The seats...

Because the project's due date was approaching quickly, I was not able to cane my own seats, like I had wanted to. However I was able to buy pre-made seats. Even though they are made out of ash instead of white oak, the white in the ash provides a nice contrast from the red in the cedar. Now that the yoke and seats were ready to be installed, all I needed to do was to install them.

Building the Yoke

 After the gunwales were smoothed down, the next step was to build the yoke. The yoke differs from a thwart in that the yoke is used to portage the canoe while the thwart is used mainly for a third seat. I wanted to add a yoke to my canoe because I thought it would serve a better purpose. Following the plans from Chris Glad's Yoke Design, I adapted them a bit to what I wanted. Cutting the drawn out design on a band saw, I then sanded them down on a horizontal orbital sander. Then after it was sanded I routed the edges so it would have curved edges, which won't hurt my neck when I portage it, as seen below. When the yoke was finished, the next step was install it and the seats.

Sanding down the Sheer-Line

The next step was to sand down the sheer-line of the canoe. Because of the crude surface where the gunwales and the cedar sides meet, they needed to be plained smooth. First, sanding down the sides with a belt sander, I got a rough smooth sides in which I could then scrap with a cabinet scraper. The flush gunwales's sides could then be sanded down to round them out. Even though this step did not take a very long time it was necessary for the installation of the seats and thwarts.

Installation of the Gunwales

 After the decks were installed, the next step was to install the gunwales. The outwales were installed before the inwales, because I wanted the stainless steel screws facing the inside not the outside. The gunwales extended from stem to stem and after being epoxied on were screwed to the frame with 3/4" screws. The inwales were more difficult to install because they had they had to be cut down because of the decks. After cutting the correct angle with a dremmel (as seen below), the inwale was epoxied and clamped to the sheer-line of the canoe and then screwed in with two 1 1/2" stainless steel screws every scupper. The starboard (right) side was finished first and then the port (left).  The crude sheer-line of the canoe needed to be sanded down flush to ensure a smooth curve.