Canoe building plan

More Woods Packs to restore

A few weeks back, happened to get a an email from a blog reader Mike E who informed me of a local paddling legend selling off most of his tripping gear. Amongst the lot were loads of Woods canvas canoe packs that had accompanied Michael Peake and members of the Hideaway Canoe Club. Some of their journeys were sponsored by Woods Canada in the 80s & 90s and these humble canvas packs have been used on dream Northern River trips down the Thelon, the Head, the Coppermine among others.

Anyway, these well used and abused packs were being offered at very reasonable prices. Ended up picking up 3 to work on and restore much like the Woods 200 done many years ago.

The pack in best condition was a later era Woods 200 with darker olive canvas. Thinner material than older ones but still sturdy enough. It was missing its tump and had a large repairable tear by the one tump buckle anchor as well as a growing hole on the front. The leather components were dried out but salvageable






Another 200 pack had much more sturdy canvas but was missing a buckle in the front as well as compromised leather. Almost all the original rivets had failed and had been replaced with bolts and nuts. Figured these would be simple to remove in order to replace the leather and do a complete "makeover".




The last pack was a Woods 100 that had been sent back to Woods Canada for repairs (back when they would do this). Tiny pinholes in the canvas were sewn up and reinforced, a corner patch added to the bottom and all the leather components replaced. Of the three this one looks to be in best shape since it could be used right away and came with a tump strap.




Slowly going to start restoring these over the summer