Time to sand out the interior of the 100 year old chestnut. Oh joy! You can see on the left the condition of the wood after being stripped. the wood on the right is after the first round of sanding. Much cleaner. There is still more sanding left to be done.


The new planking requires some staining so that after varnishing it all blends together. SOme experimenting is needed to get the right hue. Here you can see some of the stain applied. Yes, it looks a LOT darker, but its a water based aniline dye that hasn't yet dried. The goal is to have it blend together after the varnish is all done.

Interior of the Chestnut showing some of the new planking with stain applied, and dried. I'm just about to start varnishing.

This is what one coat of varnish does ot the canoe. And just in case there was any doubt about that stain, this is the same section of the canoe as shown in the previous photo.

Here's the long shot. I'll have to post a photo showing the before and after.