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How To Make A Wood-Canvas Canoe Field Repair Kit
As I was completing the restoration of an 18′ Chestnut Prospector Vee-Stern canoe for a client, he asked me to create a wood-canvas canoe field repair kit. He lives in Whitehorse and plans to use the...
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How To Restore Bent Decks on a Fancy Antique Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes Many “fancy” antique wooden canoes have beautiful up-swept sheer-lines at the ends. The curved end profile in many canoes built by canoe companies such as Old Town,...
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How To Replace Bent Outwales on a Fancy Antique Canoe
By Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes Many fancy canoes have “pretty” end profiles. Canoes such as the Old Town HW, Yankee, Charles River and OTCA models are familiar examples along with those made by...
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How To Build Display Stands (Cradles) for a Wood-Canvas Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca Once you’ve got your canoe out of the shed for the season, you’ll need some way of supporting it off the ground when it is not on the...
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How To Re-Attach The Keel To A Wood-Canvas Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca Speaking strictly in terms of form and function, canoes and keels don’t belong together. However, wood-canvas canoes that have been in...
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Request For Assistance With My Second Book —“This Fancy Old Canoe: How To...
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes Email: artisan@canoeshop.ca My first book ̶ This Old Canoe: How To Restore Your Wood-Canvas Canoe ̶ has been very well received since its release in April...
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Seeking a Raised-Batten Wide-Board Canoe to Restore as part of “This Fancy...
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca In my last blog article, I put out a request for “fancy” old canoes to restore and document as part of my second book ̶ This Fancy Old...
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How to Varnish a Wooden Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca A little research into traditional wood finishing methods shows that, for over a hundred years, there were three basic steps to...
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How to Paint Your Wood-Canvas Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca Once the canoe has been canvassed, the filler has been applied and the keel and stem-bands have been installed, it is ready for paint....
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How to Remove Fiberglass from a Wood-Canvas Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca For those of you new to this blog and have not heard me on this topic before, let me be as clear as I can be: To anyone thinking about...
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A Restorer’s Guide to the Chestnut Bobs Special Wood-Canvas Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca The blogs I do on the specifications of canoe components for various types of canvas-covered canoes seem to be quite popular....
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“This Old Canoe: How To Restore Your Wood-Canvas Canoe” is Now Available at...
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca About a year ago, when I was in the final stages of writing This Old Canoe: How To Restore Your Wood-Canvas Canoe, I was also developing...
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How to Make and Install Half-Ribs in Wood-Canvas Canoes
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca photo from “Tales from Misery Ridge: One Man’s Adventures in the Great Outdoors” by Paul J. Fournier. (Island Port Press, 2011) About...
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How to Repair Rotted Rib-tops in a Wood-Canvas Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca While repairing your wood-canvas canoe, you may come across some ribs that are perfectly good except for a small portion attached to the...
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How to Strip Old Varnish from a Wood-Canvas Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca Without a doubt, the most horrible job in the restoration of a wood-canvas canoe is stripping the varnish from the interior. It is...
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Specifications of a 16′ Chestnut Pal Wood-Canvas Canoe: A Restorer’s Guide
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca If you are preparing to restore your wood-canvas canoe – especially in Canada – you are often looking at a canoe built by the Chestnut...
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How To Weave Rawhide (Babiche) Seats for a “Huron” Wood-Canvas Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca If the seats in your canoe are laced with rawhide similar to that in old snowshoes, chances are you own a “Huron” canoe – the generic...
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How To Photograph A Wood-Canvas Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca People email regularly asking me to identify their canoe and/or give them an estimate on a restoration. When I ask them to send me some...
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Thompson Brothers Ranger Wood-Canvas Canoe: A Restorers’ Guide
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca Peter and Christ Thompson built wood-canvas canoes in Peshtigo, Wisconsin (about 50 miles north of Green Bay) as the Thompson Brothers...
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How To Sell or Buy a Wood-Canvas Canoe
by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes email: artisan@canoeshop.ca Frequently, I get an email from someone who is looking to sell their wood-canvas canoe. Typically, they tell me, “The canoe has been...
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