The 1962 Kildonan getting set up for canvassing.

I went through a lot of screw piloting drill bits before I settled on this combination. The tapered drill bit is sold by Lee Valley, and the countersink is a Dimar.  It has carbide cutters and is made of two parts which clamp around the drill bit allowing it to be installed on any drill bit up to 1/4" diameter.

It is more expensive that some others, but lasts for years and years.  And it works!  Money well spent.

My friend Cam wants a new walnut paddle, but he wants it made all of a single piece of wood. No laminations anywhere. He puts a lot of kilometers under his canoe each season while guiding. So, while he not only needs a paddle that he'll be happy with, he needs a paddle that is up to the task. That means that the shaft has to have a minimum diameter of 1 1/8". His will be 1 3/16". The trouble is that most lumber is only available in 4/4 thickness, or 1" max. Ideally, I'd prefer to buy lumber that is 6/4 thickness, but that isn't being sold. So, I have to buy a great big piece of 8/4 Walnut.

Here you can see how the new paddle is being laid out on the stock. There is lots of wood left over and I need to be creative in how I use it so that it is not going into the scrap box. I was able to get woodout of this piece for one more laminated paddle, and some small pieces for other purposes. I don't scrap any wood until it is so small to use that the work of using it exceeds the value of the wood.

Gunnels for two canoes bent and waiting.

Another Souris River canoe in for gunnel replacement. This is one of the older Prospector models and the gunnels were fabricated as a single piece with a slot cut along the length, allowing the hull canoe hull laminate to slip into it. The screws clamp it tight. At the stem end some undercutting is required to allow the gunnel ends to reach the end of the canoe.  For scale, the gunnel stock is about 1" square.  The original was more like 7/8" tall and 1 1/8" or 1 1/4" wide (I can't remember now).

I'm not sure why the gunnels were done this way.  I'm assuming that there was an expected time saving as only one piece per side was needing fitting, maybe easier to fabricate.  My experience fitting these gunnels is that one person working alone would have an easier time fitting a two piece gunnel as they are more flexible and easier to get started.  This style is much easier a a two person job as there really is no way to hold it into its curve while you get the first half installed.  Its very similar to fitting aluminum gunnels in this regard.

The Kildonan's had this particular deck shape. Its usually made of Elm. This deck has the interior face undercut like the old Chestnut ones.

I've been working on an old Kildonan canoe. This one is in pretty decent shape even though it has had some pretty wonky repair work done to the stem in the past. Its just a plastering of Bondo!

So the stem tip and the gunnel ends get the repair treatment, and the interior is sanded and it gets a coat of varnish. The last cant rib needs some repair work on the end, too.