Housatonic Canoe Shop

05/10/2026

04/25/2026

Have you ever wanted to make your own canoe paddle but don't have the tools or the knowledge to get started? For the third year in a row, I will be leading a paddle carving class at the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association's Annual Assembly. Taking place this year at Keuka College in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate NY, the Assembly is the event of the year for people who appreciate and love classic wooden canoes.
The class will take place on Thursday, July 16th and Friday, July 17th. Limited to four people per day, we will use hand tools to shape a pre-prepared paddle blank into a traditional one piece black cherry paddle made to your specifications. Contact me via phone or email to reserve your place and specify length and blade shape of paddle. Cost is $100, less than the cost to buy one of these paddles! Come join us to learn how to use classic hand tools like block planes and spokeshaves, learn about material selection, paddle design characteristics, measuring and marking techniques, and create a functional work of art.

10/26/2025

1948 Old Town 15 foot Fifty Pounder at the halfway point. The hull is varnished, the canvas is on and filled, and most of the trim pieces are ready for installation. This canoe was purchased new by the owner's father then restored by him about 20 years later after plenty of use. It needed a substantial amount of work to get to this point, including 20 new ribs, 40 feet of planking, 13 hidden rib back splices to repair partial cracks without replacing the entire rib, rebuilding the rotted ends, and carefully stripping, scraping, and sanding every inch to get the wood ready for new varnish.

08/29/2025

Finally finished my 1942 11' Old Town Fifty Pounder. I bought this little canoe back in the beginning of 2020, and held onto it for a few years before I had the time or shop space to work on it. I recanvassed it at the end of last year, only for the canvas to relax and become wrinkled for some still unknown reason after varnishing the interior. I re-recanvassed it back in January and finally had the space in the shop to paint it recently.
This restoration included:
-new canvas, filler, and paint
-stripping and revarnishing all the woodwork
-recaning the pre-woven seats
-some minor woodworking repairs to the planking, gunwales, and ribs
-deleting the keel to save a little weight
-Making a portage yoke that fits in place of the original center thwart
The final weight ended up being just under 50 pounds. This canoe is extremely maneuverable, and does not like to go in a straight line very easily. However, I was able to paddle the last mile back to the boat launch in 18 minutes using a double blade paddle without too much effort. This canoe would be comfortably at home on small ponds, poking into and out of small inlets and coves, which is one of my favorite types of paddling.

08/27/2025

Old Town 15' Fifty Pounder back in the water. This was a relatively easy project compared to most of the more in depth restorations in the shop right now. This canoe got:
- New canvas
- 2 new ribs and 2 hidden back of rib repairs
-Small piece spliced onto one of the outer gunwales to correct some rot/damage there
-Revarnished gunwales

08/16/2025

This is a new one in the shop for me. A Mullins canoe. This company was founded in Ohio around 1894 as a manufacturer of stamped steel boats. They offered several models of wooden canoe from 1910 to 1923. There are some unique design variations, like the wraparound stem covers and the peculiar way the cane is affixed to the seat frames. It is only 30" across at the center, a good deal narrower than other canoes of this length. It looks like it would be a fast canoe, but there's a lot of work in between now and testing it out in the water to find out.

07/20/2025

Another successful paddle carving class at the 2026 Wooden Canoe Heritage Association Annual Assembly. We carved out 7 beautiful canoe paddles using just simple hand tools. Check back next year if you want to join this class.

06/28/2025

This giant Old Town XL Tripper was fitted with new ash gunwales to replace the original vinyl. An anchor pulley bracket for mounting an anchor off the bow and a clamp-in adjustable seat were also made to go along with it.

06/09/2025

Three canvasses in three days. The collective age of these three canoes is over 300 years old.

05/16/2025

Recently finished converting a 15' Old Town "Lightweight" into a "Featherweight."
Sometime in the 60's, Old Town began to offer their longtime 50 Pounder model in three different coverings. The Lightweight was covered in traditional canvas, the Trapper was covered in fiberglass, and the Featherweight was covered with lightweight heat shrink polyester used in skin on frame aircraft building("Dacron").
This fabric covering has it's own advantages and disadvantages. The primary advantage is significant weight savings over traditional canvas. There is also no risk of rot in the synthetic material. Disadvantages are lower abrasion resistance and less hiding of inconsistencies in the underlying hull. This hull was in great shape, so that last point was less of a concern than most other restoration canoes.
This project included:
-new polyester skin, filler, primer, and paint. The underlying hull was varnished prior to covering
-new inner gunwale end tips and decks
-recaning the seats
-deleting the keel and filling the mounting holes in the ribs
-new ash carrying yoke
-sanding and varnishing the gunwales
This is my first time using this covering method, so I am somewhat anxious to see how it works out. I have my own canoe project that I will be covering in the same method and thoroughly testing, but that hull needs significantly more work before it's ready for new skin.
Changing the skin and removing the keel brought this canoe from 58 pounds to 46 pounds-a very large weight savings and a very low weight for a wooden canoe of this size.