36” E.M. White Guide canoe model kit instructions

Thank for purchasing a Rocky Oaks model canoe kit. You’ll have hours of enjoyment constructing this 2 inch= 1 foot scale model of an 18’ E.M. White guide canoe. It will be about 36” long after completion. E.M. White was born and brought up on the Penobscot River in Maine and built his first canoe in his father’s oar making shop. Someone bought the finished canoe on it’s maiden voyage, and the E.M. White Canoe Co. was launched. White took the original lines for the canoe from those of the Indian canoes that inhabited the miles of the Penobscot water for centuries. The construction of this kit is identical to the building the full size version and requires only basic tools and wood working skills. The final results of smoothing and sanding is what will bring out the best in the kit. Hang it on your wall or mantle and enjoy for years to come. (The deluxe Mahogany kit shown in photo below)

Materials supplied with the kit:  20 full length strips, 10 -15 shorts extras  4 Rounded inside & out toe rails  Thin Red Cedar ribbing kit(option)  13 ¼” Luan ply forms, lettered A to G  Strong back with letters A to G  Bow, stern and center thwarts  8 pieces for the bow stern seats  Ply wall mts  Bow and stern breasthooks  Pkg of brass brads for thwarts and seats  2 pieces cane webbing for seats. Picture above shows the latest forms that have  Paddle kit(option) the centers cut out to facilitate the use of the 4” Harbor Freight slide clamps.  Laminates for stem(option)

Materials not supplied in kit:  4” Harbor Freight sliding bar clamps * Wood Filler  Hot glue gun, Titebond glue and fast * Varnish or paint  dry CA medium density glue  Small pair of needle nose pliers  Wire snips for trimming pieces  Razor knife  Small hobby plane (optional)  Masking tape  Sand paper Setting up the strong back

1. Secure the strong back to a piece of plywood or board that is approximately 12” wide by 40” long. Fasten it from underneath the work platform so you can remove the screws once the model is complete.

2. Place the two stem forms marked A into the slot A on the strongback and secure with a bead of glue or secure with a couple of push brads that can be easily pulled out later. Hot glue gun works great for this since it is easy to break apart afterwards.

3. Continue with forms marked B into slot B on the strongback, line up centering lines. Continue this process with the rest of the marked forms into their prospective slot. 4. Some forms might need to be adjusted slightly to one side or the other.

5. Be sure all forms are secure in their slot and centered. Now you should be able to see the shape of the canoe.

6. Cover all the edges of the forms with cellophane or masking tape to prevent glue from sticking

Process of gluing the strips over the forms

7. The sheer strip is the first and most important of all the strips since this will dictate the sheer line of the canoe. It is usually best to start at form G and work your way towards each end, pushing one of the brass brads with pliers in through the strip and into the form. Working towards the opposite end, make a clean, smooth sweeping curve over the frames, using the bottom edge of each form as a guide though it could vary slightly. Push a pin through the strip in to each form until you have a complete strip in place and or using the holes that are in the forms, hold the strip in place with one of the 4” Harbor Freight clamps. Use the clamps to hold the strip flat. Look at it from different angles and be sure that it has smooth lines and is the same from one end to the other. If not, pull your pins and do over until satisfied. Turn the whole project around and do the same on the other side. This time, trim the end of the strip to butt snuggly against the first strip at the stem. There is much room for sloppiness at the stem since imperfections after it is trimmed can be filled with a natural wood filler and will be difficult to detect. Now the stripping of the canoe starts.

8. Have a clamp handy and apply a consistent bead of TiteBond glue to the edge of the bottom strip. Quickly snug the new strip to the top edge of the sheer plank and clamp the strip to the form to secure the strip while the glue dries. When the plank meets the other plank at the stem, trim and fit to match up with it’s opposite strip. Continue this process, alternating from one side to the other. Be sure the strips are being held tightly to the forms and the strip below it, and are also taking the twist of the different angles present on the forms. This is where the clamps really works well. The strips around what will be the waterline are the most difficult to twist and hold to the shape of the forms, so extra time should be taken. Using a small inexpensive hobby wood plane to bevel the edges of the strips will produce a tighter fitting strip. If the edge of some of the strips happen to not be laying quite flat to the form, they can be sanded smooth in the final stages of finishing. Sanding these raised edges on the outside is easy, but more difficult when you have to do it on the inside, so try to avoid this as much as possible. As the forms are getting covered with the strips and you are closing in on the center of the forms, you will have to trim the strips at angles so they carefully fit in to place until the whole forms is covered. Allow to dry a day or two before proceeding to the next step.

8. Now you have a roughed in canoe with strips protruding at different lengths at the bow and stern. Draw a smooth curve to the shape of the stem with a pencil. Then cut the ends of the strips to the pencil line using a hobby saw, Chinese back saw or small circular saw in a dremel tool. Be careful to not to break or dislodge any strips. If you do, glue again and let dry before proceeding. Sand smooth and fill in any voids with a natural wood filler. Your kit might have come with a bundle of thin cedar or mahogany laminate (depends on kit ordered) strips that can be used to bend and glue over each stem to create an actual stem. Use two to three layers. After the glue dries, shape to the bow and stern of the canoe. Masking tape to hold it in place This looks great! Now you can pull all the pins out that were used to hold any of the strips in place. Carefully sand the whole model till it is smooth. You can apply a coat of finish as a sealer or apply the epoxy and cloth kit to keep it more rigid and intact before proceeding to the next step.

9. Now remove screws that are holding the strongback to the plywood and flip the canoe upright

10. Carefully dislodge each form from its slot on the strongback. The bead of hot glue should break free. If it doesn’t, cut the bead so the forms will come out.

11. With the strong back out of the way, slowly and carefully remove each form from the inside of the canoe, being very careful to not dislodge any strips. Remove them all. .

12. Now it is time to smooth the interior of the model. This is a little more difficult than doing the outside but should only take an hour or so. A curved sharp scraper works well here, taking any high edges of the strip down until it is smooth. In the tighter areas near the bow and stern, you will have to use a coarse grit paper to smooth it all out. The whole time, being careful to not using excessive force in one area which could break free a strip. If one does become loose, apply new cement and dry.

13. Once it is smooth inside and sanded to at least 100 grit, clean, blow out and apply a coat of finish.

14. Glue in place the bow and stern breast hook in place, flush with the top of the sheer plank. It might have to be sanded one way or the other to make it fit snuggly forward and aft. If your kit has the Red Cedar ribbing then proceed as follows, other wise skip. 1. In your kit will be 8 or more full length thin strips of red cedar, ¼”” wide by 3/32” thick. You will have to cut these in to lengths suitable to bent and formed inside the hull. Take a measurement of the widest section of the hull, and add an inch to that which should be about 11” at the widest. There will be approximately 20 to 30 ribs in each boat. 2. After cutting them in to the lengths required, soak them in hot water for an hour or so. Then get a kettle or lasagna pan with an inch of water in it and covered. Boil and steam the ribs for at least a half hour or more. It should be very pliable. Carefully take the hot rib and bend it either on the inside of the boat, or it works equally well to bend over it the outside of the finished hull. Use clothes pins or small clamps to hold them in place while they dry. I stacked 3 or 4 up at one time and bent them together. This seems to prevent uneven bending. 3. After they are dry, they can be form fitted inside the hull. Starting from the center allows you to work both sides of center towards each end. The 54” I would space the ribs ¾” a part and the 72” an inch. This can be any width though that suits the builder. 4. I used the Tightbond wood glue, since it allows time to position it and make sure it is seated tightly to the hull. Allow the ends to extend past the sheer at least ¼” of an. 5. Continue doing this to each end. Be careful to even space and keep tight to the hull 6. The breasthooks will go in next. I trimmed the ribs (if installed) so the breasthook will go above the end of the ribs. 7. The inner toe rails will go over the ribs, (if installed) using a dab of glue on each rib. Proceed to the next steps.

15. The rounded sheer rails might need sanding before installing them. Glue the rounded sheer rails to the outside edge of the model. You can use clothespins to hold it place while the glue dries. Put both sides on keeping them flush with the sheer plank. Then glue the inside rail in place. It will butt against the inner edge of each bow and stern deck. Fit and cut before gluing to insure a snug fit. Use clothespins to hold together tight while the glue dries. Once it is dry, sand the top smooth. Now is a good time to sand again and apply several coats of the finish before putting the seats and other obstacles in the way. Laminated stem trimmed and sanded, the breasthook installed and the inside & outside toe rail in place.

The new seats with cane webbing instruction The 72”,54” and 36” kit has had an upgrade added for the seats. With the older version, the seat frames were lapped and glued. The new version only requires using a quality wood glue or epoxy and butt gluing the seats together. The older version then required the modeler to drill hundreds of small holes and then weave a heavy thread back and forth. Somewhat time consuming and tedious, but did produce a handsome seat. The upgrade will come with an already woven caning that will be pressed into place while wet, secured with small pieces of wood and allowed to dry. The results are a very professional looking seat in less than a ¼ of the time. If someone would still rather weave the seat the old way, we’d gladly send you the materials. Otherwise, here are the new instructions for the seats: 1. To the left is a picture of the seat pieces being glued together and held snuggly together with a clamp while drying. 2. Once the glue is dry, sand all the edges round and smooth, maybe not so much the inside edges since the cane is going to be inside. 3. Cut the provided piece of cane material in half-length wise to fit over each glued seat. 4. Soak the cane in a small amount of warm water and a couple tablespoons of bleach (keeps it from darkening). 5. After 20 minutes or so, press the cane material in to the seats from underneath, forming it tight to the edges. The square stock that has a label which says “seats” will need to be cut to fit in the seat holding the caning material tight to the seat frame. Don’t make the small wood pieces too tight so as to break the glue joints of the seat frames. 6. Let each seat’s caning dry thoroughly. Then remove the small square stock pieces and put a bead of glue over the cane material and reposition the wood pieces to hold the cane permanently in place. 7. After that glue dries, trim the excess cane material flush with the bottom of the seat. And that’s it. A great realistic looking caned seat to go along with your beautiful canoe model.

19. The seats can be glued in place, being sure to keep them level in the canoe.

20. Take the 3 pieces supplied for the thwarts. Draw a shape on it as in the diagram. Use coarse sand paper or a wood file to shape the pieces into a thwart. Sand smooth. Trim the length if needed to fit snuggly underneath the inside sheer rails. The stern one will be about 1 ¾” forward of the aft seat. The center one is center and the forward one will be a little aft of the seat. Glue these in place. 21. Using the 1/16” drill, make a hole through the sheer rail into the end of the frame of each seat, as well as through to each thwart. These holes will be for the brass brads glued in place to imitate brass bolts.

22. The model should be quite sturdy now. Turn it over, sand the outside to a finish and apply several more coats of clear finish. An alternative to a bright finish is to sand, prime and paint with a solid color of choice to mimic a canvas canoe. This is very popular as well. 23. Assembling the wall mount is easy, gluing the curved ply pieces into the slots on the pine 1 ½” by 5” dado board. You might have to trim the corners inside the plywood pieces. Shape the curved ply pieces to fit closely to the hull and put a notch in the end to accept the outer toe rail. Sand and apply finish. 24. If you received the paddle kit, glue the three pieces together, darker one in the middle. Trace the supplied template on to the wood and cut out. Sand the shaft round and taper the edges like a real paddle.

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