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.

The new Boreal exterior sanded and treated with linseed oil. The Oil prevents the wood from drying out and getting brittle, and it reduces the amount of moisture that the wood can absorb.


The seats on this canoe are supported on risers rather than being bolted to the gunnels. This allows them to be set lower and reduces the number of holes that get drilled into the gunnels. An important aspect of the installation is to get the risers at the correct height, level, and parallel to each other.

Here is how the risers and seat go into the canoe.

Canvas went on Friday. I ran out of time to get the filler on as the phone kept ringing with inquiries and people showed up to discuss their canoes. A sure sign of Spring!

All done and ready for filler first thing Monday morning.

The seats on the new Boreal canoe will be hand caned. This requires that a series of holes be drilled around the seat frame. 1/4" holes on a 3/4" centers. Each hole, on each face, requires a small camfer to relieve the corner to not stress the cane strand.

I've seen a lot of old seats with failed glue joints, so I always use epoxy along with the two dowels. You'll notice that one of the pieces is wider than the others. The front of each seat is 2" wide so that I can put a bevel on it, making it more comfortable to the paddler.

And, of course, the gunnels. To the casual eye they are just a couple of long sticks, but there is a lot of work in them. Cutting the wood, milling it to dimension, rabbeting the back to sit over the planking, rounding over the corners, pre-varnishing the back sides, sanding the bottom. And that's all before they get put on the canoe!

Time for the big reveal!

First, here is the new bow seat looking suitable old. Not really old, but it does look like it belongs.


And the old stern seat for comparison. Its rare to find old cane seats without broken cane, this one is excellent.

A little peak at the stern deck looking pretty under lots of new varnish. I took a tracing pattern off of this deck and compared it to a newer deck, it is practically identical.


A nice feature of the old decks is the significant undercut which follows the crowning of the top of the deck.


And, finally, the long shot showing the old girl all finished and ready for the water.

One of the last things to do on the Mad River is to transfer the seat webbing from the old, broken, stern seat, to the new one. The original seat has the webbing secured into a groove on the back of the seat with a spline and resin. There is not enough of the webbing to do that, plus I really don't like that method-it's not reversible. I've secured the webbing, which is seat belt material, with a couple of stainless steel staples in each end.

And here is the finished canoe. The refinished trim looks great. Some would call it "road worn". The exterior of the hull is still pretty beat, but if you start redoing it, where do you stop? the owner was not prepared to pay for that, he wants a canoe that is he can keep working hard.