Finishing Touches

Finally down to the end.  After a year and 4 months, I'm calling it done.  There is one  glaring omission - I did not re-finish the sponsons.  They will have to wait for another effort.

The final bits were to re-finish the thwarts, re-furbish the front seat, and build a new back seat.  In addition to building the seats, I also decided to brand the back seat with the OLD TOWN logo, OTCA 1945, and my signature.  This was done using a logo downloaded from the net, and scanner, and a laser etcher!  The etching came out quite nicely if I do say so myself.  Then, gluing up the dowel joints, 4 coats of varnish, and weaving some 1" webbing, and voila personalized seats!

And Finally, install the seats and thwarts...

Some final pics...

Well, that about does it.  Perhaps some outdoor pics in the spring when the weather is nicer!

Well, we're getting to the end game now.  I installed the stem bands.  Major learning there is that the friction in new pre-drilled ash of a 3/4" long number 4 brass screw is about equal to the shear strength of the shaft.  After shearing off a couple of screws installing the stem band, I went to the hardware store and got about 20 5/8" screws.  These did not seem to shear off.  Other than shearing off screws, the stem bands went on without a hitch.

Overall, the stem bands clean up the bow and stern quite nicely.

All that remains is to make a couple of seats, and re-finish the thwarts.  All that is salvageable from the old bow seat is the two cross-pieces.  I got a friend to cut a maple 1" board into 1.5" strips.  The front seat cross pieces are about 7" and the back seat about 8"  (the front seat dimensions are from the old cross-pieces, and the rear inferred from the spacing of the holes for the mounting bolts in the inner gunnel).  Luckily, I the seat spacers were with the canoe, along with all but one of the diamond head bolts, so getting the seats installed at the right height should not be a problem.

The seat pieces are assembled using dowel joints, 2 dowels in the end of each cross-piece.  The same friend loaned me a doweling jig and 3/8" piloted drill.  Very cool piece of equipment that works like a charm - all the holes align and the seats assemble nicely.  The maple is quite white, so I put a bit of the minwax early american stain to darken them a bit.  Now some glue, varnish and webbing and the last bits should be done.  I think I'll go with red webbing to match design #4.

I'm also in the process of stripping the thwarts so I can varnish all  these last bits at the same time.  Actually, I am using a scraper to remove the old varnish, and then rough sanding.  Scrapers are cool.

I'll try to post some pics when the seats are complete and installed.  Other than that, I think we are nearing the end of this blog.  Tasks that remain, but may not be done are restoring the sponsons and paining yellow inside the blue up triangles in the sponson version of design #4.  I am not a big fan of sponsons, so no sure if/when I'll get to those.  I also like the red and blue version of design #4, so am not inclined to rush into that either.

Until next time...

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and are now into a happy new year!  Quite a bit accomplished since the last report where we had the canvas on, filled and primed, and the outer gunnels installed.  Since then, despite a few distractions over the holidays, we have come to the final stages.  The keel is installed, the bottom painted, and Old Town Design #4 painted on.  A few details if I can remember them...

When lining up the keel, and looking at the stem bands, I decided the stem band needed to end up flush with the bottom of the keel.  I carved out the keel up to about where the inside stem ends, and rounded the ends to hopefully give a nice, flush seam when the stem band is installed.  I left the ends of the tapered ends full thickness.  (this pic after paint, It is not too good, but I forgot to take a picture before).

I pre-drilled for the keel screws, through the dacron for the existing ribs with existing holes for the keel screws, and through the rib, planking and dacron for the replaced ribs.  I took some  care with drilling through the dacron as it stretched to much if I tried to just drill through.  So, I built up some blocks to flush with the bottom of the canoe (right side up) and then could easily drill through the dacron with no stretching or pulls.  I then lined up the keel centered fore/aft, marked where all the keel screws would come through and pre-drilled on the keel centerline.  I also tried pre-drilling the tapered ends of the keel - mistake - they are too thin, and I ended up not being able to pull them down flush anyway.  (The current plan is to paint and then later try to pull the ends (more) flush when I install the stem bands.  It will likely mean some caulking of these ends after installation (and paint).)

I did not like the cone washers Island Falls sent as they would require more counter-sinking of the ribs than I was comfortable with.  So, I got some brass finish washers at the hardware store instead.  They looked like they would not end up flush, but the size pretty well matched the marks in the ribs from the original keel installation.

(recall at this point there was a 50-50 diluted varnish coat on the concave, soon to be hidden side of the keel.)  I put a bead of the fancy 3M 5200 caulking on the concave side of the keel and with the canoe upside down managed to get the fore and aft most screws into the pilot holes.  Then, starting at the front (with the canoe still upside down, I got a few other screws started from the bottom.  But, it was hard to get the screws in to the pilot holes.  I turned the canoe back right side up, and started installing the screws fore to aft (but with a few started in the middle of the canoe as well).  Overall, I got about half of the screws to align with the pilot holes, and had to re-drill the keel for the others. Before installing each screw, I dipped it in the caulking compound to hopefully get a good seal around the dacron in case any water gets under the keel.  I note that very little caulking came out from under the keel, so I probably did not use quite enough and there may be some air gaps.  But, the screws pulled up to the dacron quite nicely as I tightened the screws.  And, the finish washers distorted as I tightened the screws making them quite more flush and smooth than I was expecting.  The inside looks quite nice with the screws and finish washers snugged up and the slots aligned fore-aft.

Next, on to painting.  The Interlux Hatteras off white is a bit yellower than I expected, but looks fine.  The paint went on fine, I used 3 coats, and used a bit over 3/4 of the (quart?) can.  I used a 2" brush with fore-aft strokes on all coats.  The finish coat is quite nice although you can still see the planking irregularities through the dacron (as expected).  Before painting, I put standard masking tape on the new gunnels.  (This turned out to be sub-optimal as the white (especially, but also the blue and red) bled under it a bit, and made it hard to remove later on.  Overall not too bad, and on the bottom, but it is probably worth using the better masking tape for this as well.  However, this would have likely put me over the one roll of tape I bought.)

I'll also note at this point that if you sight down the keel, you can see a bulge where the 6 adjacent new ribs are installed forward of the center gunnel.  My trick of using a false keel when setting the new ribs seems to have worked well in the stern section, but was not quite up to keeping the large number of adjacent ribs flush.  I am not what I would try next time.  Perhaps a longer, stiffer false keel where there are many adjacent ribs.  (rather than moving the shorter one as I did)

And, on to Old Town Design #4.  I measured the triangles on the old sponsons that I am trying to match (see earlier post).  The down triangles are 3" tall.  3/4" between up and down triangles.  A bit over 7" base at the gunnel.  The total length is 208".  To get red in the center, and at both ends at the tip, I chose to use 29 down triangles.  I cut a 'standard' triangle out of heavy paper (a manila folder) that was 3" tall, and 7 3/16" base.  Centering the first on on the center thwart, I marked 5 1/2 widths on the gunnel tape, and also marked 5 locations (7 3/16 apart) from the bow and stern.  To make sure to put any mismatch in an un-noticeable spot, I marked the last 4 by measuring from the existing marks, bisecting and then re-bisecting the remaining gap.  With the ends of the triangles marked on the gunnel tape, I just lined up the template triangle, and marked the tip of the large triangles with eraseable crayons (drawing a line up the top of each side of the triangle to the tip).  I also used the template and the crayons to mark the large triangles around the bow and stern.  There is no need to mark the small triangles as they are formed using the masking tape.

With all the triangles marked, it is on to the masking tape.  First, I connected all the crosses parallel to the  gunnel - this forms the base of the small triangles.  Then I cut tape for the sides of the triangles.  Note I cut the ends of the tape at an angle so that the tape would not over-hang into the adjacent triangle.  But, the angle should not be less than half the angle between the triangles as you do not want a gap between the tape (an over-lap seems to work out fine.  Once I got started, I started crimping the ends of the tape far from the gunnels to make it easier to remove at after paining.  At the tip of the canoe, there is no room for the smaller triangle.  At least one photo I have shows a diamond there instead.  So, after taping, I cut out a triangle that matched one end of the diamond, then flipped it over the short end to mark the other half of the diamond, and taped that as well.  This all took some time and patience, but really went rather smoothly.  The tape is light green, so not very visible in the photo.

And on to painting.  Red and blue.  3 coats each.  What happened to black you ask?  The photos I have show red and blue down triangles, and blue up triangles.  Rather than introducing yet another color, I decided that yellow up triangles, boardered by blue would be close enough.  And soon (after seeing the pictures) you may ask - what happened to the yellow.  For now, I think red and blue down, and blue up may be more 'original' and will stick with that for now.  I may add the yellow later by masking off the edge of each of the blue up triangles.  Hopefully, the blue will be cured well enough to not get peeled off when removing the tape.  But for now, I'm sticking with red and blue - very patriotic don't you think?  Oh, and maybe add the 'star' design on the bow???

So, here is after painting, but before removing the tape:

while removing the tape:

And, drum roll please - ta da...

So, now it is on to varnishing the gunnels (remember, I only did the insides before, the gunnels still need 3-4 coats of varnish... ugh.  Then, install the stem bands.  Then all that remains is to refinish the thwarts and do something about seats...

More supplies:
brass finish washers - 25@.45ea   Katz Ace                                         11.25
marine sealant (3M 5200)       Home Depot                                          18.58
foam paint brushes                         Katz Ace                                           1.29
3M fineline 218 tape (3/4" x 60 yd)  NHBragg      12.75 + shipping    20.10
Paint 1/2 pint: red, blue, black, yellow  4x5.99                                      35.96
paint brushes 4                                                                                        38.00

I've been busy lately.  Continuing from the last post, I put on 4 coats of primer.  After the first coat with a foam brush, I switched to a 2" brush for the remaining 3, alternating up/down and fore/aft strokes.  The primer went on much thicker with the brush, and the weave is finally filled, and the color pretty uniform.  (Looks like I forgot to get a pic with just the primer done - here is one with one gunnel mounted and the other clamped.)

After priming, time to put the keel on.  I unwrapped the keel and gunnels I picked up from Island Falls Canoe last spring.  The keel screws will need to go through the canvas and I was worried about pulling the dacron.  So, I positioned the canoe right side up, put blocks underneath to just flush with the bottom, under a rib, and drilled through the dacron using the existing screw holes as guides.  For the new ribs, I again blocked and drilled through so they are ready also.  No problem drilling  through with a backing - without the backing the dacron was stretching in an uncomfortable way...

I'll note here that Island Falls sent v-washers to protect the ribs from the keel screws.  These were finishing washers originally (you can tell from the size of the indentations) and I went out and got some of these to use instead.  I do not like the idea of countersinking the ribs as much as would be required without the finish washers.  Of course, these will be a bit proud, but the original indentations are a bit deep, so I'll see how far I can sink them when I install the keel.

The stem bands also came in the mean time.  I decided to carve out the tapered portion of the keel so the stem band ends flush with the bottom of the keel (once they get mounted).  Then I positioned the keel evenly fore/aft, and centered and held it on with straps, got under the canoe and tapped a punch through each  rib to mark where I need to pre-drill for the screws.

I put a coat of 50-50 thinned varnish on the sides of the keel and gunnels that will be hidden to protect them from the elements -hopefully.

Then, for unknown reasons (or perhaps just because I did not have the proper caulking yet), I decided to mount the outer gunnels.  It is a bit of a chore getting them flush with the already installed ribs, but a bit of adjusting, and moving from the center to the ends, and it went pretty well at least to the curved ends of the canoe.  For each screw, I positioned and clamped the gunnel, aligning to be as flush as I could with the rib.  Then every other rib (odd ribs, starting at the center thwart rib) I used a punch to position the hole, drilled just through the gunnel with a large drill, drilled through the rib and into the inner gunnel with a smaller drill, countersunk drilled to get the head just below flush, and then put in the 1.5"x8 slotted screw (leaving the slot parallel to the gunnel of course). Interestingly, or perhaps naturally, I managed to hit the old holes on the inner gunnels most of the time.  This all took a much larger toll on my forearms than expected, They are still a bit sore...

This all went fine, right up to the ends  where the canoe curls up quite a bit.  It is certainly nice that Island Falls pre-bent the ends of the gunnels - I'm not sure it could be done if they were not.  Even with the pre-bending, it was hard to the curve of the new gunnel to align with the deck and ribs.  I got as close as I could, and then it came down to sanding and a bit of leveling with a chisel to touch things up after I got the ends rounded.

After getting to the ends, I was left with a bit of a mess to close out.  Clamping across the boat I could get the two sides close, and got screws into the last rib on each side.  The thickness of the stem and planking turns out to be wider than the stem band, so the gunnel cut-out does not close at the bow and stern.  I wound up cutting the gunnels to roughly parallel to the curve of the bow, and hand carved some of the rib white cedar to fill the gap, hopefully enough for the stem band to cover.  Then some sawing off of corners, planing and a lot of sanding to get a rounded shape on both ends.  I think the stem bands should cover this reasonably well, at least good enough for me!

Then some sanding of the new wood, and leveling at the ends to bring the gunnels down to the ribs where needed, and a coat of 50-50 thinned varnish to seal, and voila.

I noticed in prying the ends of the gunnels around, a 'sag' appeared in the dacron at the bow on the port side.  I am not  sure why it came, but ironing (at 5.5 setting) seemed to take it right out, even with the filler and primer.  So far, the dacron remains nice and tight otherwise.

I think that covers most of the latest activities.  Now it is on to installing the keel.  I got the special 3M 5200 caulking to hopefully keep leaks from the keel screws (and then the stem bands when I get to them).  Then on to touching up the primer and painting the hull.

Quite a few more supplies this period...(I'm not sure what has been reported before, but here is a list that goes back a bit...)

Stewart Systems

1 qt Dacron filler (Ekofill)                                 48.00   

dacron cloth 15/ydX7 yds                                 105.00

Dacron glue (not used)                                        12.00

Katz Hardware

Primer (Zinzer 123) 1 qt                                     12.00

3" foam brushes (2)                                               3.00

Island Falls Canoe

25 Keel washers (wrong ones)                               6.25

25 1"x8 screws (keel)                                            6.25

30 oval head 3/4"x4 screws (stem bands)             6.00

100 1.5"x8 screws (gunnels)                                19.00

2 stem bands                                                         50.00

1 Qt Hatteras Off white - Interlux Premium Yacht Enamel     45.00

shipping                                                                34.00

Katz Hartdware

25 brass finish washers (#8)                                   11.25

2" foam brush                                                           1.29

Home Depot

3m 5200 Marine Sealant 100oz                               18.50

NHBragg

3m fine line 218 3/4"x60yds masking tape              20.10    (12.75 + shipping)

The day after Thanksgiving, and time for another post.  (Well, now it is Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Per usual, a few interruptions as life keeps intruding on important stuff like wasting time on an illogical project like this.  So, back to updating this post...)   Despite too much turkey, and many relatives come a visitin' I have done a bit of 'work' since the last post.

The 3.7oz dacron from Stewart systems turns out to be a finer weave than the 'heavy' dacron (2.9 oz) from Aircraft Spruce I used for the kayak.  It was a bit coarser weave than the lightweight dacron I used for the deck of the Pocock scull.

I applied the Dacron, mostly using the Heat-n-bond rather than the liquid glue from Stewart systems.  The tape is easy to apply, goes on uniformly, is easy to iron and tell when it is penetrated, and overall just seems easier.  With the glue on the planking around the gunnels, I went back an 'calibrated' the iron.  I put tape with numbers and a tick mark to be a bit more precise in the settings.  I then took a 4x3 inch piece of cloth and progressively ironed at increasing settings.  The results were:

Setting                                  length     width
0                                             4              3
3                                             3 7/8        2 15/16
4                                             3 3/4        2 13/16         (glue irons to cedar)
4.5 (wool)                              3 3/4        2 13/16
5                                             3 9/16      2 5/8
5.5  (cotton)                           3 1/2        2 9/16
6                                             3 1/4        2 7/16
6.5 (max)                               3 3/16      2 6/16

(Note that this was with a newish 'modern' iron, and I could not melt the dacron even at the highest setting.  I did a trial with an OLD electric iron, and managed to completely melt the dacron, before it was even on high...)

Before putting on the dacron, I covered the planking with 'saran wrap'.  (Actually, I used some clear plastic on a roll that is used for packing stuff.)  I held this on with double sided tape on the corners.  This is to keep the dacron from being 'glued' to the planking when painting on the filler.  In the figures, you can see the plastic sheeting, and the heat-n-bond ironed to the top of the planking.  The heat-n-bond was set using a setting of 4 on the iron.

 I could pull the dacron quite tight while activating the glue with the iron, and ended up with a pretty good job just doing that.  You can tell when the glue is well set as the dacron goes clear when the glue saturates the weave.

Worked from the center to the ends.  At the ends, I cut the dacron close to length, and split up the center to where the bow (stern) 'breaks'.  Turns out, I should have pulled to the gunnels further before splitting to make a neater and shorter split.  I could pull tight almost to the end of the gunnels before splitting.  Then I used 7/8" heat-n-bond, even with one side of the stem and overlapping the other side.  I pulled the dacron over from the 'even' side and ironed on the stem and around to the overlapping side, but not to the edge of the glue.  I used scissors to trim even with the edge of the glue, and then ironed that side to get good glue saturation.  Then I put another layer of glue (7/8" heat-n-bond) over the first layer - that is, even with the same side as before, so now around the edge on the near side.  Then I could iron on the dacron to the near side of the canoe, and trim the dacron even with the far edge of the stem.  Hopefully, the outer edge will now be under (or just sticking out of the stem band - whenever I get to that...).  I note that the under layer overlap on the one side is not visible.

At this point the dacron actually looked pretty tight.  But, I ironed anyway at a setting of 4.5 from the keel down to the gunnels.  Need to move the iron quite slowly to get the dacron to shrink fully to this setting.  Again, looked quite tight, but being brave, I reset the iron to 5.5 and ironed again.  This seems quite tight, and I decided to forego ironing at the highest setting.  Note that for all this I tried to avoid ironing over any of the glue to keep it from letting go.

And on to filling the dacron.  I went with Ekofill from Stewart Systems.  Much thinner than I expected (not knowing what to expect).  I only bought a quart figuring I would get at least 2 coats and that would be marginally enough.  Well, I got 6 coats, and still have a bit left in the  bottom of the can.  I put it all on with a 3" foam brush, right from the can.  First, up/down brush strokes, then lengthwise strokes alternating between coats.  After the first coat is was quite splotchy, which you probably cannot see in the top 2 photos, but after the that, the color was nice and even.  It took about 1.5 hours to paint on each coat.  There was one soft area in the canvas at the tip of the bow that I noticed after the 3rd coat.  Surprisingly, ironing at 5.5 took it right out.  The only soft areas now are at the glued areas, not too bad, and should be under the gunnel.

top 2 photos after one coat- a bit blotchy, but you cannot really tell in the photos.

These photos are after 3 coats, much more, but again hard to tell from the photos.

After 6 coats, the weave is still not quite filled, but the color is nice and even, and the dacron has an almost rubbery feel.  Note that  I LIGHTLY sanded with 320 after the 5th coat to knock off any lumps that I missed as I was applying each coat. 

Next up the Zinzer 123 primer.  According to various postings, it should fill the weave giving a smooth finish.  Unless I am painting too thin (as may be my tendency).  Then install the keel before trying the paint.

In the mean time, I called Island Falls Canoe to order the next round of parts (note I picked up the outer gunnels and keel last spring).  This order includes:

2 stem bands  (2x$25)

Stem band screws (~30   1.25"x4 oval head)

keel screws and cup washers (~25   1"x8)

gunnel screws (box of 100  1.5"x8  (need ~60)

Paint - off white - interlux or ?? - 1qt

I'll try to add prices when things are delivered.

I'll try to post again after a couple of coats of primer...

Progress has continued.  Not much posting because all I have been doing is sanding and sanding and sanding, and a bit of varnish.  All done with varnishing for now.  So far, I have one coat (thinned 50-50 Epifanes) on the gunnels and deck.  On the rest of the inside I have 4 coats.  Sequence: Sand 150 grit, 1 coat (50-50), sand 220 grit, 1 coat (75-25), sand 220 grit, 1 coat (90-10), sand 320 grit wet, 1 coat (90-10).  I think that is enough for now.  Perhaps another coat or two when it is time to do the gunnels and deck, but we'll see if I recover from sanding by then.  A few pics of the interior (you can see some experimenting with camera settings.  The better pics (top 2) are set on scene instead of auto (last photo), these I think are no flash):

Next up is figuring out how to canvas.  Much reading on the web - mostly led from the WCHA forum searches.  I am still planning on going with Dacron for the finished weight, relative ease of application and familiarity (from previous kayak and single rowing shell).  Drawbacks are durability (but I do not see heavy river use - mostly lake paddling), and showing surface irregularities (which will be unfortunate, but I'm going for function, not beauty...)  One good search is 'osberg dacron' which leads to a post chain 'Dacron on Old Town' - this chain has a lot of good suggestions, including using a second layer bonded to the bottom and using saran wrap (see below).  Another good find was a google search for Stewart River BoatWorks.  They have instructions for how they recommend applying Dacron.  (for later, I also found a post 'OldTown Design #4' that describes how to get the triangular pattern measured and painted...)

So, after culling through all the conflicting advice in the articles, posts and counter posts, here is my plan.

• varnish the outside with 50-50 (already done - this conditions the wood and makes it somewhat slippery so the dacron will not stick to it as the boat flexes and expands from temperature and moisture changes.  Traditionalists use linseed oil or other but it sounds like it takes a long time to dry and if not totally dry can soak through the dacron and messes up penetration and adhesion of the filler.
• I decided to forego the inner layer of dacron on the bottom (not up the sides).  This seems like a good idea, and I already have some light weight dacron from the shell.  But, it is also another step, and I do not see that much sand getting inside the boat to worry about getting between the planking and canvas.  I'll need to tell Nancy to rinse her feet when getting in...
• Next will be to apply the dacron.  I will use either, or both the heat-n-bond iron on glue and the paint on glue from Stewart Boatworks.  I had planned to use only heat-n-bond but worry if the weight of the dacron is too much for the iron on glue.  So, I got some of the paint on heat activated glue from Stewart Boatworks also, and I'll play around  with both.
• I also got the dacron from Stewart Boatworks.  For the kayak and shell, I ordered from Aircraft Spruce.  But, they have lightweight (1.4 oz/yd?, used for the shell) and heavy weight (2.8 oz/yd used for the kayak).  Stewart Boatworks sells 3.7oz.  I suspect it is coarser weave and may not be stronger. But, I suspect they know what they are selling and hopefully it will be best.
• Cover the planking with saran wrap.  This seems like cheating, but who will know (other than you who read this).  The idea here is to keep the filler from seeping through the canvas and adhering to the planking.  This would make all sorts of issues as the canoe flexes.  Hopefully, once the filler is dry it will not matter if the saran wrap moves around a bit.
• I plan to use the basic covering technique from the Stewart Boatworks instructions, although I may substitute the heat-n-bond, at least in places.  Also, rather than calibrating the iron to a given temperature, I plan to test iron some samples and set the iron for a given amount of shrinkage.  I hope to be able to calibrate the iron settings to:

     - low - enough to melt the glue but no shrinkage of the dacron
     - medium - about 5-10% shrinkage (1/4 to 1/2 of the expected max shrinkage of 20%)
     - high - 20% (max) shrinkage
     - too high - oops it melted

• The plan is to apply the glue.  pull and tug hand tight and attach dacron and get wrinkles out with low-medium iron, only around the edges to get good glue hold.  Final ironing on high to shrink to final tightness (and not pull off the glue...).
• Hopefully the method in the Stewart Boatworks instructions for the stems works as described.  (I do not plan to add the extra layer of dacron tape over the stems - seems like over-kill for the usage I expect and I worry about loosening the under layers of glue trying to apply the extra layers.  Besides, I expect to have stem bands to protect the stems.
• Next will be filling the dacron.  I bought the Ekofill from Stewart Boatworks.  Seems like much easier to apply than cotton filler.  Sounds like it should be easy to dampen the dacron and paint on a couple of coats of filler.  I only bought a quart, hopefully enough for 2 coats.  I plan to use it all and then go on to the primer...
• The forums sound like the Ekofill will not fill the weave completely (without more coats than I am interested in).  Another suggestion was to use something 123 primer (Zinzer I think, but the web site is down at the moment...)  This apparently adheres well to both the Ekofill and subsequent paint, and is thick enough to get a good smooth finish over the weave of the dacron.  I plan to sand with 320 between coats of filler and primer.  Sounds like dry sanding is the order of the day for this, so there will be some vacuuming and wiping as well...
• Then, paint.  I have not yet figured out what paint to use, other than it needs to be off white to match the previous paint scheme.  Sounds like it needs to be a good marine paint to have enough flexibility to handle the flexing the canoe will undergo.  I was hoping for a latex product (water clean-up), but most I have seen so far appear not to be.  More research yet to go in that area.
• One worry is if the dacron will pull when I try to put fasteners through it.  I will need to get through the dacron from the inside to attache the keel, and from the outside to attach the stem bands.  Hopefully new fasteners will slide over/through/past the dacron fibers and not pull and distort my (hopefully by then) beautiful paint job.

Well, that is about the size of the planning I have so far.  Many more steps here than sanding, sanding, sanding, so perhaps I'll have a few more frequent posts to fill you in on progress.

More cost info - adding up more than I expected...:
another quart of Epifanes $45
Dacron (7 ydsx72") + Ekofill (1 qt) + heat glue (3oz) - $200

Welcome back canoe fans.  While not much posting has been going on, I have been busy.  Sanding and sanding and sanding.  Finally, all the insides have been sanded, and the outside of the planking has also.  Obviously, this took a while, and almost surely not worth the effort, as this is a canoe after all.  But, once I got going I couldn't stop.  Here are a few pics after sanding (and trimming the new ribs).

The new ribs are quite obvious, and did not seem less so as I looked at it more.  So, I decided to go the stain route.  I chose Minwax Early American stain that seemed pretty close.  I stained the ribs (white cedar) but chose to keep the new planking (western red cedar) natural - there does not seem to be as much color variation there, and I think the red cedar will darken more and blend reasonably when varnished.

Below is the (unvarnished) finished product.  As you can see, the stained ribs are a bit browner and do not have the yellow tinge of the old ribs.  But, overall, I think it is a pretty good match.  We'll see how it looks varnished!

 And on to the varnish.  I am using Epifanes clear gloss varnish - the same as I used on the Pocock single.  I like it and it seems to have good reviews...

The first coat will be thinned 50% - mainly to seal the wood.  I plan to do this inside and out.  (this will be the only sealing for the planking - instead of linseed oil or other treatments discussed on the canoe heritage web site.)  Below is a pic of the first bit I have done.  I am planning to work rib by rib to try and avoid seams and overlapping coats.  I could not get the brush into the very front - hopefully the old treatment is sufficient to keep the bow and stern from rotting...  I am not planning to varnish the gunnels at this point - I will do them all at once when the outer gunnel is installed.  This will be after the canvas is on so will be a while.

That's about it for now.  Hopefully varnishing will not take too long and next post will not be too far in the future.  I may need to use the blog to collect my thoughts for figuring out how to get the canvasing done.

Oh yes, a few more prices:
medium (100) sandpaper - lots but out of my stash...
stain - about $6.00   (I really do not recall)
varnish - $45.00.
brushes, etc - so far only from stores...