Old Town Keel

griffon hunter

Curious about Wooden Canoes
The keel on an Old Town Guide Canoe I'm restoring is missing the keel. I would like to replicate the old one. Anyone know the width and depth?
 
Benson, Thanks that was helpful. I think I have a good track on the dimensions. Would a 1930 Guide have a section bent around the ends of the canoe to tie into the keel?
 
Would a 1930 Guide have a section bent around the ends of the canoe to tie into the keel?

I believe that you are referring to an optional outside stem as shown at http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.ph...-model-in-original-condition-from-1921.12325/ which may have been installed on your canoe originally. The build record usually indicates if your canoe shipped with one. This is not an easy option to add later since it requires an increase to the width of the inside stem. Let me know if this doesn't answer your question.

Benson
 
I think you're referring to outside wooden stems (i.e., outside the canvas) bent around the ends of the canoe and mating with the keel. If so, you can tell how your Old Town was built in three ways. First, outside stems would have been noted on the build record if the canoe had them. Second, if the ends haven't been too badly altered over time, especially if this if the canoe's first restoration, you should see on the face of the canoe's inner stem only small holes from canvas tacks and somewhat larger holes (about 1/8" or less diameter) from stemband screws if it lacked outside stems. If it had outside stems, you'd see another set of even larger screw holes where the outside stem was screwed on. Third, on a canoe with outside stems, the face of the inside stem and planking is considerably wider (about 5/8" or a little more?) than on a canoe without outside stems (about 3/8" wide). That is, in the latter case, the stem/planking face needs to be wide enough to accept the stemband only; in the former case, the stem/planking face needs to be wide enough to accept the larger backside of the outer stem.

If your canoe didn't have outside stems, the keel would be tapered down in width (t 3/8") and height (to a feather edge) well after the point where it lands on the inside stem.

Michael
 
old town build sheet.jpg


It looks like from the build sheet that it did not have the outside stems and also from the hole sizes and the 3/8" width. It doesn't list a wood type but most seem to be from White Ash. Is that a fair assumption?
 
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