Klickitat Canoe - a Little Sanding
May 15, 2018

When last we left the Klickitat canoe, we'd removed the breasthooks, seats, and transom thwarts. Now, it's time to see if we can restore them.

(sorry for the blurry photo) The canoe had been left outside for a decade or more - fortunately upside down, but still, no care and lots of time. There was finish on the boards, but it was worn through in a lot of places. I decided the wood was teak (it's probably mahogany) and decided to use Teak Oil as the finish.

Step 1 was to sand it all - spider egg sacks included. While the seat has big cracks, I decided against breaking them and gluing it back together. It's still pretty sturdy. Sanding started with 80 grit and ended with 220 - not because I know anything about the application of teak oil, just because 220 grit is smooth enough.

The edge of the screwhead caught the wood and ripped a pretty big tear out. Rather than remove it and leave a divot, I just glued it back into place with TiteBond.

Glue and clamp. While it cured, I went to the store to get some teak oil and prepped the work area.

I am using my trailer bed as the work area. Being a lazy man, I like to coat both sides of a piece at once. I set the piece on these panel nails to keep it up off the surface. Down side down, of course - no need to see unsightly dimples in the finished product.

The guy at the local hardware store was a teak lover. He had a teak decked boat "back in the day" and he swore by Watco. "Don't waste your time on any other crap. Watco all the way." The instructions say to "flood the surface with oil" so that's what I did - laid it on thick. And the wood soaked it right up. So I coated it all again. And again. And again.

This is after about 7 coats. I am not really pleased with the look - the board on the right looks particularly rough, but it was the one with the 2nd most worst amount of wear.

That dark one at the bottom was the spongy one that had slugs and bugs on it when I pulled it out of the boat. It soaked up a LOT of oil and I think it is going to be OK. I am not going to replace it.