 3 ft piece of 5" galvanized air exchange duct work from a local hardware store. On my stove, I boiled a large pot of water and brought the pot out in my driveway to my Coleman stove to continue boiling. I placed the duct work in the pot of boiling water and dropped 6-8 ribs in the top. All of the water that was boiling in the base of the pot, inside the duct work, steamed up the entire duct and all of the ribs inside of it. I covered the duct with a flat piece of sheet metal to keep most of the steam in, but not so much that it blocked the steam from flowing through.

After 35 minutes of good steam, I removed and bent each rib one at a time. After the rib is removed, I had about 2 minutes of working time to get the rib bent and installed to each inwale. The flat rib was slid under the makeshift strongback on top of the canoe and bent down to the inwales on one side. I would then run around the canoe and bend down the other side, making sure in each case to keep the rib tight to the hull of the canoe.

Through the entire process, only one rib out of more than 20 broke. It had some poor grain in the cedar and quickly snapped when I tried to bend down the second side.

The ribs now need to be left for at least two days to dry and take their new shape. To get the proper rib shape and width, each rib was bent over existing ribs in the canoe. The location was chosen one rib closer to the bow or stern then the rib it will be replacing. By doing so, the new rib will be closer in size and shape then being bent over the rib it is will be replacing.

Once they are dry, I'll begin installing the ribs and attaching them to the inwale. At that time, I'll begin repairs on the damaged rib tops.

All for now!

New Stems and Decks

2010-07-15T09:40:00.006-03:00

It has been a fairly slow week in terms of progress as it has been time consuming to get the front and back canoe decks together.

To start things off, I had to scarf joint the ash stems at the front and back with a new pieces. I cut out the first couple of the stems at both locations to get solid wood. Once I had the pieces made, they epoxied easily and I clamped them tight for a day to harden. From all of the literature that I have read, it is very common for the original stems to rotten away and require this repair. Once in place, I cut a second piece of ash to add as a reinforcement for the entire front and back stem. These are visible from the picture.

With the stem repair complete and in place, I was able to get the inwales cut and tapered to meet with the new stem. I also made the front and back decks from solid ash so that I could pull all of the pieces together. I chose to keep with ash for the decks of the canoe so that the inwales, outwales, stems and decks are all the same type of wood and should oil up the same and be uniform in colour once everything is finished.

It was very time consuming and difficult to get everything to meet perfectly, but after tying it all together, it looked great. I ran a string from the front stem to the back stem of the canoe and was happy to see that everything was in perfect symmetry. As a result, I was able to maintain the original shape of the canoe and it should sail beautifully when the restoration is complete.

Next on the agenda is to replace broken ribs and repair any damaged rib tops to the ribs that I will be keeping. To do this, I will need to submerge the new ribs in water for 24 hours, followed by steaming and bending them into place. This will be sometime late next week by the looks of things!

Inwale Installation and Rib Making

2010-07-07T22:59:00.005-03:00

Last week I had two full days to complete some work on the canoe. Things are progressing nicely.

I have begun the process of replacing both inwales. To get things started, I made two new inwales by taking two of my 18 ft lengths of ash and running them through the planer to bring them down to 3/4" wide by 1" high. Once made, I slowly worked my way around the canoe removing the original ring nails that were used to attach the rib tops to the inwales. Once complete, I marked in detail on the outside of the canoe the location of seats and thwarts and proceeded to remove them. I also took out both the front an back decks. With a little encouragement both inwales came out quite easily. To ensure the canoe keeps its proper shape with the inwales removed, I placed a couple of ratchet straps around the canoe at the location of the thwarts.

With everything stripped out, I

took C-clamps and began installing my new inwales.

Both went in very easily. I slowly continued to bend the ends of the inwales up until they met with tops of the existing ribs. Thank goodness for my friend Mark who gave me a tote of 50+ C-clamps as I used about 30 of them putting the new inwales in.

With the inwales in place, I have a couple of major chores left to complete before I can begin replacing broken ribs. These include the making of the new front and back deck, and the repair of each stem on the canoe. Procraft in Fredericton is a local retailer for the West System epoxy products and they are currently out of epoxy resin. This will hold up the stem rebuilding process for the the next couple of days.

I had held off on purchasing epoxy for rebuilding the stems with the hope that I could be my hands on on resorcinol glue. This has proved very difficult to find in a somewhat reasonable quantity. Procraft could get some of it in for me, but it was a much larger quantity than I require and it was VERY expensive. I did find one dealer in the US that would sell me a quart of resorcinol glue but the shipping was too expensive to make it worth while. The major advantage to using this product over epoxy, is that this glue is sandable and easy to work with once cured, yet it has the same structural

capabilities of epoxy.

While I wait for epoxy, I began the process of making new ribs. With over twenty ribs to be replaced, and the majority of the remaining ribs requiring scarf jointed new tops, I needed to make a large number. Each board of cedar I have is one inch rough sewn and with 3/8" ribs, I cut my boards into the 1 1/2" strips and proceeded to rip them into two ribs. The cedar cut very easily on my table saw and planed up nicely on my thickness planer. Then, using a router table, I rounded the edges to match the existing ribs. In total, I've got over 30 made and ready for installation when the time comes.

Thanks for following!

Scott

Materials and Supplies!

2010-06-21T00:16:00.007-03:00

I've had a fairly productive past couple of weeks. Considering my work schedule is about as busy at it gets, I'm pretty happy to have gotten this much accomplished.

Through a colleague at work, I was able to make contact with a local wooden-canvas canoe enthusiast. This gentleman was able to help me identify the model of my Chestnut Canoe and helped me out in acquiring necessary materials.

This canoe is a 1967 Chestnut "Deer". It is identical to the famous "Pal" with the exception of the thickness of the ribs. The ribs on my canoe are 1 1/2 inches wide, while the "Pal" had ribs that were 2 3/8 inches wide. Aside from this minor difference, the canoes are identical and came with the same number of options. The following link show the specifications of a number of Chestnut Canoe models from their 1971 catalog: http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/5725889

Through my contact with this gentlemen, I was able to acquire a number of boards of clear cedar to make my replacement ribs and planks. To my surprise, I was also able to acquire four 18 foot lengths of clear ash. These will allow me to make new inwales and outwales with out having to worry about scarf jointing any pieces together. Acquiring this length of ash was something that I figured would be next to impossible.

In terms of hardware, I now have my brass tacks, brass carriage bolts, brass screws, two new stem bands and screws, 22 ft of canvas, a tack puller, etc. I think I've got everything I need with the exception of canvas filler and paint, which I won't need until all repairs are complete. I've also started to acquire as many C-Clamps and wooden clamps as I can find and borrow. I'll need these a lot in the coming weeks.

On my way back from the camp this weekend, I stopped into the Central New Brunswick Woodsman's Museam in Boiestown, NB. To my surprise, they have a large display of Chestnut Canoe Co. products for sale. This included shirts, sweatshirts, hats and some other articles of clothing. They also had reprints of the 1950 Chestnut Canoe Catalog, the book "When the Chestnut was in Flower" by Roger MacGregor and hull decals, which I acquired.

Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to begin the process of making and installing the new inwales. Once they are in place, I can being the process of making approximately 20 new ribs and scarf jointing on any new rib tops.

My ribs are 3/8's inch thick and my planks are 5/32's inch thick. Because the lumber I was able to acquire is 1 inch thick rough sawn, I am going to cut each board in two. First, I am going to attempt this on my table saw. If that doesn't work out the way I intend, I may try re-sawing on my bandsaw or contact a friend who has a portable bandsaw mill. This should effectively double the amount cedar that I have. Otherwise, I'll be spending a lot of time with the planer.

All for now!

Scott

Goodbye Fibreglass

2010-06-10T14:22:00.012-03:00

Well my first order of business in this restoration is to get a good idea of exactly what I am going to be working with. On Saturday, I built a couple of canoe cradles as per the instructions at Kettle River Canoes and proceeded to move the canoe into my garage.

To my surprise, with the gentle application of heat from my new heat gun, a putty knife and a little patience, I was able to completely strip the canoe of all fibreglass in approximately three hours. I had visions of grand torture for this!

With the fibreglass gone, I could see the beautiful hull that was left, relatively clear of all resin, but in rough shape!

Knowing that this canoe was extensively used for the early part of its life, became all too evident when examining the planks and ribs without a skin on it. Many of the planks and ribs will need to be replaced due to cracks and breaks.

Before I can proceed beyond this point I need to acquire some eastern white cedar and ash to begin the process of completing repairs. White cedar is the best wood to be used for all wood canvas canoes due to great strength, flexibility and rot resistance.

I'll need to determine how many ribs will need to be replaced, make the ribs and steam bend them to shape. The ribs will then need a couple of days to dry in place to keep their proper shape. Step two will be the repair rotten rib tops and install new inwales made from ash.

I hope to have an update soon on my progress, complete with new pics!

Chestnut Canoe Identification

2010-06-09T00:39:00.002-03:00

As I begin this project, one of the information items I am struggling with, is a proper identification of this canoe. I've done some reading and research on various sites, but I've not come up with any concrete answers.

Canoe: 1967 Chestnut Canoe - bought from the factory yard in Fredericton, NB, in 1967.

Length: 16' (stem to stem)

Ribs: 1 1/2 inches

Spacing between Ribs: 1 1/2 inches

Width at Centre Thwart: 33 1/2 inches (outside inwale to outside inwale)

I've spent a fair bit of time reviewing the tables at Dragonfly Canoe Works. There are well over 100 models of Chestnut Canoes that were built with approximately 20 of them being pleasure models. This canoe seems to meet the pleasure model criteria. From what I've read, this canoe appears to most resemble the "Doe" or perhaps the "Deer". According to my father-in-law, it was not a "Pal", but another fairly popular model that he couldn't recall.

I'm hoping someone can help. I've taken a few pictures and have some information to share. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts.

From the information I've provided and the pictures, I'd love to hear from you if you can verify this model.

UPDATE: It's an AJAX.

1967 Chestnut Canoe - Full Restoration

2010-06-02T22:05:00.002-03:00

Well, this is my first post of what I hope will be many successful updates on my new project, a full restoration of a 1967 Wood-Canvas Chestnut Canoe.

To give you a little bit of history, this canoe was purchased by my wife's grandfather from the Chestnut Canoe Factory in downtown Fredericton in the summer of 1967. This canoe had seen extensive use for a large number of years on various fishing, canoeing and short tripping adventures. It has been well used and enjoyed by many!

A number of years ago, when the canoe canvas and planking had deteriorated, this canoe had some repairs completed. My father-in-law replaced some of the planking, fibreglassed the canoe, and repaired the seats. These repairs allowed the canoe to continue service for a number of additional years.

A number of years ago, my father-in-law graciously offered me this canoe as a fixer-upper. At that time, I didn't have the time or interest in the project and chose to pass for the time being.

Late last summer, my wife's grandfather was discussing setting up as a flower bed in his front yard. His plan was to drag the canoe to his front yard, filling it with soil and making a nice flower arrangment. After talking with him and my father-in-law, I was given another opportunity at this project canoe and quickly rescued it from his yard.

For more than a decade now, this canoe has sat unused and stored. Over the years, it has been left on the ground, tilted on its side and stored behind the sheds. As a result it will require various repairs, including a number of new ribs, planks, stems, gunwales, etc. They need to be replaced due to rot, cracks and broken wood.

This is my first canoe restoration and I'm looking forward to the challenge! I plan to document my progress, struggles and successes here. Check back often for updates.