Sealing a Dugout Canoe
Mike Fitterling
>A friend is building a dugout canoe. Actually, he has burned most of the inside of the tree trunk out and is finishing up with an adze. He asked me what he could use to seal the wood to prevent it from cracking and drying out. I thought maybe a sawyer would have some ideas. Maybe something that is used to seal the end of boles prior to being milled? Whatever it is, it needs to be clear. He asked me about painting it with BLO and I thought it might help, but there must be something better, and I said I'd check around for him.
We've heard that filling the canoe with water or keeping it submerged is one way to do it.
Any ohter ideas? TIA
By the way, from the look of it, the trunk is a very large southern yellow pine, debarked. The canoe is 13 ft long, 20 inch beam and roughly a foot deep from the top of the gunwales.