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How to make new Eds canoe seats darker in color

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Middle of the Florida paddling paradise
So we are replacing the seats in a canoe with Eds Canoe comfort seats. Ordered ash. Well after the holes are drilled and the ends cut to length the wife ask "what are going to do to make the seat a darker color to match the gunwales?" So is there any thing that can be done to darken finished seats?
 
Nothing that will be very easy. What is the seating surface, cane or webbing?

To darken the wood you can stain it. But Ed's seat frames are dip finished in polyurethane and that would have to be sanded off to bare wood for it to take up the stain. With cane seats, with care you might be able to sand around the cane and stain the wood without messing up the cane. With webbing you could remove the webbing strips, finish the seat frame and reattach it. Or you could just sand and stain the outer parts of the frame away from the webbing and ignore the small amount of pale wood that peeks through between the strips.

Of course, after staining you would need to refinish with exterior or marine varnish or polyurethane.
 
Tell her you bought ash seats because the light/dark is a nice contrast; which I actually think is true.

Alan
 
You could try to tint some varnish and apply new coats to the seats. Most folks try Trans Tint dyes. I have had a bit of success doing this, but I would try it on scrap wood etc. before using it on your seats.

Fitz
 
So we are replacing the seats in a canoe with Eds Canoe comfort seats. Ordered ash. Well after the holes are drilled and the ends cut to length the wife ask "what are going to do to make the seat a darker color to match the gunwales?" So is there any thing that can be done to darken finished seats?

As above there isn’t much easy you can do to darken the seat frames. In too-late hindsight Ed’s will custom stain their ash frames for a small upcharge ($11 IIRC).

That matching wood finish is an inconsequential aesthetic dissatisfaction, but I’m admittedly not happy with some of my DIY seats that do not match the DIY drops, even though both are blond-ish wood.

One partial solution. My wood frame seats are largely hidden from view with a seat pad of some kind. My preferred KISS solution to seat pad comfort is to fasten two loose fitted webbing straps around the seat and tuck a mostly deflated Therma-rest seat cushion under those keeper straps.



(DIY double D-ring webbing yoke and Surf to Summit back band)

Starting off with the pad mostly deflated is key, so that my derriere has firm contact with the seat frame and is still ergonomically cushion-cupped, similar to a shallow tractor seat. I have admittedly ooopsed and started off with the pad near fully inflated, which is akin to paddling a unicycle, but it takes only a second to reach back and open the valve until butt hits seat.

The ThermaRest pad is 12 x 16 inches, so I can wrap the extra depth around the front edge of the seat frame for kneeling comfort.

For my purposes the most advantageous part is that, even in that mostly deflated guise, I can reach back, open the valve on the Therma-rest pad and let a wee bit of air out several times, changing the pressure points on my butt and thighs.

I’m not General Custer “Hard arse” or “Iron Butt”. If I want to stay in the saddle for more than a few hours without a break being able to change the pressure points similar to a patient bed-sore mattress is a huge comfort boon.

Plus those Therma-rest seat pads can be handy in camp. And they are durable in canoe use; we’ve been using the same ones for 10 or 15 years.

http://www.cascadedesigns.com/therm-a-rest/seating/seats/trail-seat/product
 
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