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Thanks guys. The 75th anniversary dilemma seems solved. Still the stem # discrepancy, but I can get over that. Time to go back and re-read Cruiser's thread. Not sure If I'm perhaps mistakenly putting blinders on trying to recreate a piece of nostalgia. May end up with a canoe that's less...

Thanks guys for the input. I've reached out to both companies you suggested. The Canadian (or Canadien) is based off of a Peterborough design. I'm certainly not opposed to that design, and several of the others mentioned. I just want to be a bit more intentional with this design selection...

Has anyone built any of the Peterborough designs? I was looking through BearMountain plans, as a starting point, and saw they have plans for a "Peterborough Canadien". Reason I ask, I have an old Peterborough wood & canvas that some day I'll restore. It was my dads, he's long gone, and I...

Having completed my first stripper last fall, and falling head over heels for the entire process, I'm starting to gear up for another build. My goal is to have everything ready to go as soon as the temps are consistently warm enough for safe stripping (glue-up). That, and my wife asking me...

I had some staples break off on my first build. I used the finest nail set I had, and set the broken staple below the surface of the planking. I filled these very small holes with a mixture of wood glue and cedar dust, with just a drop or two of water to get it to peanut butter consistency...

Question about glass choice. In looking at 4 oz. vs. 6 oz. and E-glass vs S-glass I found the information below. If S-glass is supposedly stronger, why use E-glass? Is it easier to form to the hull? I've only used S-glass cloth, and numerous other glass products for non-canoe building such...

I just found this thread, so I'm behind, and will have to go back a few times to fully absorb it all. Gang ripping strips, using standard saw blades? Brilliant. Has anyone ever done this on a sawstop table saw? The safety cartridge typically has to match the blade pretty closely. Not sure...

I've started my "test" kitchen for an upcoming BWCA trip this summer. My meals don't suffer when I'm camping or boat tripping. I cook ahead, what I think will dehydrate well, and try it at home first. I keep track of how much water comes out, and start by putting the same amount back in, plus...

And Brian: I agreed to build 2 for a coworker I've known for 20 years. He and his uncle are avid paddlers, with numerous BWCA trips. My coworker had an accident, and now has limited grip in one hand. I'm going to do some sort of custom grip, possibly with a velcro strap to assist. The other...

As I sanded the shafts, I sanded the grips at the same time, to blend them together, and get the grips close to final shape. I don't have a decent picture of this, but I simply grabbed the paddle the way I would in use, and felt for comfort. I didn't go for "perfect fit" at this point, just...

I would still guide people to Cruiser's thread, like I did at the top of this one. His explanations and details are excellent in my opinion. Jim: I've never heard of a spar guage. I like it. Might have to add one to my measurement & layout box. I'm taking a couple weeks off, then I'm...

To shape the shaft, it helps to fully understand where the shaft is at, and where you want it to end up. These shafts are currently 1 3/8" high by 1 1/8" wide. I use "high" to mean perpendicular to blade face. So if the blade is flat on the table, the long direction of the shaft rectangle is...

The blades get sanded to final shape, only down to 80 grit. I'll go to 150 before glassing the blades, but I'm going to reinforce the blade edge, and that will require clean-up, so there's no reason to go any finer at this point. I decided on asymmetric grips, so I attached the rough stock...

I just realized I didn't explain the shaft spines very well. On both shafts I added a 3 layer spine (cherry-walnut-cherry). For the straight shafts, these were simply full size layers, that ran the full length of the shaft. Each layer was about 1/16" Thick. For the bent shaft, I needed to...

I shaped the blades before tapering and ovalizing the shaft, or attaching the grip. Just like Brian's thread, this is to make clamping much easier. I used a power plane, hand block plane, and a 1/4 sheet palm sander with 60 grit. wanted to leave a slight raised rib from throat to approximately...

Last two photos didn't post. Here they are:

Attaching the blades, I started with focusing on the important geometry. What I mean is, the shaft gets ovalized. Not only for comfort of grip, but as a method to ensure you're gripping the shaft square to the blade. With this in mind, I wanted to ensure the blade ended up square to the long...

Brian: You're going to "steal" an idea from me? That's rich. Virtually this whole build is based on yours. I did come up with a blade edge layout a bit different from yours that worked really well, especially if your rough blades get a little out of whack attaching to the shafts. I'll post...

Blade design wasn't much special. The straight shaft are simply a straight glue-up of a variety of woods, with some width variation as well. The width variation was mostly due to the thickness of the stock. I took the stock I had, ripped it to 1 1/2" wide, flipped the pieces on edge, and...

I discovered several unintended benefits of this shaft design as I progressed with the build. I'll talk more about them later, but these lamination layers make a great refference for symmetry, material removal, blade attachment, grip attachment, etc.