1923 Larson Duck Boat Restoration

 I believe we are finished with this clean up and polish project! I have way more hours into this than I should have put but the end result is worth the extra time.. It will never float again without a layer of fiberglass on the hull, but it will make a sweet wall hanger for the client.

About a hundred years of barn dust and cobwebs, dry rot. An entire quart of varnish went into the wood on the first coat topside. I don't think I have ever seen wood that dry before.

First urethane in 100 years

 It has probably been a hundred years since the last time this boat had any kind of finish on it besides barn dust and rain. Its pretty amazing how fast the wood sucks it up as it gets painted on. No fear of drips and runs on this coat! Now just three more coats and the boat will be ready to flip over and start on the top!

Duck, Duck, Goose!

An interesting project is in the shop. Two Larson duck boats that were built sometime between 1913 and 1920. The Client wants me to clean them up put them back together and varnish them. One will hang in the family's private museum and i am not sure where the other will end up. I am about 40% complete with the first one. I needed to order a new 2" random orbital sander to get between all of the ribs, and of course it got lost in shipping and the store had to send another. Set me back for time, but with a couple long weekends I should be able to catch back up...

Frame Complete

Ok its time for a little fun. The frame is complete for the kid sized kayak, now its time to put something on it to keep it from rotting. I was leaning for a penetrating sealer or wood preservative but this is way more fun.

I am thinking about a tequila sunrise paint job! I have done the base coat in orange and will top it off with sunshine yellow on the front quarter and a bright red for the rear. I'll blend them in through the cockpit area to give some nice transition..

Rehab saga

So the rehab project is a crash and burn, with the amount of rot and decay in the stringer and plywood forms there is not a lot left to work with. I was able to template out the major parts except for the aft form. I will have to wing that one when we get there. Note to self, ENSURE all of the wood parts are sealed/waterproofed before skinning, you never know when a boat is going to be left out in the yard for a couple of years.

What a great opportunity to build another one! The forms are all cut out and the stringers will be ripped shortly. I am using AC 1/2" plywood for the forms and pine stringers cut to 3/4" square and 10' long.

Rehab Project

I built a 10ft skin on frame for a friends kids a few years ago. I wanted to see how a canvas skin over a pine and plywood frame withstood the test of time. I am pretty impressed how this thing held up. It was stored outside in the weather but the paint did quite well. The canvas did start to rot in places due to melting snow and catching the rain. The frame needs a little tlc and the rotten pieces will be replaced. In fact I just might use the parts as a template and build 3-4 more of them. The moral of the story is.... these little boats are tough, but try to keep them dry in storage and not at the bottom of a snow bank.

Moving on

Ok, time for the next project...

Carving a West Greenland Paddle from a cedar 2x4 is a lot of fun and takes about a day to complete. The dimensions are based on how wide your arm span is plus a little for the distance from elbow to wrist. First I hog out the basic shape on the band saw then cut the tapers with a block plane. Sanding follows that and finished up with a few coats urethane...

Done and Delivered!

And it is delivery day! Unfortunately the lake is frozen over and we cant put it in the water today. When spring comes I expect a grand launching...

Final Varnish

Ok here we go with the final coat of spar urethane. The shop is warm and things are drying well, even though I had to put a milk house heater underneath it to trap the warm air inside... It is a challenge to varnish at 50 degrees....
Just a couple final punch list things to do before delivery!

Seat Fittings

Now that the deck and gunnels are installed and sanded, its time to fit the seats and drill for the support bolts. The seats will have 3" risers to suspend the seats about 5" below the level of the gunnels. This will lower the center of gravity a bit and make the canoe just a touch more stable. It will also leave enough room to put your feet under the seat if you care to kneel and paddle.
The punch list is still pretty long but I hope to have a pre-xmas delivery date....

Decks on!

I now have the rough decks installed, glued and screwed in place. With small hand holds to ease lifting.  Next step is to round over all the edges, sand smooth and put on a protective coating of epoxy. The epoxy will also soak into any crack or crevasse and lock everything in place that I might have missed with my joinery.

Grab some thwart!

Ok, not much of a post today. I did manage to finish up the gunnels and carved out a thwart for the unfinished canoe. I ran into a source of 7/8" thick maple and used it to make a substantial, beautiful thwart. Of course it needs to be sanded.... everything needs to be sanded... sheesh!

The final punch list is still a mile long, but progress is being made....

Inwales

I was really worried that the hull of this canoe wasn't going to straighten out when I installed the inwales. When I started this project the hull came to me without the forms so the sides were pretty floppy. In fact it had some interesting waves along the side.

I used a 7/8 x 3/4 inch inwale to give a lot of rigidity to the hull and everything smoothed out nicely. Scuppers were cut at 4" wide by a 1/4" deep, about 8 to a side. Should have plenty of wood to hang the seats from.

Shop Improvement

I picked up this vintage radial arm saw, and let me tell you these babies take up quite a bit of room! But it provides reach and angles and accuracy not possible with my old chop saw. Next project with this saw it to cut scuppers on the in-wales for the unfinished canoe. I installed the old trusty dado blade set up at an inch and will nibble out 4" scuppers on a 12" centers the length of the in-wales with the exception of 32" on either end for tapers. Problem to be fixed was in-feed and out-feed tables at the height of the saw platform... sheesh nothing is ever easy! But I got it done and am ready to start cutting....

Smooooth

Its so smooth you can see it.....

Its fairing time

Finally have all of the strips placed and glued up for the show boat. Even the cheaters are done and awaiting a bit of trimming. Let the fairing process begin! First is a pass with a paint scraper who's blade has been sharpened, this takes off the glue drips and begins to smooth the surface. Next I take the block plane with the blade set pretty shallow, make multiple diagonal passes on the bottom and the sides, alternating the direction of cut. Once I am happy with the cuts, its on to the RO sander with 60 grit for the first of a dozen passes to give it the smooth....

Inside wet out

All fun and games here in the shop today. A good 2+ hours wetting out the 6oz fabric on the inside of the hull. Nothing is ever easy, I used the last drop at the very end. Time to order more epoxy.

Inside out

Its been awhile since the last post, but lets be frank here. Sanding is boorish, sanding is no fun, sanding looks the same on any photo and makes for pretty poor blogging. If you want to know, I did so much sanding on the inside of this project I had to take a few days off just to let my hands heal up a bit. But that is behind us now and am ready to move on to the interior fiberglass! I spread the cloth out this morning and will do the initial wet out sometime this week depending on temperatures. I need time to get the shop up to 70+ degrees to get a good flow and cure, then I let it cool off while the epoxy dries. This seems to compress any air bubbles and makes a tight layup.

Ready for epoxy

Bottoms up

The bottom stripping is going well up to this point. I was using extra strips from a previous build and only have 3 left. I will have to mill a half dozen more to finish up.

Centerline

This morning I managed to get a good looking center line installed on the 12 footer. I am at the point where I usually switch from placing strips on the outside in to the inside out. I kind of had a thought about doing a different pattern on the bottom, chevrons or diagonals or something.... have to see what happens.