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Quality of Cedar for Rebuilding Canoes.

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Today I received an order of 3 3/4 inch planks for the floor of my 1953 Old Town. The red cedar looks really good. It is clear and has tight grain. It looks to be quarter sawn.
The rib stock I got from the same place, Island Falls Canoe in Maine. The white cedar ribs have flat grain, very few rings per inch and some defect.

The old ribs from 70 years ago have extremely tight grain which runs fore and aft. The new ribs seem flimsy in comparison and the grain runs port to starboard. I am revising my rib replacement plan and leaving some of the old ribs that have one small surface crack. I will probably grind out the surface cracks with a dremel tool and fill with epoxy and wood flour. I think that is going to be much stronger and a lot less work than putting in new crummy ribs. Just a heads up for others. Where do you get your rib stock? I don't have a table saw or planer so I tried just buying a few.
 
I suspect your ribs are not crummy at all. Jerry has been doing this a long time. Flat sawn ribs bend easier, and are structurally better. You might also find rift sawn rib stock. The ribs are northern white cedar. Good clear stock is typically hard to come by.

Cheers,

Fitz
 
Hii Fitz,
Times change. Clear white cedar is now very hard to come by is right. If I order ribs again it will be WRC. That is the point.
The other point is that the old ribs that are 70 years old are probably much stronger even with a small crack than the new ribs freshly installed. It is the reality of western life.
 
You won't find better rib material that northern white cedar. WRC has been used, but it is brittle. You will break far more WRC ribs when bending. Alaskan yellow cedar is probably a better choice than WRC for ribs.

Fitz
 
I am a big fan of Alaskan yellow cedar. It is the preferred material for repairing the wood commercial fishing fleet in the Pacific Northwest. The fishermen I went to school with at UW would always bring some home from their salmon trips to Alaska. I worked on the commercial waterfront at Fishermens Terminal in Seattle.

The ribs in my boat are western red cedar. It has been steam bent for centuries. All the big canoes, totem poles and boxes are made from it. The big whaling canoes are hewn and burned out of a single log and then at the end of the construction process, the hull is filled with water and hot rocks and the hull is spread apart to create flare and more room in the boat.
 
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I am working with the white cedar ribs today. Very rewarding process with a jig saw, block plane and sanding. The worm and beetle holes go face down. The crumbling and splitting edges will just get a little larger bevel. It is possible to work around the defect for the most part. The flat grain is troublesome though.

The wrc ribs in my canoe are 67 years old. I have run rivers in this boat for 25 years. Most of the damage done to the boat was already there. I think the wtc ribs are plenty strong. I am replacing only seven.
 
yikes!!!!!....STOP

J ust take some planking off and repair those ribs from the back with a tenon and some epoxy then put the planking back on. We have been doing that for ever as has most every other w/c restorer out there.
The WRC will wrinkle if you try to make new ribs out of it. And break like Fitz says. ( He knows his crap btw) . The white will stand out but bend very nicely. If you have to have to have to replace one then it is your choice which to use., but try repairing from the back side...you will be happy with the results.
 
Thanks for the post Iskweo. The cracks are on the front of the ribs not the back. The cracks I am repairing are very small and not noticeable. All of the ribs I am working with are white cedar. I am retaining more WRC cedars than I had originally planned.

I have removed some planking and find that removing the tacks without damaging it is somewhat difficult. I am hesitant to remove much of the planking and try to re use it.
 
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