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Housatonic Canoe Shop

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Little Falls, NY
Housatonic Canoe Shop

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The Housatonic Canoe Shop builds and restores wood-canvas canoes.

11/01/2026

Old Town Ideal model recanvas.
The owner of this canoe did most of the restoration himself, and just wanted help with the canvassing portion. We were going to do the canvas and filling together in the shop, but I realized when the canoe arrived that it needed just a little more attention at the ends. The normal rot here was not present, but the ends of the thin inner gunwales were split apart from the numerous fasteners that had been driven into them, leaving no solid point to fasten the last few inches of the canvas or even the ribs in this area. Once this area was rebuilt, new canvas was installed, filled, hung up to dry, then a little varnish work to cover the new wood, and finally a few coats of paint. Another century old canoe ready for the water.

10/19/2026

Another 100+ year old Old Town Canoe back on the water. This canoe was in pretty good shape overall. The restoration included:
-New canvas
-New brass stembands
-Sanding and varnishing all woodwork. The previous varnish was intact enough that a full chemical stripping was not needed
-Rebuilt deck, gunwale, and stem tips
-New sheer line planking. This is becoming a common repair as the top row of planking has to accept many fasteners in a small area and gets chewed up as a result. The staples I use to fasten the canvas hold better and cause less damage than the traditional brass tacks.
-Three new ribs
-New hand woven seat caning
-New bronze carriage bolts to replace the original steel countersunk bolts for the thwarts and seats. The old counter sunk bolts are weaker than bolts that go all the way through the gunwales. I've seen many split or broken gunwales as a result. Plus, the carriage bolts are easier to remove for maintenance or replacement as needed. On top of that, I never reuse steel hardware if it's been removed.
-The keel was missing when the canoe arrived. To save a little weight and money, a new keel was omitted and the old mounting holes in the ribs were filled with cedar plugs.
There are many tandem canoes that work well as a solo canoe, but I don't think this big 18' Guide is one of them. This is a big, heavy canoe, and without any sort of weight as ballast, turns into a weathervane in the slightest breeze. Doubtless there are very skilled paddlers that could manage this canoe solo with a full load of gear, but it would still be better suited to two paddlers, who would still be able to carry more supplies than they could use in a month. Or four paddlers for a day trip, as long as the middle two paddlers didn't mind kneeling against the thwarts.

10/13/2026

1922 Closed Gunwale Old Town HW Restoration
This canoe ended up being yet another quite extensive restoration for this year. The closed gunwale design has a tendency to hold onto water, which lead to the inwales being rotted out in several places and needing complete replacement. The gunwales have a pretty sharp upsweep that required long pre-soaking, steaming, and long wait time clamped in a bending jig before proceeding to actually fitting, finishing, and finally fastening them in place, all while breaking a few expensive pieces in the process(this spruce costs $16 a board foot and takes a 7 hour round trip to go get it). Despite the necessity for this invasive procedure, the bulk of the hull was in very good shape and I did not end up replacing any ribs and only a couple small planks outside of the sheer line planking that had to be replaced as part of the gunwale transplant.
This canoe received:
-new canvas, filler, and paint
-stripped, sanded, revarnished all existing woodwork
-new brass stembands
-new birch seats and thwarts to better match the missing originals
-entirely new spruce inner gunwales and steam bent birch decks. Everything in this area was pre-treated and sealed before reassembly to prevent future rot
-new continuous length spruce gunwale caps, fastened with screws to facilitate future removal for easier maintenance and refinishing
-new brass diamond head thwart bolts to replace the old steel countersunk bolts. This arrangement is stronger than the original method, and makes the bolts easier to remove for maintenance, refinishing, or replacement if needed.
-custom painted nameplate
This canoe has been in this family for over 100 years at this point. With the right care and maintenance, this restoration work should last decades. The hull itself should have no problem surviving another 100 years for future restoration work to renew it again and again.

10/07/2026

17' Old Town HW Repair and Recanvas
At first glance, this canoe was in pretty good shape. The most obvious problem was the rot along the top edge of the canvas, which matched hidden rot on the backside of the outer gunwales and top row of planking. The rest of the canvas looked brand new. This area can trap and hold onto water that rolls off the hull while the canoe is stored upside down. Even if the canoe is stored inside an outbuilding, condensation on a cold morning can bead up and run down behind the outer gunwales, creating problems for the outer gunwales and top of the canvas, even if the canoe is not even in the water.
My approach to this problem is to run a bead of flexible, paintable sealant along the line where the bottom of the outer gunwales meets the canvas, and paint over the bottom edge of the outer gunwales while I paint the rest of the canvas to create an unbroken waterproof layer that doesn't allow water to run into and get trapped around the top edge of the canvas. Additionally, the canvas I use is pre-treated for mildew resistance, the canvas filler contains a mildewcide, and the hidden faces of the outer gunwales and planking are varnished to prevent water absorption. I believe this is the best approach to this area to make the work last as long as possible.
This canoe repair included:
-new canvas, filler, and paint
-new ash outer gunwales
-rebuilt deck, inwale, and stem tips
-long inwale splice repair to fix where the gunwale had cracked at two bolt holes
-new hand woven seat caning
-revarnished gunwales and thwarts
-new sheer line planking along the entire canoe
-17 entire new ribs, stained and varnished to match the existing interior varnish that was still in good shape

09/23/2026

1948 Old Town 15 foot Fifty Pounder full restoration.
This canoe was bought by the current owner's father in 1948 and restored by him sometime in the 1960's. This little canoe needed a lot of work to bring it back to new condition:
-strip, sand, revarnish all woodwork
-new canvas and paint, with custom color matching by George Kirby Jr. Paint Co.
-new seat cane and an added rear quarter thwart to pull the sheer back in line.
-a lot of new planking, rib replacements and repairs, and inwale splice repair. This canoe needed 20 new ribs, the most I've ever done on one canoe
-rebuilt ends where the typical rot was present
-new brass stembands to replace the aluminum bands that were present when I picked up the canoe
This was a lot of work for one little canoe, certainly more work than it would take to just build a new one. However, there is no replacement for a canoe that has been in the family for almost 80 years and hopefully will continue to be a family heirloom for generations to come.

09/19/2026

1914 Old Town Ideal model full restoration.
This canoe came to me in pretty bad shape, missing the keel, stembands, outer gunwales and the inner gunwales rotting and broken in several places. Despite all the problems, the main body of the canoe was actually fairly intact and still true to its original shape, allowing it to be a feasible candidate for a full restoration.
This canoe needed:
-new canvas, filler, and paint
-surviving woodwork was stripped and sanded to bare wood and new varnish was applied
-several rib replacements and repairs
-new seats and center thwart. Original quarter thwarts were in good shape to be reused
-about 40 feet of new planking
-new stem and deck tips to tie the ends back together into the new gunwales. Original decks were retained.
-entirely new inner gunwales. This is an invasive and tricky process on this type of boat as the inner gunwale is the main foundation around which the rest of the canoe takes form. The old gunwales have to be removed as gently as possible to preserve the tops of the ribs and keep the shape of the canoe intact. The new gunwales have to be shaped and bent to replicate the curve of the sheer in two different directions so they will fit within the existing hull while changing the overall shape as little as possible
-new outer gunwales to match with new bronze screws
-new keel and brass stembands
-new bronze carriage bolts for the thwarts and seats to replace the old steel countersunk style bolts that I have found can be a weak point in the gunwales
This was an extensive restoration to fix much that had gone bad on this boat over the last century. With the right care and maintenance, this canoe should be able to survive another hundred years.

08/20/2026

1942 Old Town Fifty Pounder Wood Canvas Canoe
This is the somewhat rare 11 foot long version of Old Town's 50 Pounder model line. It is a very maneuverable and fun canoe. The width at the mid point of the gunwales is 34" and depth is 13". The weight is 50 pounds.
I found this canoe in pretty decent shape at the beginning of 2020 and finished a complete restoration in August 2025. It received new canvas, new varnish, fresh seat cane, and a few small woodworking repairs. The keel was deleted to save weight. A new carrying yoke was made and the original thwart is included. The hull is almost completely original. The restoration was completed using proven traditional methods and quality finishes from Petit and Kirby Paint.
I have been using the canoe regularly since it was finished and there are some minor paint scuffs on the bottom.
Island Falls Canoe in Maine still builds this model under license for Old Town. A new canoe starts at $5200.
$3000. Located near Little Falls, NY, 13365.

08/17/2026

1966 Old Town 15' Fifty Pounder.
This canoe needed relatively little work to get it back on the water. It got scheduled in with a couple of very extensive restorations, which slowed the progress on this one down quite a bit. This restoration included:
-new canvas, filler, and paint
-rebuilt end tips with new decks. Almost every canoe needs this service to some extent
-inner gunwale splice repair to fix a break at the center thwart mounting point
-refinishing the gunwales, seats, and thwart
This canoe is much younger than most of the canoes I end up working on. It might seem odd to say this canoe is young at "only" 60 years old, but it is a testament to the long term durability of the wood canvas building style. This canoe should be able to provide more decades of service with a little care and occasional maintenance.

08/02/2026

1924 Old Town 18' Guide model complete restoration.
This canoe was another extensive project, needing a lot of woodworking repairs to fix problems accumulated over a century since it was first built. This restoration included:
-new canvas, filler, and paint
-stripped, sanded, and revarnished all wood work
-new keel
-recane original handwoven seats
-new brass stembands
-rebuilt inner gunwale and stem tips, with new steambent birch decks
-completely new outer gunwales
-15 new ribs
-several partial rib tip and hidden backside splice repairs
-a few dozen feet of new planking
This is a big, heavy, slow canoe, right at the limit of what I would want to move around and paddle and load onto the car by myself. It would comfortably carry two paddles and a great amount of gear, or even three paddlers packing light. Guides in the northwoods of Maine preferred longer, larger displacement canoes as it meant the ability to carry larger loads with less draft, enabling easier traversal of the many shallow rocky rivers of the region.

07/28/2026

1933 Old Town 13' Fifty Pounder full restoration done.
This canoe was very well loved, with little rot damage and a decent amount of mechanical damage. This restoration included:
-New canvas, filler, and paint
-Completely stripped and revarnished woodwork
-New mahogany center thwart and hand caned seats
-Rebuilt inwale tips, stem tips, and new decks
-About 40 feet of new planking
-10 new ribs and several hidden rib back splice repairs
-Numerous fiddly little repairs to the outer gunwales to be able to reuse them
This is a lot of work for such a little boat, but it's survived mostly intact for 90 years so far and should be good to go for many years to come.

Address

Little Falls, NY
13365

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 6pm
Tuesday	11am - 9pm
Wednesday	11am - 9pm
Thursday	11am - 9pm
Friday	11am - 9pm
Saturday	11am - 9pm
Sunday	11am - 7pm

Telephone

(203) 470-2031

Website

http://housatonic-canoe-shop.com/

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