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Canoe by Voyageur - FINISHED - scale 1:12 - RESTORATION


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I found this canoe at a second hand store a while back. Even before I thought of building ship models. I had it on my shelf all this time and decided that I could do something with it. Definitely inspired by @Osmosis and his beautiful Peterboro, recently completed.

I always thought that this canoe is out of scale; 20.25” long and a beam of about 3.25”. I has no tumblehome, no keel, no thwarts and a large rocker. But I think I can do something with it. I initially thought I would somehow cut it down to 16” to make it more proportional to a typical canoe but decided against that.

I've sanded all the paint off of it. As you can see the planking was very well done. Interesting on how the builder crossed the planks at the bottom instead of meeting in the center. I don’t know if that is a usual way of planking a canoe. I’ve never seen that before.

I removed the fore and aft decks and then the gunwales.

I want to clean up the inside but I don’t know how. Any advice is appreciated!
I plan on stemming the whole thing and compressing the beam by about 1/4” - 1/3”. It’ll be a long skinny canoe but I think that will take away the flare profile to make straight sides or maybe a little tumblehome.

I would like to build up the bow and stern to change from a touring profile to a more traditional profile. I think that will help in making it look more proportional. At least to my eye.

I’m going to plank over the existing planks. Add a keel and stems. Add nice decks and gunwales. Add seats and thwarts and finally make a nice pair of paddles.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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This appears to be someone’s interpretation of a wood canvas canoe.  I personally think that it is well done. The rocker may be excessive but canoes intended for use in white water river canoeing are built with considerable rocker to improve maneuverability.  Likewise River canoes often do not have keels.  Unlike other boats a wood canvas canoe does not require a keel as a structural member.  A lack of tumblehome would also improve stability in challenging conditions.

 

The real thing would be built from cedar, the ribs 5/32in thick x 2-1/2 in to 3in wide.  Planking would be 5/32in to 3/16in white or red cedar.  Each canoe builder had his own planking pattern and the planking is not intended to be watertight.  Planking is nailed through the ribs with the nail points headed over.  No glue is used.

 

The canoe is then covered with heavy canvas.  Canvasing is an interesting job.  The Canves is made up as an envelope suspended by ropes.  The canoe is put in the envelope and stretched longitudinally.  I used a boat trailer winch.  The canvas is drawn up over the gunnel with plier like tools and nailed or stapled.  The nails or staples are later covered up by the outwale.  The canvas is not glued to the planking.  If the planets are properly aligned the result is a nice smooth canvas cover.  The canvas is then treated with a home made coating to waterproof it.  I used linseed oil, old oil based paint, powdered silica, and Japan drier all mixed together.  The canoe is then painted.

 

The point to all of this is that planking over this otherwise nice model will ruin it.  A good paint job- satin or eggshell finish will be as close as you can come to the painted canvas.  The Peterborough canoe is a completely different animal with totally different framing, and modifying your canoe will just make it a bastard.  From your “handle” it seem that you are interested in Northwoods lore and culture.  You can then take satisfaction in knowing that the wood canvas canoe is/was a direct descendant of the Native American’s and Vouyager’s birch bark craft.

 

You should be able to find a huge amount of information about these canoes.  Thy looking up the following:

 

Wooden Canoe Heritage Association

Wisconsin Canoe Museum, Spooner, Wisconsin

Old Town Wood Canvas Canoes

Northwoods Canoe Company 

 

Roger

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Thank you for the background. This may take me in a whole new direction. I am familiar with some of the canoes used in the trade, in particular the Montreal canoe and the north canoe. The north canoe being closer in proportional size to the one I have here. The lack of keel wasn’t a particular problem, I understand whitewater canoes may have no keel and large rockers but I’m not a whitewater canoeist and I always thought they were shorter, smaller generally. But the thing that threw me was the combination of all that and the blue paint. I thought it was just a result of a mass produced “toy” or something like that.

I have never heard of the building method you described so it looks like I need to do more research to really do this model right.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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I am going to order the book The Wood & Canvas Canoe: A Complete Guide to its History, Construction, Restoration and Maintenance to help me understand this better. They look amazing and if I am going to do it as wood & canvas, then it should be right. I'll put this project on hold until I can read up on it.

Thanks you @Roger Pellett for catching this and pointing me in this direction.

I'll probably have to get the peterboro anyway too! 🙂

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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YouTube can be a wonderful thing. I was able to watch an entire rebuild of a wood canvas canoe. I was over 100 years old and came out looking beautiful. The restorer was thorough and made a point of keeping as much original wood as possible. I am going to see what I can do with this little canoe to respect the traditions of the wood canvas canoes as suggested by Roger. It should be interesting.

Since I have already prepped the exterior wood and no repairs are needed there. I saved the original deckplates and can reuse them.

I would now like to clean and prep the interior. It looks like varnish was liberally applied. What is my best option to safely remove that? 

 

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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Carrying on with sanding and cleaning. I brushed on white vinegar to the interior to clean what I could not sand. I used my electric toothbrush, sans bristles, as a detail sander. The curved backside was perfect for getting the ribs near the bulkheads. Way to narrow and curved for anything else to get in there.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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I had saved the original deck plates but they were a bit narrow. The original had a lot of glue filling in the gaps. So I put a couple strips of walnut on either side and sanded to fit.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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I drew up a mock up of the canoe so I could determine thwart and seat locations. I had been thinking about how I would handle the seat. I wanted something akin to woven cane and thought that cheese cloth could be used.

I experimented with a few methods on how to keep the weave while working with it. I dabbed shellac on some and CA glue on another sample. I tried spray on adhesive. I settled on shellac because it stayed pliable for me to be able to work with it and also kept the weave pretty well.

I used CA glue to sandwich the cloth between a thin piece of wood and the seat frame. Kind of how one would put in screening material in a window frame. Once framed up, I dipped the whole thing in shellac. I lightly dabbed at the cloth to help keep the mesh open as opposed to filling in with shellac.

I prepared the two thwarts as well and dry fit the aft seat and the thwarts. I’ll get the forward seat tomorrow.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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Looking good.  I meant to ask earlier, did you rinse the vinegar off really really well?  I'd hate over time if the vinegar ate your model.

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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7 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

Weaving a cane seat is not difficult.  You could drill holes around the perimeter and weave a seat using appropriate colored thread.  Try looking up chair caning instructions on the web.


I watched an instructional video on it when trying to decide how I wanted to tackle these seats. I thought at this scale it might be beyond my abilities. Maybe I’ll give it a try before gluing in the seats. 

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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7 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Looking good.  I meant to ask earlier, did you rinse the vinegar off really really well?  I'd hate over time if the vinegar ate your model.

Thanks! Yes, I brushed water over the whole thing and let it dry before I put on shellac.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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With encouragement from Roger, I thought I would try to weave my own seats. Here are the new frames cut from maple next to their former counterparts. No way I could have drilled those 1mm holes without my Proxxon mill. 😊

I did a practice weave and it came out ok so I’ll try the real ones now. Worst thing that can happen is I have to cut the thread and start over.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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Two first class canoe seats.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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Wow.  A stunning improvement.

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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All I got done today was to remake the thwarts. I felt like if the seats were going to be maple, the thwarts needed to be too. New thwarts are pictured between the seats. They are actually similar in color. Poor lighting and photography skills made the right one look dark.

I am trying to figure out the shape and size of the gunwales. Those will also be maple. Stay tuned...

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Edited by Voyageur
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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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WOW! I have not checked in in a while. What a difference a couple of days make. Amazing. Those seats are great! I will have to look in more often.

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A trivial detail that you might want to include.  As a strength member, thwarts are bolted tight to the underside of the gunwale, but canoe seats are hung from the gunwale on overlength bolts with wooden spacers.  The stern seat is higher than the bow seat.  Exact spacing depends on the height of the paddlers.

 

Roger

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Thank you for the comments and input. I spent about an hour last night measuring and cutting the spacers you mentioned. This is them dry fit. The glue residue you see is from my attempt to glue them first to the seat. That didn’t work out so I glued the spacers to the hull and then fit the seat underneath. I’ll wait til After I complete the hull to glue the these in place. I was planning on actually using cotton cloth and sealing that on to the canoe as would actually have been done on the real ones. I found a lightweight cotton cloth today and I have mastic sealer on hand. Or is that not a good idea for a model this size.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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22 hours ago, Jim Cricket said:

Nice job on the seats. I'll echo what Roger said above, and include a pic of an Old Town of mine that shows the seats relative heights, and the little posts that the seat bolts pass through on the bow seat. Again, nice work!

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Beautiful boat. I love the two tone paint. Is that a common paint scheme. I don't recall seeing two tone paint on a canoe. My limited experience is with the aluminum Grumman's we have in our voyageur program and my own (former) red plastic one.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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Thinking about the gunwales, I carved a sample out of balsa to help determine the profile. Any comments and suggestions are appreciated. I feel like it is too tall and might thin it down a bit.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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If you look at Jim’s canoe above, the outwale is a small delicate piece that protects the canvas.  The lip should not cover the slots formed br the ribs and inwale.  The lip full size maybe 1/8in thick.

 

If you want to try canvasing the canoe, I would suggest model aircraft silkspan, also called modelspan or oriental rice paper.  Glue only to the edges, don’t use mastic and then spray lightly with water to shrink it.  You should be able to find the procedure for doing the real thing on the web which you can duplicate in miniature.

 

Roger

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5 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

I can’t imagine “canvassing” a small canoe like this.  I would suggest that a good paint job would work better.  As you can see from Jim’s post above of his lovely canoe you really can’t see the canvas on the finished thing.

 

Jim,  

What model of old Town is this?

 

Roger

I thought that might be the case. I was considering doing it for "accuracy" more than appearance but I believe you are right. a nice paint job will do. Thanks!

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore is a habit, not an act.

~ Aristotle 

 

I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!

~ The Voyageur, Grace Lee Nute

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5 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

I can’t imagine “canvassing” a small canoe like this.  I would suggest that a good paint job would work better.  As you can see from Jim’s post above of his lovely canoe you really can’t see the canvas on the finished thing.

 

Jim,  

What model of old Town is this?

 

Roger

Roger, that is an Old Town lightweight "Guide" model. 15' with 1/8" plank and 3/16" ribs, if I remember correctly, about 50lbs. I restored that boat back in the early 90's and sold it several years ago. Below is a pic before restoration. I have a 1938 HW now in need of restoration.

 

Voyageur, I got the two color idea from Rollin Thurlow, who I took a restoration class from. On the back cover of his and Jerry's book, mentioned above, is one with a two color finish.

The outer gunwale covers just the planking (and canvas, of course). Rib ends are left exposed

 

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Two examples of the real thing:

 

The top canoe is a 1915 Old Town Charles River.  Old enough to still have “closed gunwales.  The rib tops are feathered to nothing and the inwale butts close to the planking, covered with a cap strip.  A #@$& to restore as many of the rib tops had rotted making it difficult to reastablish an accurate sheer line.

 

The bottom canoe is a 1944 Old Town Otca.

 

Both canoes we’re restored by me to factory specs using production records obtained from WCHA.  Every Old Town canoe bears a unique serial number stamped into the inner stem.

 

 

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