cane seats?

One of my brothers has bought an old Olde Towne canoe with cane seats. What should he use to keep them from dry rotting? I know Tamia had said something but I could not find her article. Senior moment I guess…

I have used
303 protectant. I don’t know for sure if it extends life or not. I have generally had my cane seats last for quite a few years, but when they start to go, they go quickly.



Now if I see one broken cane I will either replace the seat or convert it to a woven nylon webbed seat so that it doesn’t give out in the middle of a trip or long paddle.



I have canoes nearly 20 years old that still have the original cane seats that appear to be in good condition.

Dry rot
is simply rot caused by prolonged wet/damp conditions and the resultant fungus (mildew) infestation that has since dried. Cane doesn’t rot when kept dry. I think the CW on cane is to not to coat or treat it with anything at all and limit exposure to strong sunlight.

Clean and dry
I have tried varnish and vairous oils over the years on my cane seats and have come to the same conclusion as previous poster. Just keep the seat clean and dry. They seem to last me about 8-10 years with failry hevy use, and are easy and fairly inexpensive to replace.

Let em rot, and then use duct tape charl
If I recall rightly, I think I used to use Tung oil on the cane seat in my solo Black Hawk, but I am not sure.



We just reinstalled our cane seats yesterday in our Penobscot on top of our white water pedestals.



The Suwannee River is too low for kevlar, so we are going to try the 50 miler in the heavy (58 pound) Penobscot.



Crazy ? - Probably, but we only come this way once! -and if we make it before midnight, we will have some stories to tell the grandkids



Now today we are running to Wally world to pick up their foam sleeping mat, and are going to try and fashion some comfy tractor style seats for on top of the cane.



Cheers,

JackL


Furniture restorers will sometimes
spray a light coat of shellac containing dyes to darken new cane to make it look aged, but this treatment is cosmetic only, and not to prolong the life of the cane.

Cane Seats
I recently purchased a wood/canvas canoe complete with hand caned seats. The builder recommends a light coat of tung oil at the end of each paddling season! I’ve never tried this before on my other canoes equipped with cane, but I’m going to try it this year…in a few weeks unless we get some Indian Summer weather!?

Which begs the question
Should the treatment be applied to the topside of the cane, bottom side, or both?



Jim

(gotta push this thread to 100)

Only had de cane in one seat bust…
through in all me years o’ usin’ nuttin’ but cane seats in almost all me canoos. De cane finally busted through in me OT Tripper after - got’ta be 25 years. Ah’ never treat de cane wit anythin’ either. Now, ah’ had de wood frames demselves break in a couple other boats but not de cane itself.



FE