Canoe Restoration | The Story of an Old Canoe 

I loved this story and the way you told it. It makes that canoe even more special knowing it’s past and discovering it’s history. Glad it will continue along the same original purpose 40+ years later with Scouts.

For me, the Boy Scouts were some of the most fun, educational, enlightening, and irreplaceable times of my whole life. You're doing great things and helping young men grow in ways you may never know :) Thanks for all you do and your incredible channel!

Oh my word! Talking about scouts! In the UK scouts cubs brownies and guides are considered somewhat uncool. My own 3 children have experienced all of them and even gone on to sea cadets. It has shown them team work, pride, joy and a whole lot of fun!! My oldest daughter is now a leader passing the experience to a whole new generation. Thank you.

Incredible restoration! But what is truly incredible is the story you told through the video editing, voice overs, and music choice! For those that don't understand the amount of work that goes into a project like this, let me tell you it's A LOT, and that's all before ANY video editing is done! Great work my friend, I look forward to the rest of the canoe series!

You breathed new life into that old canoe, you definitely did it justice. Awesome job.

I love LOVE the stripes, looks great on the water

Wonderful restoration!Love watching someone ,confident in their abilities,take something that most people would classify as unrepairable junk and completely breathe new life into it!Thank you for this very inspiring video!

Wow! Thank you for sharing your story in such a beautiful way. Video, soundtrack and overall production is superb and inspirational.

This is very inspiring. I just came into a free canoe myself, and I do like the gunnels on it either. 😁 Thank you for sharing.

Great vid on restoration and the story. From a Canadian Scouter.

Gorgeous gorgeous restoration !!!!

This is terrific fun! Coincidentally, I'm in the middle of a similar project. In my case, the fiberglass canoe history is known. My father and I built it on the backyard ping pong table 49 years ago. Oldshovel, you are the maestro!

Incredible job! The canoe looks fantastic, and that’s a real nice body of water you’re on. Thanks for posting

Starting my own restoration this weekend. Picked an 18 1/2 foot fiberglass canoe out of my neighbor's trash. Took it out on the lake. Bone dry. Sanded down the outside and inside of the canoe. I have to do some minor fiberglass repair internally but nothing major. I'll paint it as well. Thinking about the striping now that you showed me how to do it. Had not seen the varnish step in other videos--just the oil enamel with tip and roll. Appreciate your story and the encouragement about restoration--I find it rewarding as well. Thanks for taking the time to put this video together.

Loved the video and story. I attained my Chief Scout (Canadian version of Eagle Scout) as a kid. Thanks for posting.

Absolutely outstanding!!! Beautiful! Thank you so much! david

Nice! Thank you for the excellent editing and story telling. Great build.

This restoration was even more relaxing and therapeutic to watch than expected. Beautiful finish too. Now I want to get on the water asap. Lol

Great job on that restoration. There should be a special spot for those that restore boats among other things. Boats have a soul and once you add wood to them they become even more special.

Beautiful! Great video, lovely boat and the music choice is great too! I just can't help myself mentioning resemblance with Adidas snickers. I had a pair of blue Adidas about 35 year ago and the colours were exactly the same as your canoe including the white stripes of course 🤣🤣🤣.fantastic restoration! I love this channel!

Congrats on the rebuild thanks 🇨🇦👍

A powerful lesson of respect and cherishing our world...thank you oldshovel 💕

very cool giving old things new life like the way you did the seats

My grade 7 social class loved this video!

Well done! I really enjoyed this.!

I've just restored my canoe here in New Zealand and looking to put a coat of paint on it so loved your story

Wow very nice!! I bot a damaged canoe and started looking it over today. So glad I stubled onto this video. So inspiring!! The music at the end is relaxing!l

Awesome, great inspiration to restore an old canoe.

I love this video... Exactly what I was looking for after finding a similar canoe in a similar state

very cool. thank you for restoring this. this old canoe has many more years of faithful service and many more places too visit.

Reminds me of my Makita corded drill, it's 30 years old now and still runs well

This resto was very therapeutic

Wow! Really cool story and beautiful restoration!!! Breathing new life!!!

Such beautiful work and scenery. Relaxing and peaceful video. Well done!

The canoe restoration looks fantastic! I'm looking forward to seeing the segmented videos on how you did each part. Thanks for the great videos and for the great work you're doing with the scouts.

I'm an eagle scout of troop 119. Thank you for a great video. I've been shopping for canoe projects! WISH ME LUCK

you sir are an amazing story teller

Awesome restoration, I'd like to suggest learning the "J" stroke for paddling, that way you won't have to keep switching sides as often as you do.

What a great restoration. I really like wood components you added. It brings back a lot of scout camp memories.

Quality of this video is amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Great restoration and wonderful storytelling, man.

I really like the vintage vibe of your chevron paint scheme. Great content! I’m glad I found your channel!

So nice, and now it's a new chapter. Great work and like I have mentioned before, need a Cano now😊

I really appreciate the work you put into the canoe and also the video itself. Great story, wonderful to watch, and inspiring as well. I will be embarking on a canoe restoration myself as soon as time allows... an old Fijiian V1 outrigger that was gifted to me. Hoping I can do it justice as well as you have with yours.

Very satisfying and relaxing , awesome restoration ❤️

Reminds me of the old Core Craft canoes made up in Bemidji MN (mid 40's with production starting in the 50's up to the mid 70's) and sold all over the states. I actually own the complete mold for the 17' model. They were the first to use a composite core material in their product. I intend to use the mold to with today's modern fiber materials to make a few boats.

WOW, amazing transformation! You are a treasure to the young men that you mentor! As the son of and the father of Eagle 🦅 scouts I Thank YOU for the time, effort and skill you give to our youth... and what a beautiful restoration! Trust me when I say that only you can see its flaws! Amazing! T

As a fellow (cub-)scouts leader I love seeing this beautiful piece of work! As we speak we are making plans te build our own canoes for the Cub-scouts! And seeing this gives me inspiration and making me want to start the building even more😄😇

Looks great 👍

Your work never seems to not astound an amaze me. Great work! Honestly -Will

Beautiful work! Love your style and approach to the whole restoration world. I bought (on sale) a Patagonia shirt yesterday that says, "Repair is Radical". Great timing! Look forward to your future projects!

Great video! Was worth the wait!

And now in 2022 i am watching a wunderfull video with epidemic music in a pandemic time.

Too cool! Thanks!

I love seeing forgotten objects brought back to life! You have done an admirable job, thank you for the video! (I'm in the restoration business, myself.) Subscribing!!!

Amazing work and very inspirational narrative. Thanks for taking the time to document this process and making this video.

This was a very pleasant watch, great job with the restoration and the story. Keep it up!

Nice video... You being one of my favorite restoration channels I have been looking forward to this and am not disappointed! Well done keep up the good work!

Who else got completely relaxed while watching this? 😴 Nice build.

A primitive way canoa... 👍🏻. Ciao!

Could I make a suggestion for the next canoe resto? Use silicon bronze screws and hardware for the top rails to resist corosion.

Awesome!!

Awesome job man!! The other day I was thinking man where has he been..... then I remembered the canoe and thought yeah he is working on it lol. Great job man!!

Just bought a two person, 4.2 meter canoe. In better shape than this one was, just needs a clean and maybe a re-paint, but this has really inspired me to give it a second chance at life and get it out on the water again. Just need a name...

Dude, thst was awesome!! I love your videos. Keep it on

You paddle like a neophyte, one stroke left - one stroke right. Put your weight to one side of the canoe and paddle on that one side, using a paddle drag between strokes to keep a line. Try it. Its easy.

I tried patching up a 17' used Coleman canoe...a few years ago. It had been abused by the previous owner...lazily dragged while going to and from the water...as each bottom end of it had a hole from so many abrasions. Once I patched it up and got it to where I thought it was river worthy again, I took it out on the water and found that the front end still wasn't water tight. I would have continued to work on it and make it useable if it were more stable in the water. But that style of canoe (perhaps from around 1980...some kind of plastic or fiberglass construction) just wasn't as stable as my wider 16' Old Town canoe. I don't like a canoe that's easy to tip over. I'm glad that the canoe you worked on was worth the repair.

The canoe came out awsome. Love the painted strips. Thanks for sharing. I see its been about 2 yrs since completed, how is it holding up. I followed your lead doing a minor resto on my canoe which I purchased in late 80s. The paint has been curing for 3 days now. I'm debating putting on a varnish. Has it added to the durability of the canoe? Thx again for sharing

Brilliant.

I think your audio editing is getting better! I'm a newer sub, but I noticed a few videos that could of had some help with the normalization tool and some "ducking". This one is better than those (particularly a mirror estwing hatchet). Anyway super cool skills you have! I enjoy the tempo of the editing/story.

Very great restoration! I have just started a project like this. What varnish did you use over the paint, was it the same as that for the gunnels? Also how is it holding up? Thanks for the video!!

This video is great

I really miss your random videos, before you became a bike only channel. Any chance you can do some of your 'non bike' content again?

Inspiring! For each video, a gift! Congratulations! Tchau! (So far I haven't found your name, my friend!)

Brilliant. I really enjoyed this. Elbow grease and patience goes a long way. What do you call the technique you used on the seats?

I thought I seen a Sasquatch in the beginning lol jking. This has to be the best video you have done to date. Very impressive. I only see things improving from here on out. This is perfection and thank you for sharing. :3 :D

Sweet!

Not my usual thing to watch, but interesting. As I watched you add the wooden gunnels, I couldn't help but think you should have done them a bit differently. for one, I would have used some kind of sealer/adhesive on the back side where it attaches to the canoe. The other thing is it could use a cap rail, also glued, (marine epoxy probably best.) and screwed on the top, and rounded. I would not have used regular bondo filler on it at all. I would have used the fiberglass type filler, that looked like standard automotive filler, and it will not hold up long term as the bottom gets a bit beat up, it will probably fall out. in my experience bondo doesn't adhere all that well especially to fiberglass. (fiberglass flexes differently than metal and further generally)

What kind of paint are you using on the hull? looks like you mixed it yourself.

@oldshovel what is the lacing style called? I’m trying to find a guide to make mine. Cheers

nice!

Did you sand the interior? Looks like you just painted over the old white paint?

Could you point me in the direction of how you did your seats

What grit sandpaper did you use?

Wish I’d seen this video about a month ago… passed up an opportunity for two free beat up canoes in a local town.

What is the location? It's very beautiful and green.

My story is long and old my dad was a engineer in Boston back in 1961 I was 6 years old he was talking to a coworker about canoeing down the Charles with his dad back when he was my age in a rental canoe and later the Ipswich river also a rental so a older gentlemen engineer heard my father talking so he said I got a canoe it’s old but if you’re handy come get it he was retiring to Florida so we went to see it it was old 1926 old town canvas wood made same year my father was born well the paddles were perfect but canvas was all rotted off seats needed caining but wood was nice under the canvas but inside was rough well he gave the guy what he wanted 10.00 strapped it on the roof and home we went the remaining canvas was blowing off as we went down the highway he then decided to reskin the canoe himself with his then brother-in-law after it was done straight to the local pond and that canoe went everywhere he even lent it to a guy who borrowed it to fish in Canada I used that myself for years after I got my license today it sits in my moms garage hung up my father is no longer with us but that canoe is and it’s 94 years old oh ya he built that garage too with a contractor neibor I remember he even restored his old Columbia he had as a kid Klunker light blue hung it from a tree after stripping everything off and sanding it down his nephew painted everything so he had to remove all paint yup he was one of us Brings life back to old things

Круто!!!

What's the music at the end?

wow i didnt even know you could use varnish over paint! duh! im a newbie btw lol...

👍👍

Every time I feel Down, Broken or stumble upon something that I can't Walk off ... I come to this Vid, Just to remind me a Scout Made old canoe 🛶 can be restored and can be given a second life by some love and attention. Thanks to you @oldshovel .... I'm just a rusty soul- trying to get restored bit by bit everyday.

Hi. Nice canoe And nice work Done. Make yourself a favour and learn also how to paddle her :-) Ladia

I'm in the market for a Canoe and now you have me scouring my classifieds... this was a great resto.

Nice results and a real labor of love. You now have an heirloom you can pass to someone else.

This video is so well done. You are an incredible storyteller. You are incredibly talented. I felt like I was watching a heartfelt inspirational movie.

Great video! What varnish did you use? I’ve got three coats of paint on my canoe completed and can’t find info on a safe varnish to apply. Thanks!

Great video! Thanks! :)

This was such a great video! As an Eagle Scout I loved hearing the story behind this canoe, I hope in the future that whomever uses it can experience the spirit of scouting and adventure!

very fine job..and was enjoying to listen as you worked..how are the seats holding up..and how i wish BSA could be look upon by more young lads..it is a shame kids are not joining this as many of us did back when..