Primer on the hull

Ready to spray primer, with the garage all draped in plastic.

Here's the hull after sanding the primer, just before painting. 

Aft Seat Caning

Here's the aft seat with the horizontal and vertical canes strung.

And here it is with the diagonals added in.

Caning the first seat

I thought caning the seat would be an afternoon's work.  After all, they are rather small and how hard could it be?  It ended up taking something like 8 or 10 hours for one seat.

Starting the caning process.  This is the first time I ever did this, so I had to keep the instruction book handy.

The first three layers are really quick because there's no weaving involved.  Two vertical layers and one horizontal

After 4 layers it starting to go a bit slower.

The first diagonal weave took hours.  You can only pull it through so many weaves at a time, so each strip takes 3 or 4 pulls through. The next day a mysterious blister appeared on my thumb and it took a moment to recall what could have caused it.

All finished, except for the edge trim.

Detail of the weave and edge trim

The final product.  I'm planning on a thin coat of varnish on the top side only, although this is a subject of much discussion on the wood canoe forums.

More varnish

This is likely the last coat of varnish for now.  A final touch up coat on the gunwales and decks is likely.

Second varnish coat

Finally had warm weather and free time to put some more varnish on. 

The Keel

I bought a piece of oak and made the keel for the canoe. It's almost 12 feet long, so I bought a 6 foot board, ripped it and scarfed the two pieces together. 

It's just on there temporarily, until after the hull is primed and painted. 

Finishing bits

Kennebec put cap strips over the rib ends next to the decks. I put the first pair of these on and fit up one of the brass stem bands. These parts all come together at the tip of the canoe.

Gunwales back on

I trimmed the canvas and put the gunwales back on. 

Filling the canvas

I filled the canvas today. The filler is a mixture of silica powder, linseed oil and other ingredients that makes the canvas water tight. The first coat took about an hour and a half, working the mixture into the weave with a stubby paintbrush. The second and third coats go a lot faster. Between coats, the finish is rubbed smooth with a mitt made of scrap canvas. All told, it was about 4 hours of scrubbing the filler into the weave and rubbing it smooth. My arms are going to be sore tomorrow. I feel like I just swam about 2 miles.  This stuff takes about a month to cure, so I'll be caning the seats and varnishing in the meantime. 

Covering!

The day finally came!  I covered the canoe with canvas!  I used first moved the canoe out to between the two trees next to the garage.  Laura just had hand surgery, so I had pick it up by the two thwarts and carry it out by myself.  Then laid out the canvas on it upside down, flipped it over and set up the clamps and winch. Once it was pulled tight I got the stands out of the way. I stapled at each rib, starting in the middle and working my way to the ends.  At the second full rib on each end, I stopped and moved the operation to the garage to split the canvas at the ends and tack it down. 

Ready to stretch

Pulled tight

Stapled both sides in the middle

Working both sides towards the ends.  Weighted down with boxes of papers to push it down in the canvas.

Stapled up to the second full rib on each end and released from the winch.

Moved into the garage to do the ends

Both ends tacked in place and trimmed up