Please read the Legal Disclaimer.

Building a (simple) seat frame

For starters, just in case you have more money than time, you can buy replacement seats direct from the manufacturer, from a number of catalogues, or from your local paddle shop. These "factory" parts aren't all that expensive and will be so easy to install that you are guaranteed to learn absolutely nothing about canoe construction or repair while replacing the old seat.

Manufactured wooden seat frames are held together with a biscuit (or two) at each joint. Since you don't own a biscuit cutter and would undoubtedly screw up the measurements so that the frame would not align properly, we'll be building a simpler version that needs no special tools or skills. This has nothing to do with my not having any special tools or skills, it is your ineptitude we're focusing on here damn it.

Seat Position

If you are replacing an existing seat you can simply bolt through the old holes in the inwale. If you have replaced the gunwales as part of a more major rebuild you will of course have already marked the old seat locations on the hull (see "Replacing Gunwales). If you are turning a tandem into a solo, or a solo into a tandem, or feel the need to reposition the seat locations to better accommodate your enormous, spreading girth you'll need to find and mark new locations for the seat hardware.

Solo seats are most commonly positioned with the center of the seat approximately 6 to 8 inches behind the center of the canoe...7 inches seems to be a happy medium. Note that this position will interfere with the placement of a portage yoke; you can either haul the canoe around with the seat frame gouging a painful new crease across your shoulders or install a removable portage yoke. Your choice.

Placement of tandem seats is a bit trickier. If you really have no clue as to where the seats should be positioned try to find a tandem canoe of similar dimensions and install your new seats in more-or-less the same position. If you can't find a canoe of similar dimensions you must be spending too much time paddling with kayakers.

Seat Position (more)

Unless you are using existing holes in the gunwales, where an old seat was removed, it is critical to assure that the new seat be installed perfectly perpendicular to the keel line. Before you drill the first new hole through the inwale - measure, measure, measure. Measure from the tip of the bow stem and stern stem back to the place you want the hole on the inwale. Measure back from the thwarts to the hole position. Measure from every fixed point you can think of. Do this on both sides. If the measurements aren't coming out to within 1/16 inch on each side you need to stop, have a beer and think about this. Check your math, stupid.

Ok, got the hole positions marked for perfect perpendicularity along the gunwale line? Good, now mark a spot on the center of the inwale before you drill a hole. Center of the INWALE, not the gunwale! Measure the depth of the inwale and divide that in half; if you use 1/2 the gunwale width your hole will not be center on the inwale, now will it? Mark this hole location and check to make certain that the finish washer you'll be using doesn't protrude over the edge of the inwale; if it does, step the location back towards the center of the gunwale a bit until it fits without overlap.

Don't drill the holes yet. Cut the wood for the frame first.

The Frame (ripping & sanding)

Since you are building a new seat frame you have considerable latitude at this point over the dimensions of the frame. Do you want the new frame platform wider than normal? Deeper? Do you want the seat frame equipped with a 12-volt battery and a "magic fingers massage" feature for those long paddling days? Now is the time to decide.

A standard wood seat frame will be constructed of ash, ripped anywhere from 1 3/8" to 1 1/2" wide. Ripping a piece of 1x8x36 ash (or other hardwood) will supply you with sufficient wood for a couple of seat frames and drops, with some pieces left over in case you screw up. So let 'er rip.

Take your freshly ripped lengths of framing wood and bevel off the edges. A quarter-round router will do this nicely. If you don't have access to a router knock the edges down with something: sander, drawshave, lots of 50-grit sandpaper and elbow grease, whatever. Once you have the edges knocked down sand the whole piece nice and smooth. Now sand it some more. Little more. Once you think you have it smooth enough, go back and sand on it for a while longer, all the while muttering to yourself "Christ, I shoulda just bought a replacement seat from Old Town".

Ok, stop sanding. Are we having fun yet? Now that you have your smooth-as-a-baby's-butt framing material ready - before you drill any holes or make any cuts - carefully lay out the framing pieces across the hull, centered atop the marks you made for the inwale holes. Step back and take a look. Does it all appear to be on the square? Even-steven? Walk around to the other end. Still look good? If everything looks properly spaced and perpendicular to the keel line you may have a future in canoe repair. Keep your day job though.

The Frame (sizing & cutting the laterals)

Time to cut the framing pieces to fit. Start with the longest piece needed first. Since each piece will likely be a different length, with an angle cut on the end to accommodate the changing shape of the gunwale line, this is a tricky business. And since ash is expensive, and you've already spent untold hours sanding those pieces, and you've screwed up jobs like this before....what say we take a piece of scrap pine or other junk wood and cut a template first? Atta boy! Fetch me a beer before you get started.

Rip a piece of scrap wood to the same dimensions as your nice smooth ash. Take this template and lay it in position across the gunwales, centered atop those perfect hole locations. Remember how you determined the depth of the inwale? Mark the angle of the inwale line/hull line on your template.

Cut the template piece along that line. Stick it in the boat, more or less at the depth where it will be hung. How is the fit? Remember, just like the thwarts the seat frame should not fully span the hull; leave 1/8' of clearance on each side of allow some room for the boat to flex without banging the seat frame against the hull.

If the hull has significant tumblehome the template piece may need to be a bit longer. For hulls will continuous flare the piece may need to be a bit shorter. Use this template to cut the longest piece of oh-so-smooth ash framing and check the fit; you can use a couple of popsicle sticks to fill the 1/8" gap on each side. You'll know you have achieved a perfect fit when you begin softly chanting "Custom work, just custom" (if this is a French-Canadian hull you may alternatively chant "Sans peur et sans reproche").

OK, now you can drill those holes through the inwale. Us a drill bit the same diameter as the stainless steel machine screws you'll be using to hang the frame and drill the hole through the inwale on your marks. Watch your vertical angle as you drill this hole.

Clamp the lateral pieces in place on your marks; don't worry about the seat drops yet, just clamp 'em in tight to the gunwale (underneath if they are small enough to fit, on top if they are wider than the gunwales).

Take the custom template and repeat all of the above for the next longest piece of ash framing. Since each piece will be a wee bit smaller than the last you'll be able to resize the template for each piece. Size it, cut it, chant it ("Custom, just custom") and clamp it into place.

Nice work, all of the lateral pieces are properly sized and clamped in place against the gunwale. Custom.

The Frame (sizing & cutting the rest of the frame)

Ok, lets knock out the rest of the seat frame. Having already decided how wide you want to build the seat platform all that is needed is to install the short pieces to span the laterals. On a manufactured seat these short pieces sit flush between the laterals, held in place with a biscuit or two at each joint. We're gonna build this one sans biscuit (or, in French "without petit four"), using four 2" stainless steel machine screws and four stainless steel wood screws per seat frame.

Take one of the remaining lengths of ash framing and cut two pieces to size so that they fully span the clamped in laterals of the frame, from outer edge to outer edge. Position these atop the laterals where you want them for the desired platform size and mark the locations on both pieces. Check your measurments to make certain that everyting is evenly spaced. Drill a hole the same diameter as the 2" stainless machine screws and bolt these pieces in place ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SEAT FRAME. Use a stainless finish washer on the top of the flathead machine screw, and a lock washer and nut (or cap nut) on the bottom.

Now cut another piece of ash to fill the void along the top of the seat platform, this smaller piece should fit snuggly between the laterals, making the top of the seat platform flush and level all the way around. Screw these in place atop the piece that spans the bottom of the seat frame with countersunk stainless wood screws.

Yeah, baby...that is a sturdy seat frame. Custom. Unclamp the now rigid seat frame from the gunwales and use a file or power sander to round off the leading edge on the lateral-spanning bottom piece so that it doesn't whack the back of your calf when you tuck your feet under the seat.

Now that you've done all that careful work, take the whole damn thing apart. If you are smart you'll mark the pieces so you know which one goes where during re-assembly. Stain the pieces (good opportunity for custom stain color here, especially if you have already custom stained the thwarts....Rosewood looks nice...or Ebony...). Varnish it. Let it dry, lightly sand it and re-varnish it. Repeat until you have at least 3 coats of varnish on. Put the frame back together, filing the protruding machine screws off flush with the nuts or install cap nuts.

Sweet. Now you hang the seat at the proper level.

Hanging the Seat

The seat can be hung with four small seat hangers made from the scraps of ash you have remaining. Determine how far the seat should be suspended from the gunwale (again, hang them as deep as they originally were...if you don't know check the position of seats in a similar hull, etc).

If you want the seat to be suspended three inches cut 4 three inch lengths of leftover ash and drill out a hole length-wise through the center to accommodate the flathead machine screw you'll be using as hanging hardware. Since this machine screw will be passing through the gunwale, the 3" suspension piece and the seat frame you'll need screws that are 2" longer than the suspension depth (ie, a 5" machine screw for a 3" seat drop)

Cut your suspension pieces to length. Do you want to cant the seat frame? If so, cut the front suspension pieces an inch or so longer than the back pieces and work out the angle you'll need to make the bottom of the suspension piece sit flush against the seat frame.

Stain 'em. Varnish 'em. Sand 'em. Varnish 'em again...You should have done this back when you were staining and varnishing the seat frames, but you didn't completely read the directions first, did you?

(BTW - the longest stainless steel flathead machine screws you are gonna find are 6", so your seat drop better not exceed 4" or you've got trouble. If you find 7" or 8" stainless steel flathead machine screws buy some for me; I need at least four.)

Put a stainless steel finish washer on the machine screw and drop it through the hole in the gunwale. Slip the dangling machine screw through the seat hanger ash piece. So that this assemble doesn't fall off while you are futzing with the seat frame, cut a rubber fender washer shape from an old inner tube so it will fit tightly over the end of the machine screw. This tight rubber washer will keep the hangers securely in place for now and will also help to eliminate the god awful squeaking noise that new seats tend to emit.

Position the seat under the hangers and check to see that the frame still has adequate clearance from the hull on each side. Look good? Looks custom! Drill the holes through the seat frame to accommodate the machine screws, stick on lock washers and nuts and tighten everything up.

Now take the seat back out and install webbing (see Repairing Cane Seats with Webbing). I especially like that tartan pattern of alternating black, hot orange and fuchsia webbing...now that is custom. Garish, but custom.

Once the webbing has been installed bolt that sucker in place with a lock washer and nut, filing any protruding bit of machine screw flush or using cap nuts to protect your ankles. Now go out paddling, you deserve it.

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