Up the creek...

Yes, as the saying goes, with out a paddle.
The precise creek(or crick,if you say it wrong), has yet to be determined. One day, while messing about with my canoe, I came to the sudden and sharp realization that I had no way to propel the craft. Down stream would be OK, if a bit uncontrolled. Upstream, or flat water, I'd get nowhere, and fast. Yes, I had no canoe paddles, double bladed kayak paddles I got, several of them.
Trying to keep with in the spirit of this project, finding or making paddles was in order. I though of making them from scratch, but there would be a steep learning curve, with no guaranteed result, plus I would have to purchase wood.
I did have some old paddle parts from a past(and still on going) Folbot project. Perhaps they could be recycled into canoe paddles. They are heavy when used as a double paddle, which is why they are in parts. Plastic blades, with wood shaft half's, and aluminum ferrules. Why not, I thought, use those parts to make canoe paddles.
The plan was simple, make "T" style grips, attach them to one end of the shaft, really just a big dowel, and the blades to the other end, and BADA BING, paddles.

I just happen to have a few short pieces of closet pole around that I could use for the handles, no need to buy any thing.

Here is how the planning went for the handle, I grabbed the closet pole, and marked off the width of my hands, then cut it to that length, plus a bit more. Then, using the belt sander, ground it into a rough foot ball shape. Then using the closest size forstner bit I have to the shaft, put a shallow hole in the handle. The hole was just deep enough for the whole edge of the shaft to fit inside. Of course, the handle required lots of hand sanding, with various grits to refine the shape, and make it smooth. Too bad there is no brush on stuff that would do that. The closet pole had darkened with age, so the parts that when sanded away are lighter in color, it adds more visual interest.

The shafts had been previously treated with spar varnish, and was the finish I'd use for the paddles, so they didn't get stripped. I'd had enough of that task. So they also got a good sanding through various grits. Exciting stuff.

The handle was glued and screwed to the shaft, with a plug covering the counter bore for the screw, more sanding with some filing thrown in for good measure.

Then the blade was added to the shaft for a dry fit. More f'n sanding, the fit was too tight so after varnish it might not fit. So I got it to fit OK, and it looked just plain, plain. It just looked like a couple hunks of would and a plastic blade. It needed something more, it needed, art.
The problem now, is that I can't draw. I can barely write legibly, let alone draw. My drawing skills stalled at the pre-school level. I graduated college with a minor in Fine Art, and had to take a drawing course. The teacher must have had pity, I passed. But drawing just ain't my thing. So where to get the art? Stickers, if I was in the third grade, maybe. Decals? The question of durability ruled them out.
Then one day, while passing my wife's stamping table on the way to get a beer from the fridge, I had a "DUH!" moment. You see, she is a stammper, she make greeting cards, and other stuff with rubber stamps. She has about 47 gajillion stamps. All sizes, and types. some are scenes, others are single subjects, letters, names, etc, you name it she has it. So the plan was to stamp the paddle shafts with stamps, and varnish over them for protection, both the wood and the designs. The only concern was if the solvent in the varnish would make the ink run or smear. So of course a test was in order. My wife suggested that I use a type of ink that was solvent based. So I prepared a scrap of wood, stamped on it, and varnished it. It looked fine, no smear or runs. Full speed ahead.
The next hurdle, which the stampnig expert wanred me about, was stamping on a round surface.
Well , that is a bridge to be burnt when I get to it.
I selected a dozen or so of the 83 gazillion stamps, I choose nature related stamps, got the ink set, and had at it. There where some issues with stamping on the curve, but nothing that turned into a big blob of ink. In fact they came out pretty good, all things considered.
Ok, step two was complete, now for the varnish. I had a can, or half a can of spar varnish in the garage. Had it for a few years, and it was good the last time I used it, so lets open it up and see what it looks like. It looked good, if good is a thick, hard layer of varnish. I figured if I poked it and got to the stuff underneath, it would be OK. It took some effort to poke holes in the hard stuff. The stuff underneath was just a bit thick, not quite a gel, but it was getting there. But, not wanting to buy a new can for a small project, it was given a good stirring. I got the brush, and hung the paddle shafts from wires with eye hooks, and applied a first coat. Did I mention the varnish was a bit thick? It dried OK, two days later, and got a light sanding and another coat. Just a bit thick. Dry in two days, sanding, and a third coat. I think that can of varnish is going to be retired.
The big day came, when the paddle blades would be joined to the shafts. One small screw holds them together, SS of course. The blades are big, at least they seem that way, and yellow, and plain, but that is another project for another day. The handle feels comfortable on the hard, we'll see how it feels after a day on the water.
So after building the suspense, and with out further ado, here they are.
One more thing, the two halfs of the paddle shaft weren't the same size, so one paddle is longer then the other. I don't think this is a big issue, as my wife and I would need different sized paddles anyway.







































Expect a full review some time after the first paddle. I'm getting tired of seeing the boat and stuff surrounded by green, and brown, stuff. Time to get this finished and on the water. And since I haven't used it, here it is just for fun; athwart ships.

Thwarted !!!

There are five structural pieces that run athwart ships, I have been waiting to use the term "athwart ships" for YEARS. I finally have a reason to use it, athwart ships. The first time I heard it used in a sentence, and correctly, was at the Adirondack Museum . A very cool place to spend a day if your in the neighborhood. There was a room of boats used in the Adirondacks, and there was a nice young man building a piece of art called an Adirondack Guide boat. He was very good, and very nice. He was planking the boat with quatersawn white pine, about 1/4 inch thick. Now I don't know about your lumber yard, but quatersawn white pine doesn't exactly grow on trees where I live. And he was tapering the edges and cinch nailing them so that it required no caulk to be water tight when finished. He was very good. Of course I had to have a conversation with him about the boat and his work. I asked about the shape of the boat, he said it was symmetrical fore and aft and athwart sips. I was very proud of my self because I knew what that meant. Athwart ships.
Back to the free-cycle canoe. The five athwart ships pieces are two handles, bow and stern, two thwarts, and a portage yoke.
Here they all are:
The boat had the thwarts, yoke and one handle with it when I got it. But they where in sad shape. They appeared to be moldy, and just plain plain. The thwarts where just straight pieces of wood, no real shape at all. I wanted a little more visual interest when looking athwart ships. The thwarts and yoke also where soft at the ends, there was no sense in trying to clean them up and reuse them. I wouldn't want them to fail if there was too much stress athwart ships.

All of the athwart ships members where made of red oak. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, they're "supposed" to be ash, but I used red oak. Why? Because it's readily available at HD and Lowes, I would have had to spend a morning going to a place to get ash. It's relatively cheap, so if(when) I messed a peice, it's not that much cash to replace, and a short trip for more wood. Plus it's my boat, so deal.



The handles are just some sort pieces bull nosed on both sides, and about one and a half times wider than the original. Take a look:
Stern












Bow














The thwarts that came with the boat where also just straight pieces, not pretty at all. I looked at buying new curvy ones, in ash, but decided that since I have a complete wood shop (thanks to my wife), I'll make them. I laied out a shape that I liked,cut a sample from cheap pine to see how it looked on the boat. It was ok so I cut the bow thwart on my seldom used band saw. Some work with the router, and a lot of sanding, some trimming, and it was done. I wanted to make the stern thwart curvier, so the layout was changed, and a sample cut. When I went to cut it on the band saw, it blew a tire. Yup, band saws have tires, rubber strips on the wheels. I don't use the band saw much, and the tires dry rotted. Thats the breaks. So the second thwart was cut with the jig saw. It didn't take much longer, and with some sanding, routering, and more sanding, both thwarts where done.
This is them;
Back;











Front:














The yoke, which is the curviest piece that is athwart ships, was next and last. I it wanted to look and be a bit beefier than the original, the same as the thwarts, because I want to be able to add bungees at a later date. The neck part is also wider and deeper than the original. They layout took much head scratching, measuring, and the purchase of a new french curve. A paper pattern was made first. So some cutting with the jig saw, sanding, routing, more sanding, the yoke was cut, then trimmed and fit to the boat.
Here it is;


All of these athwart ships pieces where treated with Watco Teak Oil, they finished up pretty nice, if I do say so myself.

Well, we're close to getting wet, but there is still more work to be done.

Till next time, ATHWART SHIPS! (I just love saying it.)

RERAIL!!!

The new gunwales are on the hull! It was easier and more difficult than I though it would be. It took two days. It took two day because I worked slow, and quit early to go to a matinee. The port side was first, mainly because that side didn't have the old rails attached(remember the tear?).
I used almost all the clamps I have, except for the longest bar clamps, and the smallest. Needed them all. The most difficult part of all was trimming the ends. It takes practice. 7 or 8 more boats and I might figure it out. The directions,instructions, suggestions, or what ever you want to call it that I found on the Madriver web site helped some, but it was still difficult. The end result is that there won't be inset decks, that's the way it goes. Remember, this isn't a show piece.
Here it is with one side done.
Notice all the tools and clamps in the boat, used them all. Plus the stuff you don't see. The rails where attached from the center out. The center was easy.
















Here is the old and new.


I like the new side too!
















But all was not perfect on this sunny day. My wife decided to start a new project. Part of the new project entailed rinsing gravel. Go figure, when 'shewhomustbeobeyed wants clean gravel, who an I to argue. It wasn't the rinsing that was the problem, it was where it was done. Which just happened to be at the stern of the boat. Which is slightly up hill of the boat. Remember Mr. Newton and that whole gravity thing? The water ran just along side of the canoe, so I spent half the day working in mud.
Any way, The next day, I got the other rail on. It was the same story,easy in the middle and not so easy at the ends. I used all types of tools to shape and fit the ends, and the came out looking like crap, so don't expect a close up.
Here she is with her newest clothes:



The thwarts are temporary, just to keep her stiff.

All that's left is new thwarts, yoke, decks, and some more fiber glass repair. Moving along.

In all the stress, and difficulties and problems I had to keep reminding myself, something that most in this boat hobby know very, very well. It helped when thing got tough with the ends.
It goes something like this, not exactly, but you know what I mean:

There is nothing my friends, nothing quite so worth doing as messing about with boats.

See you next time, fair winds.

Open my eyes!

If your thinking by the title that I finally realized that I was way over my head, and was going to give upon this project, and then you could take over this sweet old girl, sorry no such luck. Yup, I'm sticking with my wife, and the canoe project is going forward, too.
Today were talking about the success and failure of the tug eyes. Just as refresher, I glued small blocks of wood in the bow and stern so that the hole of the eye wouldn't be open and will keep water out of the flotation chambers. There was some concern voiced about adding weight to the ends, and it's effect on the boat handling, but it's only 2 or three ounces per end, if that much, so I don't think it's going to be an issue. Plus the boat wont handle too well if the float cambers are filled with water! But thanks for you concern and comment.
So lets open those eyes.
We'll start in the back. The holes are 1/2 inch in diameter. I just happen to have a fostner bit set, so I took the proper bit from the case and put it in the cordless drill. If there ever was an indispensable tool for any number of projects, the cordless drill is it. I drilled in from both sides to avoid any tear out exiting the wood. The hold went all the way through solid wood, just what like i wanted.














The bow eye is another story, however.
I held the block lower block so that it wouldn't interfere with the inwale. The danger,of course, was that it would be too low and the hole would tear out the top of the block. Which is exactly what happened.














To fix this, I'll wait until I have the gunwales on, so I know just how nuch space I have. The most likely fix will be some more epoxy/sawdust mix. At the very least,most of the hole is filled.

The gunwales also got a coat of the Watco Teak Oil. That was after sanding, by hand, 100 grit and 150 grit. Just so you know, that's 72 linear feet of hand sanding per grit. 72 feet of not very stiff ash. Yes,my hands cramped, and my arms where tired. But they turned out pretty smooth. But I hate sanding. I brushed on a good heavy coat of oil. As heavy as you could, with the thin stuff.
It soaked into the wood a little bit,much less than I thought it would. So I figured I'd let it sit. After a couple of hours, it was sticky. Really sticky. Like OMFG WHAT DID I DO!?!? Sticky.
I had nothing to lose, so I decided to just let it sit. The next day was sunny, and that helped, but still tacky. Then it rained. It was still tacky, but the water beaded up nice. As luck would have it the sun came back out, and it dried so it was just slightly tacky. Dry enough to work with.
Here they are drying, exciting stuff.



















So stay tuned, the exciting event, attaching the rails, is not far away.
Tight Lines.

A Good Stripper

The replacement gunwales that came with the canoe had a coat of varnish. It seemed to be only one or two coats, and applied OK, a few runs, and built up areas. It seemed to be hard, so I'm not sure it was spar varnish. So, you might be thinking that's good, it will protect the wood. There are lots of boats with varnished wood. Yup, that's true, there are. It's called bright work, and is usually a high maintenance item. And it's also a surface coating. It scratches, and wears off, then needs to be re-applied. I happen to like bright work, but for this project it just didn't seem to be worth the future upkeep. SO, I decided to remove the varnish, and treat the wood with Watco Teak Oil. This is a penetrating wood treatment, it goes into the wood, and doesn't build up on the surface, which can cause another problem with fit of the parts.
How to get the varnish off? Since it wasn't too thick, I though it would be easy to sand off. So I got the sanding supplies ready.

I had more sandpaper but you get the idea. And, yes I planned on getting thirsty with the dust flying around. I started hand sanding with 100 grit, didn't want to start too aggressive. After about 6 inches the paper clogged, and didn't do much except to make me tired. So I went to 60, didn't have 80 which I would have preferred. That worked better, it didn't clog until 8 inches. I have 64 FEET to strip. This was going to be tougher than I thought. Time to break out the power. First up, 1/4 sheet pad sander. Same clogging problem. OK then. Lets try the random orbit, 100 grit, the roughest I have, but on the RO, it usually does pretty good. And it did, for a foot and a half, then it clogged and just spun. I used a couple new pads, same story. This will just not due, it took 2 hours to do three feet. This will just not do at all.
Now, where did I get the idea to do this? It seems to be the preferred method that the people on Paddling.net like. Now Paddling .net is an online community of paddlers, both canoe and kayak. No matter what your problem or question, you can get an answer. You'll also get many opinions, there are many ways to skin a cat, as they say. But you will get an answer. The discussions can get heated at times, so it pays to have a thick skin. When you sign up, and I suggest you do if you like paddling, you can list an email address, so you can communicate directly to an other person. It helps when you ask a question and it gets lost in the back and forth (stay tuned for more on that). Many people recommend using Watco oil.
Back to the gunwales. the next day I stopped at my favorite store to get me some chemical paint stripper.
Being that shewhomustbeobeyed uses no pesticides, or other lawn chemicals, like RoundUp to kill the poison ivy, I knew the right stuff to buy was the citrus based stripper. Well, I didn't get that, but I did get water based stuff. And some stripping pads, which are just course, open scouring pads. And some of the blue rubber gloves. The label said it works in 5 -10 minutes, and cleans up with water.
I'm happy to say the stripper worked really well, he gloves, not so good. Ten minutes, and the varnish came off when scrubbed with the pad. Which clogged three quarters he way through the first piece. ARRRGGG. The gloves tore after a few feet, I'm going to use a lot of them. But I decided to POR. After the stripper does it's job, and you scrap/scrub the varnish off, you wash with water. The stuff didn't smell too bad, with no stong ordor. In fact you had to get close to smell it at all. I did two halves one day, and two another. They still need sanding, because the water wash raised the grain of the wood, but it got 99% of the varnish off.
Now I have to sand, and apply a few coats of the oil. Then everything will be ready to install the gunwales.
I took some more pictures with my sons(the Eagle Scout) new camera. I didn't read the manual.

Till next time, fair winds.

A MOMENTOUS DAY

Monday, May 18 2009.
My son became an EAGLE SCOUT.
I am very proud of his accomplishment.
Some things are more important than fixing a beat up canoe.

CLOSE YOUR EYES......

The canoe came complete with painter rings, whether they came stock from the factory, dealer, or the prior owner put them on, I don't know. But they come in handy, and I would have added them if it didn't have them. They are also know as tug eyes .
Both the bow and stern have them.
Bow;










Stern:




The problem is that they go through the hull of the boat. They go through the flotation chambers. These are the things that will keep the boat floating when it gets swamped, it keeps it from sinking, a good thing. If you look at Tug Eyes they have a tube that goes from on side of the hull to the other, this prevents water from getting into the float chambers. Even though the float chambers are filled with foam, I think it's a good idea to keep water out, if at all possible.

So, to remedy this situation, the decks had to be removed, you can see from previous posts that this isn't a big deal. Two quick saw cuts, and the half rotted decks are gone. Not really gone, until I make new ones, but off the boat.

There is an empty space between the flotation foam and the hull, bow and stern. The holes for the painter rings go through this space, hence the problem.

You would see it in a picture, but for some strange reason the camera didn't want to take a picture of it. I don't know why. You see, it's one of those digital cameras. And for an old celluloid guy like me, these cameras can be daunting when they don't work the way I want them too. It's also my wife's camera, she uses it a lot, I use it once in a while, when she is with me, so I never really felt the need to RTFM.
My first camera was a Kodak Brownie, which was kind of a generic name for several models from Kodak. It used 620 roll film, the negative was about 2 x 2 inches, but the camera had very little in the way of controls. The film went to the drug store to be developed, black and white of course. There is something to be said about not having to have film developed, and the easy image manipulation of the digital age. You take a picture, and can view it in seconds. No more trips to the drug store, or film processor, or one hour photo. And with some places where you can email an image and have it printed in any number of predetermined size, the balance is almost a landslide to digital. I guess I need to catch up.

Two kill to birds with one stone, I decided to fill the space with a wedge shaped block of wood, pressure treated of course so it will take longer to rot, and attached with thickened epoxy. The blocks are to be placed below the gunwales and deck plates. The stern should be OK, but the bow may have a problem, it may be too low. I'll find out when I drill through it. The filler for the epoxy is sawdust, I thought I had finer stuff than I used, but that's the way it goes, and I'm not making a show piece, and have nothing to lose. I'm also hoping that it adds a little more strength to the stems.

One of the wood blocks:














The bow, after filling.
















The flotation foam and the placement of the block.















Hey, now that I have my reading glasses, maybe I can catch up on some long put off camera manual reading.