Recently borrowed a friends canoe and blew out the cane seat while on a trip on the Bonaventure & Cascapedia River’s in Quebec. Note: While I am not sure how this seat blew out, I know from past experience NOT to stand or kneel on cane webbing…especially a borrowed canoe! While it would be easier to buy a new caned seat, its not a bad idea to learn how to re cane a seat and it is a fraction of the cost but will cost you a few hours of your time start to finish. You’ll need a few basic tools. Sharp narrow/medium width wood chisel, hammer, razor knife, blunt narrow tool for cleaning out the old cane and spline once it has  been chiseled out, 5 gallon bucket of water, yellow wood glue. 1st step is to carefully chisel out the old spine and cane which takes  the most time (1+ hours). 2nd, I chose to lightly sand and re varnish the seat with marine spar varnish, after drying,  place cane and spline in water for about 1/2 hour, shake off excess water, line up cane on seat and trim leaving approx. 1″ beyond the grove. Next tap in four wedges (top, bottom and sides) being careful to line up cane with seat frame. Take another wedge and carefully tap the cane into the cleaned out grove, remove the 4 wedges and  finish tapping the cane in place. Next carefully trim away excess cane gently cutting so cane is not exposed beyond the groove. Now take the soaked spline, gently tap into place, measure and cut. Apply a bead of wood glue filling the groove about 1/3rd. Gently tap the spline into place using a wood block (side of wedge works fine) until the spline is seated into the groove. Let dry for 24 hours and you now are ready to reinstall your newly caned seat into your canoe! To purchase a cane and spline kit, visit islandfallscanoe.com/old-town-canoe-parts-and-materials.aspx    Call them and you can pay over by credit  card and they will ship it right out. Well, Its now time to get packing for my next Maine adventure, an Allagash canoe trip followed by a week long whitewater canoeing adventure Webster Stream and  then the East Branch of the Penobscot River.

Old cane removed from seat
Groove carefully cleaned out
Re varnished an ddrying
Setting the cane with wedges
Tapping cane into place
Removing excess cane
Setting the spline
Applying wood glue
Tapping spline into place
Done and drying for 24 hours