Maintaining Wood Gunnels

[Uncle_Skwid]

This will probably feel like a primary school question to most of you, and I suspect you'll laugh at me, but I have never owned a canoe with wood gunnels before. I've had only vinyl. I've replaced some gunnels, but I replaced them with the vinyl strips. And then, upon returning home yesterday from a pleasant paddling excursion in the great eastern American state of Pennsylvania, I noticed a strange looking canoe had jumped onto my truck and ridden the roof home. I've decided to keep it. Give it a proper home, so to speak. It's probably not the boat most people would turn to when they think of "canoe camping," or hashtag opencanoeingfordays, but we're here to break stereotypes and bend the mold. It's only 10.5 feet long, so packing for weeks will involve going backpack light, which can be very enjoyable, especially in this twenty-first century hashtag super-air-light-high-tech-age.

So but yeah. The boat has inner and outer Ash gunnels, and I'm staring at the boat going: am I supposed to put something on that wood? Maintain it somehow? Or just replace it every now and again? (Which might turn into an issue with Ash....) I'm preparing to take it all apart to build my seat and I figured I might as well do what I'm going to do with the pieces separated. I hear people talk about oiling wood and I always tried to keep my wood thwarts poly-ed up, so to speak. It certainly gives them more life. But now I've sort of become officially curious: how do you folks in the know maintain watery wood?

Thanks in advance...

 

[Chip]

I doubt most people on this site will agree, but my answer is that the best way to maintain wood-gunwaled boats is to sell them and let somebody else maintain them.

One thing people will tell you is to store the wood-gunwaled boat indoors. What I found, is that when I stored mine indoors I never paddled it. First of all, it was just easier to grab a boat off my outdoor rack. And even when I might have thought the Hemlock SRT was the right boat to take, I hesitated because hesitating lengthened the period of time before I'd have to oil it again, and I had a similar size, solo, aluminum-gunwaled boat within easy reach. Some people seem to like working on boats as much as paddling them. I'm not one.

But, ash does make pretty gunwales. Here in Maryland, this spring is revealing the damage done by the ash borers. I never realized how many ash trees we had in our forests, but the discolored, peeling bark makes them pretty obvious. I can't imagine how many million sets of ash gunwales are out there rotting on the stump. What a shame.

Actually oiling is pretty easy. Lightly sand and rub the oil on with a rag. But think about the trouble spots, which are the back side of the gunwale and up in the stems. Theoretically, the backsides should hold up well because they are hidden. But you know water--if it can get in there it will. Sometimes during or after installation, cracks develop around the screws. If water gets in there the gunwale will rot from the inside. Solution: remove the gunwales and treat the backsides. Fun! When you rack the boat, the water runs into the stems, so thorough treatment under the end caps is critical and often ignored, even by people you think would know better.

I'll leave the discussion of what oil combination to use to others. You already know my preference. I do have an ancient, unopened can of MR Gunwale Guard available. If there is a way to send it, I happily will.

 

[pblanc]

Well, ash tends to absorb water through its end grain and as it does the grain expands allowing more and deeper penetration of water and progressive rot, if not maintained. Limiting exposure to atmospheric, and especially ground moisture will prolong the life of wood gunwales. Never store your boat lying on its side on one gunwale on the ground, even for a short period of time. If you can store your canoe in a garage or shed, you will not need to do as much maintenance.

There are basically two treatments that you can apply to wood gunwales. The most popular (probably) is some type of "penetrating" oil. I have seen claims that these oils penetrate the wood to provide protection beneath the surface. They may penetrate a short distance along open end grain, but I have used many types of oil and never found any real evidence of penetration otherwise. I usually use oil on the wood gunwales of my whitewater canoes, because a bright finish would get scratched and dinged up too quickly. And I have found that the wood of the gunwale on my on-side where my hand rubs the gunwale is basically wiped clean of oil after only one or two runs.

Oil finishes work well as long as the oil is regularly applied. How often it needs to be applied will depend greatly on usage and storage conditions. A canoe that sees only occasional casual use might need to have the gunwales oiled only a couple of times a year. I know whitewater boaters who oil their gunwales after every run or trip, however. Unfortunately, many owners of wood gunwale canoes wind up maintaining their gunwales much less frequently than they thought they would.

The other option is some type of "bright finish" usually a urethane, polyurethane, or varnish. This type of finish can work well for a canoe that does not see much abuse and tends to be more durable than an oil finish. But when the finish does go bad, restoring the finish requires more time and effort, as does the initial application process. An option that I and others have used is to apply two or three coats of a penetrating epoxy followed by two or three coats of varnish. My impression is that this protects the wood somewhat better than varnish or urethane alone. I also use penetrating epoxy to treat the hidden inner surfaces of the inwales and outwales any time wood gunwales are removed, or prior to initial application when rerailing a canoe.

Regardless of what type of treatment you use I would recommend paying special attention to the end grain of thwarts and seat frames, and the holes in the gunwales that the machine screws go through to secure thwarts or yokes, or to suspend seats. These areas often receive no or little treatment when canoes are built. As I said, water entry into the wood grain is death to ash, and most other woods, and a lot of end grain is exposed in these areas. Pipe cleaners can be used to get penetrating oil or varnish down into the holes in gunwales, thwarts, yokes, and seat frames.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Here's my take on Ash gunnels.
First Chip has a valid point about changing them out ! Going to plastic, or aluminum, will out last Ash big time, not to mention the abuse they will take!

If on the other hand, the canoe is high dollar, stick with the original wood, if possible. Maintaining the canoes value.

Assuming you are going to keep the Ash gunnels, they are in good shape, and you can easily remove them, I'd epoxy coat the back side (the side against the hull), let the epoxy cure, and reattach. Lightly sand the outside, and coat with at least two coats Watco Teak.

As a matter of fact I'll be applying Watco Teak to the Ash gunnels of my newest canoe tomorrow.

Watco takes a long time to dry, but to me it's worth it. I can buy a quart of Watco Teak for $10 at Menard's. A quart will cover up to three canoes, the way I slather it on .

If you don't want to remove the gunnels, again a light sand and coat with WatcoTeak, would be my choice

Good luck !

Jim

 

[yellowcanoe]

Never had any luck maintaining ash gunwales with oil.. Mildew gets to ash fast and oil does nothing to protect. When I had ash gunwales I used varnish.. Sand and apply a diluted varnish to penetrate and follow up with FOUR more coats of varnish( progressively sanding finer grit each coat).. At least the mildew was at bay.. You will be better off removing them to varnish each edge ( the bottom of your craft has probably Never been treated with anything and has a fair amount of guk on it, which needs to come off before you seal it in).

Oil doesn't penetrate that far without heating the gunwales which you can do with a scotchbrite pad( friction)... I do like the look of oiled cherry gunwales ( which are on three of my boats) I oil often.. every trip actually.

End grain is key.. Speaking of end grain and being on a trip where the seats and the thwarts of an Old Town failed catastrophically due to end grain rot.. take those out too and seal the ends liberally.

It's nice to know Unk picks up hijackers.

 

[Canotrouge]

I have a few canoes with ash gunnel some of them quite hold and they all sleep out side all year around!! I tried pretty much everything other than changing them to all or plastic... So far so good, I never had to replace gunnels due to rot. Some of them are not pretty and got a bit darker with time, but they are all sound!! I oil them 2-3 time a year, especially in the fall before I put them away for the winter and I pay special attention to the underside of the outwales.

My favorite product is one I make, 1/3 spar varnish, 1/3 mineral spirit or turpentine, and 1/3 of boiled linseed oil. keep the gunnels wet for 5 ish minutes, and then wipe off, do that once a day for a few days and you will have a great protection, give the end grain a lot of love, keep your canoe well off the ground and your gunnels will last a long long time!!

Ho and if you gunnels look really dry, it is worth wile to take them off and treat the sides gains the hull the same way!! I will put them in some sort of tub to soak them!

 

[Canotrouge]

By the way, what is the boat??

 

[Jim Dodd]

Nothing is perfect !
To date Watco Teak has been the best for me. My first canoe from 1991, is still wearing it's original gunnels, and they are fine.I epoxy on my gunnels, solving the inside rot problem.
The Ash in my gunnels turns black, where they are rubbed heavily.
I store my canoes inside and unheated. Storing them outside, is like putting a handful of M&Ms in your back pocket, in the morning, and expecting them to be fine at dinner time!

I apply my Watco, like varnish I don't wipe it off. Two coats. Takes forever to really harden, at least a season.

Jim

 

[yellowcanoe]

Mine are stored outside May -Oct on a rack.. Not on the ground..
Inside unheated Oct- May.. One year they all had to live outside ( there were seventeen). This is risky with five feet of snow. I stepped on an upside down Wenonah buried in the snow.

When I do use Watco I apply it thinly and really heat it up with friction to rub it in.. It hardens in a couple of hours ( the thick vs thin debate you see). I often will do this at canoe shows a couple of times a week if the boat is being used.

 

[Uncle_Skwid]

Thanks for the insight and tips. I appreciate them. Sounds like getting rid of the boat is easiest, swapping out the gunnels is second, oil is third, and varnish/thane/Watco is a PITA but possibly the most durable. And don't neglect the hidden end grain, the side against the boat, the machined holes and dowel rods soon-to-be-buried in the captain's bridge. The thing that strikes me about oil is that you can simply keep adding it. No removal of guk or any of that other difficult stuff that I have a very difficult time doing. I can see wiping them down pretty often, if that's what oiling means.

My old boats all get stored in my basement (mostly the kayaks I no longer use, or the converted C-1s that I also no longer use unless it's for spiritual mortification of the ankles and knees, or the sixteen foot Old Town that needs some TLC stacked up in the dark corners and awaiting the plastic welder from Harbor Freight that I haven't bought) or in a small unheated warehouse downtown, four blocks from the house. The warehouse is very convenient with a loading dock and garage door and I've kind of taken over a corner of it for boats and their work, but the company that employs me keeps their old records in it and they are actively working to weed through the records and get rid of the warehouse. (Yikes!) I used to outfit boats on the living room floor but fourteen foot canoes tend to be a little unwieldy snaking through the house. Besides, the woman of the house got really tired of me sitting in my kayaks at the dinner table.

I'm taking everything apart to properly build the boat's commanding bridge and would like to go ahead and treat the gunnels (sorry, gunwales) and thwarts while I've got it in pieces. Don't get the wrong idea: it's an el-cheapo plastic boat (a "beater" boat, as we say, even though we well know there is no such thing anymore as a cheap canoe that floats, but I don't want you picturing some beautiful work of very expensive wooden or composite art). I'm experimenting right now with how much length I need for hashtag canoe-camping-for-days, and this hijacker is just part of the experiment. (The lover of whom your spouse disapproves but with whom you really don't want to share a bank account or mortgage so in the end it really might be okay kind of thing...) Nonetheless and for some unknown reason the boat has ash wood gunnels. I don't know why, it just does. And they look dang nice against the shiny black plastic, and I'm wondering if maybe they're cheap? Just replace them every now and again and keep them oiled? Or maybe oil them and they'll go forever...? So but then I figured I'd take the opportunity to give wood a whirl and see if I couldn't maintain them for a while. I can see the headline now, "Darwin awards: canoe guy impaled by broken gunnel spear when he breaks his canoe in half." Seems like it might be a legit concern.

 

[Canotrouge]

So... That was a long reply for not telling us what is the boat

 

[Jim Dodd]

I'd also be tempted to pull the gunnels, lightly sand, and entirely coat with mixed epoxy, let cure and reattach. It would take about 6 oz total for resin.

Two things I like about Watco Teak, is you can reapply without out much work, just rub it on. The other, it can be applied on top of scratched up varnish, and it makes the scratches go away.
Watco doesn't show scratches like varnish does. No white streaks.

Yes What is this mystery boat ?

Jim

 

[Alan Gage]

Sounds like getting rid of the boat is easiest, swapping out the gunnels is second, oil is third, and varnish/thane/Watco is a PITA but possibly the most durable.

Watco goes in the oil category. I don't believe it's anything more than a thinned oil.

Alan

 

[yellowcanoe]

Which Watco..? Danish Oil is a mix of oil and varnish.. I think the others( tung and teak) are too.

 

[Uncle_Skwid]

Ah yes, thank you Mr. Gage. (And Mr. Dodd.) The fact that Watco can be applied like oil sounds like a boost. Mr. Canotrouge, I am .

But certainly not trying to be coy, rather trying to keep any of my beloved east coast American friends (at least one of whom makes his own PE boats) who happen to be lurking in the shadows of the world wide web from my recent and unpatriotic choice of high density PE boat. Social Media makes the real world a very strange place for me. (Not that anyone actually cares which boats I buy, but I'm sensitive in that way. What can I say: the ladies like it?)

Regardless, I went with the elusive 10.5 overt Covert from across the pond and she's oddly beautiful. The British made HDPE. Once again it's a boat designed as a tandem that I'm paddling solo (I have yet to own a designated "solo" canoe). In the end of course it came down to length and speed (those Brits seem to keep speed way up on their design criteria), but ultimately I'm excited about seeing how hard the boat can hit rocks. 10.5 seems big enough (much more room than 8'9", say, my other heavy consideration that just about went to purchase, though I've been hearing about an 11-footer for three years that keeps not happening within a reasonable range of weight), but 10.5 seems long enough to handle camping for days. If I can introduce the durability of PE into my long-distance/camping-from-boat style of boating.... well that would just be hashtag plain-ole-good-old-fashioned fun. In the end it will probably get me into trouble but along with being overly sensitive to other people's feeling, I also like seeing how far I can take something before some component of the system snaps. I can't explain it very well but there it is. Ash gunnels and all...

(Shhhh...)


View attachment BYEwy6sFMW2L6wkiUmpPSky4uF539Jlo_-IfZLK9RBJ2KzAyde4r2G5EihtRhn8PbdlcVe3N0swpXWe9T-DVgpEavil4cTMVnYkX

 

[frozentripper]

I'd also be tempted to pull the gunnels, lightly sand, and entirely coat with mixed epoxy, let cure and reattach. It would take about 6 oz total for resin.

The last set of outwales I made were done this way along with varnishing for UV protection... after several years the epoxy/varnish combination is holding up well and IMO better than varnish-only (the inwales were varnish-only and there are now some cracks and blackening).

West suggests removing the wood from the boat, sanding, applying three coats of epoxy and then three coats of varnish:

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/varnish-over-epoxy/

I've finished some paddles this way as well, and maybe it's overkill for those... they're easier to maintain than gunwales, simply sand down and revarnish so I've gone back to plain old varnish on the paddles I've made since then.

 

[Muskrat]

You can also put some paste wax over the oil for some water repellency. Wax over oil is an old standby in woodworking, I haven't figured out why most canoeists don't wax paddles or trim.

 

[pblanc]

If you are storing the boat out of the elements, and pay reasonable attention to the wood trim, there is no reason to believe that your gunwales won't last a very long time. Some of the nicest ash gunwales I have seen were on canoes 30 or more years old. You can't find long sections of straight-grain ash nowadays like you could then.

My personal preference with that boat would be to oil the gunwales and bright finish the thwarts. Whether or not to remove the gunwales is up to you, but it looks as if it would be easy to do given it is a short boat and the gunwales are not attached to deck plates. I would apply epoxy to the inner face of the outwales and the outer face of the inwales for protection and oil the parts that show, which is especially easy with the gunwales off. I would use varnish over epoxy for the thwarts.

After the initial finishing, I would just wipe or brush your choice of oil on as often as needed, and once or twice a year go ahead and take out the thwarts so you can treat the end grain of the thwarts and the holes in the inwales, as well as the small areas of the inwales that are covered by the thwarts.

 

[Alan Gage]

Which Watco..? Danish Oil is a mix of oil and varnish.. I think the others( tung and teak) are too.

If they have any varnish in there it still acts more like an oil finish. After application there doesn't appear to be any hard coating like varnish would leave. When you scratch it it doesn't look like scratched varnish and it doesn't seem to have any resistance to abrasion.

Alan

 

[Uncle_Skwid]

If you are storing the boat out of the elements, and pay reasonable attention to the wood trim, there is no reason to believe that your gunwales won't last a very long time.

That's the money. Is it worth it? This makes it sound like a yes. And frankly those plastic gunnels I've been looking at for so long are getting pretty boring. Maybe I'll learn a little something along the way. Thanks for the education.