Hi CRH.
Just by way of background, I have built several strip-build kayaks over the years and have performed various levels of refinishing including removing all the glass.
I also took a look at your pictures.
First, pulling all the glass off is a lot of work and has a lot of potential for damage and introducing other new defects. Candidly, when I looked at your pictures, your canoe looked very nice and did not strike me as being at the point where I would take the hassle and risk of pulling the glass off. I really could not see anything that looked bad. So I am assuming that perhaps, compared to the inside (which you did not include a picture of) the wood may have faded a bit. But when I am thinking of glass removal, I am usually in a situation where the glass itself is in pretty bad shape (multiple repairs, seeing the weave becoming white, water damage, etc.)…or I want to take a finish that is natural, and potentially stain it for a whole new look.
That said, if you insist, a heat gun would be my initial choice. But because your canoe is a natural color, you have to be very very careful to not burn or otherwise discolor the wood due to heat. Second alternative would be 80 or 60 grit sanding…..but that has its challenges as well….but burning and discoloration are not one of them. Frankly, I would leave it alone or build a test panel and try both techniques. I have never stripped a natural wood colored boat that looked so nice….i stripped a boat that had a dark stain applied and I was able to re-stain as part of the restoration which made any new defects disappear. In stripping and refinishing, also, you often lose somewhere between a ½ to 1 millimeter of wood thickness when you sanded it all out to clean underlying wood…..so you do need to ensure you have enough wood to support that. on the boat I fully stripped and re-glassed I started with ¼ thickness….so I had a lot of material to work with.
Second, it doesn’t look like you have a glass problem based on the picture. If the wood has sun-faded, you will have to experiment to see how much you have to sand to get back to the color you wanted (not the note above regarding losing ½ to 1 mm of thickness). If somehow the issues is the varnish and not the underlying wood, maybe no stripping of glass is required.
Anyway, I guess what I am saying is that you might want to consider leaving it alone……but if you want to proceed, I would try to organize some experiments (test panels and/or maybe on the bottom of the boat) to sort out what’s going to work or not before going all in.
fwiw, Mark N, who also is on this forum a lot builds strip kayaks with a natural finish and i would also seek his counsel as you are exploring this question.
Beautiful boat.
Regards,
H
below is picture of some of my work
