Repairing the Yoke

The ends of the yoke are rotted, but the main part is still perfectly serviceable.
The ends of the yoke are rotted, but the main part is still perfectly serviceable.

The yoke is a thwart (cross piece) at the balance point of the canoe that you can rest on your shoulders when you’re portaging (carrying) the canoe.  This canoe’s yoke is made of Ash, a good hard, but rot-prone wood.  Baseball bats are made of Ash too.  At any rate,  since the main part of this beautifully carved yoke is still perfectly serviceable, an easy fix is to scarf on new ends.  Check out my previous article here more about scarf joints.

Rough cut of scarf joint is made at the bandsaw.
Rough cut of scarf joint is made at the bandsaw.

A scarf joint uses a low angle cut that gives you much more faying surface for your glue joint, making the joint much stronger than a butt joint.  The first step is to mark your angle on the old and the new pieces and make a rough cut with the band saw.

 

 

 

Tune up your cut with a block plane.
Tune up your cut with a block plane.

This cut gets tuned with a block plane until you just touch your line.

 

 

 

 

 

The feather edge shown here is key to a good scarf joint.
The feather edge shown here is key to a good scarf joint.

A feather edge on the shallow end of both pieces is key for a good fit.  Achieve this by fully supporting the shallow end and trimming with a block plane until you see the feather edge.

 

 

 

 

Tape is all that's necessary to hold the joint while the epoxy cures.
Tape is all that’s necessary to hold the joint while the epoxy cures.

Glue by wetting out the end grain on both pieces with straight epoxy until the grain no longer soaks up the epoxy.  End grain joints are susceptible to glue starvation as the glue tends to soak into the wood away from the joint.  Then glue with slightly thickened epoxy and clamp in place until cured.  Unlike white wood glue, epoxy does not need a lot of pressure to make a good glue joint.  Often you can just tape the pieces together to ensure they don’t move.

 

Carve and smooth the joint to fit the contours of the old piece.
Carve and smooth the joint to fit the contours of the old piece.

Finally, carve and smooth the joint to fit the existing piece.  Drill the holes and voila!

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