See the August "Wooden Boat" article on canoe building. It goes into detail about finishing a canvas/wood plank canoe. They use mitts to rub the talc filled paint into the weave of the canvas.

I've used gloved hands, squeegees and rollers. There are times when one is better than the other. I use hands on weird angles like the bow and stern keels, especially when there's a slight concavity. I use rollers some, to spread the stuff on initially, and a squeegee on large areas of relatively flat surface.

Wynne Americus, GA

> Not exactly...I simply was making a distinction between wood and canvas
> canoes and kayaks. The fabric on a canoe is completely supported by
> planking. A kayaks skin is only supported by the longitudinals.

> Thurlow rubs the filler into the fabric to develop a hard slick surface.
> I've had better luck on kayaks with building up two layers of filler on
> the surface a la Geo. Putz in his book "Wood and Canvas Kayaks".

> Until I read Putz's book, I was of the "keep it very flexible"
> school of canvas finishing. My current project is my first using his hard
> finish techniques. I'll report back when I've had the boat in the water.