Otter Canoes

Welcome!

I create unique canoes and other canoe-themed items for display. Take a look at the canoe mantels section and the lighted canoe display!

The cedar-strip canoe mantels are all custom and range from five to eight feet long, or longer. The finishes can be satin or gloss, and there’s a removable shelf with a hidden compartment.

Featured Pages

Canoe Mantels

Canoe Mantels can be made custom sized. They are constructed with cedar and redwood in the same fashion as a full sized cedar strip canoe. This 5 footer has walnut trim. Finishes can be buffed to high-gloss. A 7 footer is getting a semi-gloss finish. This 8.5 footer is one of the largest ones I’ve made so far. Another shot of the gloss finish on […]

Canoes

I’ve been building canoes for 30+ years starting with cedar strippers. I love the beauty of the wood, especially blending different wood species. My hobby evolved into building cold-molded canoes. Although it was time consuming to create a mold, it cut way down on production time of each canoe. To keep the canoe light, a foam core is vacuum bagged into place. The result is a very […]

Lighted Canoe Display

This lighted display can be customized for many different effects. It doesn’t show up very well, but only the text and the fake snow lights up. It really pops!  

Canoe Repair

Repairing foam core canoes requires some special techniques. This one had several gashes where water had soaked into the core causing delamination. The damaged area has to be extracted and new foam inserted. The new foam has to be laminated in place, and all voids filled. New Carbon Fiber has to be laminated over the area overlapping the repair. Good as new! Well, almost…

This four foot lighted sign could display your logo, bar name, or whatever you wish.