Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. |
Boy I don't know what's harder on you, ice fishing for two days in a row, with all the manual effort involved. Or cleaning up, fixing, organizing and patching everything you either broke or seen needed attention while you were fishing for the two days. Blame my type (A) personality again for constantly looking for ways to improve things that have to be done and quickly fixing things that need to be done.
Sunday was the first time I fished in my Otter Skin shanty, where the snow was wet and heavy and finally turned into a constant drizzle. I've never owned a shanty that didn't leak somewhat where the seams are sewed together. Lets face it, water will always find a way to seep through. I fixed my old vinyl Shappel by simply running a bead of Dow Corning clear silicone along the seams, but with the canvas of the Otter, that wasn't going to work to well.
Started out heading to the Ace hardware and bought a can of Scotch Guard to spray the entire outside. I made the big mistake of actually touching the canvas from the inside, while trying to flip the heavy snow off the top. Anybody who knows canvas, knows not to touch it from the inside, because then she leaks right through the fabric where you touched it.
Then it came to me. We used to have an old army tent from when my Dad, Brother and I went on fishing or hunting trips. Every year dad would go buy and smear Bee's Wax into the seams and smooth it out with his thumb. The touching the inside of the canvas still applied, but never seemed to leaked at the seams. They still make Bee's wax for toilet seals, so I picked up one, about $1.80 + Tax. Went on real smooth and virtually disappears when I rubbed it in. Hope it works as good as I remember.
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Sealing Portable Shanty Seam Leaks.
Let us know how that wax works out.