Finish off the "Old Town". I use quotation marks because I am not convinced that this is an authentic Old Town. Everything about it says Old Town OTCA, but there is no evidence of a builder's marque, and there is no serial number stamped into the stem. And yet all the details are Old Town. Go figure.

Some years ago the owner's sister had repaired theseats using nylon string and there was some sentimental value to this. Anyway, the owner decided late to have the seats re-caned, this being the thing that would really set off the restoration.

Here are the seats prior to removing the string.

The seats with base coats of varnish and the cane done. I have applied some stain to the seat on the left, and am just about to do the other seat. New cane on an old canoe makes the seats look too "new" and out of place. A little stain mellows them out.

Bow seat and the two thwarts ready to install. You can also see the refinished floor boards. They are just some spruce slats attached to some cross pieces, and held in place by a small piece of brass stem band that is screwed into the hull over the keel.

Stern seat installed. These seats were usually installed much higher than current taste would dictate, and its not my call to change it now without the directive to do so. You can see the finish on the trim really brings out the wood grain.

And the finish shot of the canoe all done. Be sure to look at the earlier post that shows the canoe before I started work on it for a before and after look.

Progress is being made on my daughters' guitars, I'm at the finishing stages now. This is the guitar with the dragon rosette, and it has a lovely Ash body, but the daughter who this guitar is for wants a floral drawing on the back. I was conflicted about cluttering up the lovely wood, but this guitar is not for me, so...away we go.


I prepared a drawing, and in order to make the lines convincing and not cartoonish, I worked from some Lilies and other flowers that were on the kitchen table. Once I was satisfied, and go the thumbs up from my daughter, I took a tracing onto frosted Mylar, then used carbon paper to transfer it to the guitar. I used India ink to give the drawing a nice black line. I'll post a photo of that when I get some pictures of it finished.

Saturday morning November 14, the view across the road. Fall has been pretty damp this year and most of the farmers are late taking their crops off, everything is slow to dry enough to harvest. This field of Soy Beans was just cleared Friday evening.

I chance meeting on an internet guitar building forum, a local man who has an interest in building classical guitars happened to work at the Kildonan Canoe Company. He didn't work there for very long, just one day, but that one day happened to be the day that an electrical fire burn the whole place down.

He was gracious enough to write down his memories of that day. Here's is his story:

"In early June of 1964, after my first year at University, I got a summer a job at The Kildonan Canoe Company. I worked there for one eventful day - the day the building and all its contents burned to the ground. As it happens, because of "the butterfly effect", it was a key day in my life, as I will explain.

Although I really don't remember much about the company, little details stick in my mind from that day, like hearing Barbara Streisand sing "People", maybe when I was getting off the bus that day to go to work. And I bumped into an old friend while watching the blaze out on the street - the kid who had broken my arm, explained the facts of life to me, and nearly got me into all kinds of trouble eight years earlier.

The Kildonan Canoe Company was located just off Main Street, on Leila. My recollection is that it was a two-story wooden building located on the south side of the street, and that it was probably immediately behind whatever store or business was located on the corner of Main and Leila. The yard was located at the western end of the property. In my mind's eye, I recall a mezannine level at the eastern end of the shop, although it could have been a full second story. There was a big door - probably double doors or a garage-type door on the western side of the shop, leading out to the yard. When I was first shown around, I must have seen some canoes, but I was surprised to find that most of the operation seemed to be in building motorboats. I remember drums of resin in the shop and I think I saw fibreglass being applied to hulls. But my job was to fasten screws into the boat we were working on, on the main floor at the eastern end of the building. Having no experience with using an electric drill as a screwdriver, I was good at stripping screw heads but not so good at sinking the screws.

But I still had a job when the end of the day rolled around - 4PM or 5PM - and I had been asked to work overtime that evening. I was looking forward to a couple of extra dollars, when somebody called out "Fire!. A fire had broken out in the wall to the right of the big doors leading to the yard. I heard later that it was an electrical fire. My first thought was to get the boats and canoes out of the building (I had probably been watching too many movies), but the fellow I was working with knew better, and said to just get out of the building. Since the fire was so near the door, I don't know how much time we would have had to get the boats and canoes out of the building, had we tried.

The next thing I can remember is standing out on the corner by Main Street watching a huge fire. I guess with all that wood and resin, it was a tinder keg. I left before the fire was extinguished, but from what I remember of the size of the fire, the building would have been razed to the ground, and the efforts of the fire department might have been to save nearby properties.

I never got my overtime, and my $10 pay cheque for the day never arrived in the mail. But my Dad later picked up my cheque at Kildonan's new offices somewhere on or near Pembina Highway. So much for my professional woodworking career. But my next summer job was in operating computers at the telephone company - and that sparked my interest in computing, which was my occupation for the rest of my career, and led to my marriage and kids. So that little electrical fire wasn't a bad thing at all, from my point of view."

The first coat of paint always adds a splash of colour to the shop. There is still a lot of work left to do, and its always a challenge to get a great finish, and the higher the gloss the more it shows every little imperfection!


Sand down the first coat of paint...


The second coat looks a lot better. Only have to do this two more times...

Gunnels all on the Tremblay. The keel pieces are on, too, but not in this photo.

Halloween has come and gone. My wife's brother and his daughter are visiting. He is a lawyer in Paris, they don't do Halloween there like the do here. My niece had a lot of fun running house to house collecting candy!

I always knew that my brother in law was the Devil!