Shop Updates 9-4-2012

There are ton of pictures to show. Remember you can always thumb through the past couple of posts to see pictures of a particular in canoe in progress.

As we near the end of summer our phone continues to ring and people continue to place orders for new canoes and bring us their canoes and boats for restoration from around the country and abroad.  Sometimes it feels like orders are coming in faster than they are being filled.  Oh, yeah, maybe that's why we have a healthy backlog of work!!   As small business owners we are pretty excitied about this.

Also, please keep in mind that we do not do spec work.  100% of our work, all restorations and new canoes are commisioned prior to building/restoring.  Sorry but these canoes are not for sale.  If you would like a similar canoe or boat we would be happy to speak with you.

We have a lot of exciting projects on deck for this coming fall that include some very nice all wood boats and canvas covered craft.  We will show these new projects soon but before we do let's take a look at some completed stuff.

 

OLD TOWN SQUARE STERN

 

This one had a solid hull but the transom, inner gunwales, outer gunwales, stems, keel, and deck were toast.  Here are some before after pictures.

 



 

Emily installing the outer gunwales.

 

 

Emily putting on the finial fit and finish..........

 



...........and ta-dah, finished.

 

 

 

KINGSBURY CANOE

A Charles River canoe with a torpedo stem

 

 

The Kingsbury saw a lot of work.  New inner gunwales, outer gunwales, cap rails, keel, outer stem, etc.  Here are some pictures of Emily installing the outer and cap rails

 

 

Here is what the Kingsbury looked like before restoration

 

Here it is finished and ready to go.

 

A shot of the interior.  Can you find the replacement ribs?

 

NEW 16' TEMAGAMI TRAVELER

 

The Temagami Traveler is a canoe we designed from scratch.  They are sweet little rides.  This one has the optional center thwart and wannigan ribs. Quarter sawn white cedar ribs and planking and cherry trim.  This one went to Seattle, Washington.

 

 

 

 

 18' EM WHITE SQUARE STERN

This one saw a lot of work too. 14 new ribs, new inner and outer gunwales, new deck, etc.

CHARLES RIVER LONG DECKED COURTING CANOE

Dylan installing the new coaming

 

 Emily installing the new king planks
 





 

In the finish room getting taped off

 

 

The completed product

 

 

 The deck showing the new king plank, coamings, and seat.  Can you tell they are replacements?

 

 

A close up.

 

A close up of the splices on the deck.  But where are they?  Pretty good matching job, eh?

 

 

 

SHOP PICTURES

 

Here are some pictures from around the shop.  First is Emily fitting thwarts into a new Chicot.

 

 

 

The two Charles River canoes in the finish room.

 

Below is the long decked sailing canoe being built.  The rudder is being fitted.

 

Emily fits the mast ring.

 

Here is a brief glimpse of the sailing canoe. 

 

 

More pictures to come soon of the sailing dinghy completed, some new projects under way, the finished long decked sailing we built, and much more.

The shop is bustling along and so is spring.  Many projects have been completed and many more are nearing completion.  We had several repeat customers this past winter, some of whom had us restore or build more than one canoe for them.  We also had new customers, many of which came from across the country and abroad too.  We are excited about this; that old customers still want us to do work for them and that we are able to attract new customers from across the country.

There are a ton of pictures to show so we will break them up into several posts over the next few months so be sure to check back often. 

A COUPLE OF OLD TOWN CANOES
 - An OTCA and a Guide

How many times have we seen this? The end previously rebuilt and just rounded over with no distinction between the end of the stem and the end of the gunwales.

The profile of the stem should look like this, a nice crisp distinction between stem and gunwales.

Here is Emily ripping a pair of steam bent mahogany gunwales on the table saw for the OTCA.

 Here are those gunwales being installed on the OTCA.



Below are pictures are of the 2 completed Old Town Canoes.

OLD TOWN SAILING DINGHY

Most of the broken ribs have been replaced and Emily starts in on the planking.

Dylan working on the port side broad plank.

 The planking is done to the point where it is back to more rib work.

With all the rib work done and most of the planking, it is time to focus on replacing the inner stem.  You can see how rotten and broken it is.

The first step is to loft a new stem pattern and make a bending jig.

Once bent, the attention is focused on making and fitting the new replacement.  The bevel is rolling throughout and there is no better way to do this than by hand with a draw knife.

Here is the new stem next to the old one All the rib notches have been cut and so has the the lap-joint for joining it to the inner keel.

Well, what do you think inspector?  Does it meet your approval? 

 Funny story about the inspector.  When she came into the shop to inspect my handy work on the stem she noticed a dog in the shop and asked, "does your dog bite?" "No" I replied." 

When the inspector bent down to pet the dog it nipped and bit at her.  She looked at me and saying, "I thought you said your dog does not bite."  "Tis not my dog," I replied!

 Alright, so moving right along, haven't seen enough dinghy pictures yet? No problem, here are some more.........

The stem installed 

 Emily driving the last nail home!

 There it is, the sailing dink and its' hull all complete.  Now on to the varnishing of the interior, canvas, painting, the sail rig, and more.

 Hey, wait a minute, where did the dinghy go?

 Oh, it's in the paint room.  Hooray!

2 PETERBOROUGH CANOES

2 canoe from the Peterborough Canoe Company, Peterborough, Ontario, all restored and ready to go.

 A view of the deck and........

.....the interior.


CHARLES RIVER LONG DECK COURTING CANOE

The courting canoe is moving along nicely.  The new outer stems were bent and shaped.  Here are some pictures that show the importance of hot steam and compression straps; Notice there is no spring back in the stems once they are unclamped from the jig.

 One of the new outer stems being installed

 Splice work on the outer gunwales.

 New seats being hand made.

 The topside trim is ready and ready for varnish.

 Topside mahogany being varnished.

Look at those 54 inch long mahogany decks.  Gorgeous!

The end.
But stay tuned for more...............