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Restoring Sandy: Stephen’s Dilapidated Canoe

by Taylor White

30th September, 2020

My friend Stephen left his canoe at my house after he moved away from downtown. His canoe, Sandy, laid under our front porch for almost three years, occasionally being taken out by me on a date or two :).

In preparation to move from my house, I wanted to restore the canoe before returning it.

The process was a bit more involved than I had expected, the process went something like this:

  1. taking apart each of the screw connections to the wood of the canoe,
  2. sanding it all down (nearly all by hand),
  3. staining the wood accents
  4. polyurethane-ing the wood to protect it and add some shine.

Here are some photos depicting the process.

Original state

Cleaning, Sanding & Disassembly

Reassembly – It’s finished!

Overall, I really enjoyed the process, despite the discomfort from sanding using my shoulder I had recently dislocated. Here’s are some shots of Margaret and I taking the done-up Sandy on the water:


by Taylor White