Rewebbing a canoe seat

[cff]

I've almost completed the process of refinishing my 20yr old swift kippawa tripping canoe. The gunwales looked as grey as old asphalt. I used to re oil the woodwork yearly but the canoe has been neglected the past ten years or so. I figured it was time to do something before it passed the point of no return. The canoe has ash woodwork through out with exception to the decks which are black cherry. All woodwork was/is finished in boiled linseed oil. I needed to remove as much oil as I could with laquer thinner before various rounds of sanding. The old oil finish really gums up the sandpaper. Followed up by 4 coats of boiled linseed oil. Why linseed oil? That's how it was finished originally and I figure if it lasted twenty years than another twenty shouldn't be a problem.
Since I went to the trouble of completely removing the gunnels from the canoe and refinishing every piece of trim. I Just couldn't leave the seats in their original condition.
Here's a before and after pic of one of the unrefinished seats next to a refinished seat frame. You can see how weathered the wood gets around the webbing. It's very difficult to maintain the wood in that area.

I pulled all the old staples from the seat.

The seat webbing was all loose and the frames needed regluing. I refinished the wood work and then used gorilla glue to re glue the frame.



I could not find the original colour to replace the webbing so I went with what I could buy locally. Black.

I started by stapling one end of the webbing to the finished seat frame and stretching it using a combination of vice grips and a block of wood to apply tension. (Sorry no photo of this process. Not enough hands) I couldn't find stainless staples so I went with the next best thing..galvanized.

I just followed the over under pattern of the original and worked my way to the end.

I then tapped in all the staples snug with a hammer and I was done! I re installed the seat and voila! Good as new!

[Denis]

Nicely Done