Canoeguy's Blog

by Mike Elliott, Kettle River Canoes
email: artisan@canoeshop.ca

Sometimes, in the course of your restoration, you may discover a cracked rib in your canoe. The damage may not warrant replacement of the entire rib or you may want to strengthen the rib while preserving as much of the original canoe as possible.  In this case, a back-side rib repair is your best option.

Start by removing the planks to expose the area on the rib to be repaired.

With a permanent ink marker, draw the boundaries of the repair and the shape of the “dish” that will be carved out on the back-side of the rib.

Use a belt sander to dish out the back-side of the rib around the crack.

Shape a new piece of cedar that is slightly longer than the repair area. I don’t have a disc sander, so I use my belt sander turned upside-down.

Work in small stages, checking regularly, until the convex profile of the new cedar matches the concave profile dished out on the original rib.

I find polyurethane glue creates a very strong, waterproof bond. Wet the new cedar as well as the dished out area on the original rib.  Apply glue to both surfaces.

Clamp the new cedar to the original rib and let it cure overnight.

The next day, use a random-orbital sander to shape the repair until the new cedar has the same profile as the original rib before the repair.

When the crack is on a curved section of a rib, the back-side of the rib is sanded flat with a random-orbital sander  ̶  removing the curved portion of the original rib around the crack.

When shaping the new piece of cedar, the glued surface is flat while the top surface is curved to replicate the original rib section.

The new cedar is then glued and clamped as before.

Once the glue has cured overnight, the repair is sanded and shaped to replicate the shape of the original rib.

A back-side rib repair employs a methodology similar to that used in a rib-top repair. Once the new wood is stained to match the original wood, the repair is all but invisible.

The entire restoration process (including rib-top repairs) is described in my book – This Old Canoe: How To Restore Your Wood Canvas Canoe.
If you live in Canada, CLICK HERE to buy the book.
If you live in the USA, CLICK HERE to buy the book.
If you live in the UK, CLICK HERE to buy the book.
Si vous habitez en France, CLIQUEZ ICI acheter le livre.

If you have read the book, please post a review on Amazon, Goodreads and/or any other review site.