One of life’s great mysteries clearly involves color – We see it everywhere we go – the pale blue skies, the red rings of Saturn, the mysterious Michael Jackson and what color he was at any phase of his career. It brings joy, it evokes rage, it makes us question our beliefs and our morals and it makes us calm. But most interesting to the construction of a canoe is how do I recreate the color that comes from Western Red Cedar, varnished, yet aging behind the patina of the protective coat.
You see, like all of us, wood ages in unique ways. In my case, the canoe has aged to an orange, umber, brown hue behind the varnish. Exposed to the elements, the wood takes on the antique flavor of Hemingway – aged, experience, wiser than you, but impossible to recreate without the same experiences, or at least without the right color stain.
I am not only the owner of a beautiful canoe, but also the owner of 10 small cans of Minwax stain, none of which match the canoe, and even when blended in random mixes, I don’t even come close. Last Saturday, I spent the morning like a junior Chemist – toiling over small jars of mixed colors – a little more red here, a little brown – ooops, too much brown, dump. I stained 4 different boards 4 colors, hoping one would match, and to no luck.
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| My Minwax Collection |
Interesting note here – if you really screw up a stain, the only thing that helps remove the color is bleach. Once bleached, you wash it with vinegar, and soon enough your wood is colorless. Utterly colorless. Lacking the stain and now devoid of the rich natural tones, it is the equivalent of wood death. I recommend that if you are in the situation, burn the wood instead, and start over.
Now, this is in large part a failure in patience on my part. You see, at the school, there is a man named Don K who runs his own cabinet repair/manufacturing shop. He has years (perhaps decades) of experience which he uses to match stains in his work. I was told to see Don, but a “I will give it a try” mindset cost be 40 bucks in Minwax. Epic failure.
Don is going to help me out by mixing a custom concoction of powders, oils, and voodoo magic to get me a final product for success. It will cost me but I am sure it will be cheaper than my path would have been. Some stuff is just too hard to try.
In the meantime, I have been spending my time polishing brass and copper. Along the gunwales are solid brass bolts that hold the seats and thwarts (the thwart runs across the interior top of the canoe to keep the hull from bowing at the top) in place. At the top of each bolt is a diamond head that is now polished, thanks to Brasso, and elbow grease. I stripped it first to remove old varnish, which came right off with some chemical stripper, and after polishing, I then coated it with a layer (or three) of clear, gloss lacquer.
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| Mother's Little Helper |
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| Pre-Polished Brass |
The copper is in the form of 5 foot strips that wrap the bow and stern stems over the canvas and hold the keel underneath in place. These were a little tougher. Years of paint and patina coated the copper, so the cleanup was a multi-step process. First, I stripped the paint with the chemical stripper. I know – environmental damage – but this approach helped me keep sane and save the cost of a heat gun. (I own two heat guns – both in storage while we rent). Once removed, I washed these thoroughly with hot water to remove the stripper chemicals. I then had to remove the layers of tarnish, and so off to the internet. You might be interested to know that Chemistry really pays off here (or would have paid off, at least).
Most recipes to clean copper at home involve either –
- Lemon
- Salt
- Flour
- Baking Soda
- OR -
- Vinegar
You might remember though, that if you mix Vinegar and Baking Soda you get a volcano. And so, after cleaning up a small volcano, I then went back to the web, and found some real success. After getting the majority of the tarnish off with flour, salt, lemon juice and vinegar (I was out of Baking Soda by now), I then sat down to a long night of polishing the metal with Brasso. They now shine, with only limited marring from years of abuse. These are now cleaned and ready for painting/lacquering. This is still TBD. I like the shine of the copper, but the reality is that the brass and copper don’t look right together, and so I might just paint them, instead of clear-coating them.
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| Post-Polished Brass |
