I did some processing of the Bison bones. Step one is to cut it into smaller pieces, then into the slow cooker to boil off the meat residue and some of the marrow. After a good number of hours I cut it down into smaller pieces and boil out what is left.

After it dries I cut it down into even more manageable pieces. Now I study these pieces to see how to best further process them.

And this is the result. I have many more pieces that I can cut out of my bone supply, but for now I will content myself to my present needs of one tie block cap, one saddle, and one nut.

Now that all that old resin is off of the Bob's Special, it is time to get the new ribs bent. I'm nearing the end of my current White Cedar stock, I have stock left for narrow ribs and have some planking milled, but not much left that is suitable for 2 1/4" wide 65" long ribs. So I have to be careful with these ones!

Into the steambox they go.

After about 20 minutes of generous steaming they are ready to bend around the canoe to take the correct shape. They get bent at a section of the canoe that is just slightly smaller than where they will be installed to ensure a proper fit.

After they cool, the old broken ribs are removed and the new ones put in their place. At this point they are just clamped in place.

There is a lot of open space here where the planking is busted out, so a batten is clamped to cover a number of ribs to keep them all lined up.

Now I have two broken ribs to repair, the ribs to fasten with canoe tacks, and all that busted out planking to replace.

The saddles and nuts of a guitar are made of many materials, but bone is considered the standard for good guitars as it is hard and long lasting.

My neighbour raises Bison, I had asked for some bones next time they harvested an animal. I didn't expect two full legs, hoofs included, to show up on my doorstop last week.

Notice all the meat still attached?

For that I need a little help. Patou loves the fresh meat! Good thing because there's still lots left, but she's making progress.

I decided to use an ebony bound maple fingerboard for the new guitar. I liked the black binding on the natural maple, but it didn't "work" with the Rosewood bridge. So I stained it. At this point I have two coats of CA glue to build the surface finish. The fret is just sitting there to pre-visualize the end results.

The bridge as it looks now, with a little CA (cyanoacrilite) flooded on the fill any small pores.

Now I am ready to close the back, fret the fingerboard, glue on the fingerboard and bridge, binding, finishing, etc...

Oh, and I need to make the tuning pegs. For that I will need a lathe.

My DIT humidifier Mark III .

Not satisfied with commercial humidifier offerings, I decided to cobble together one out of basic plumbing and aquarium supplies. A deep Rubbermaid tub, 1/2" PVC pipe, an aquarium powerhead pump, and cleanable furnace air filters. Holes cut in the sides allow air from my room air filter to pass through to increase the evaporation. Works pretty good!

Onto working on the 1948 Chestnut "Bob's Special". A couple of big rocks fell on this lovely old canoe punching a couple of big hole through it and destroying 4 ribs in the process. The client has decided that removing the fiberglass that had been put on during a previous repair would be taken off, so I get to strip fiberglass and resin residue. Yah...

Varnish is finished on the interior.



The old Peterborough is all canvased and the filler is on. All I can do with it now is to wait...and work on other canoes!