Al,
To answer your question about stain, Morris did stain canoes but after all of the years of oxidation and other possible insults, there is no way to know what that stain looked like originally. Over the years, people have attempted to replicate the Morris stain, but given the fact that we can't know what it looked like originally and any stain muddies up the beauty of that aged wood's patina, I personally avoid stain except to match new wood to old. This isn't aimed at any particular person or canoe, but I personally have never seen a stained canoe that looked nearly as beautiful as an unstained one. The wood simply looks muddy; the character of the aged wood and its grain are obscured. What you do is up to you, of course, but I wouldn't dare stain a beautiful old canoe.
That said, Morris canoes suffer from mismatched mahogany- either multiple species or sapwood and heartwood are often mixed in Morris canoes, and often right next to each other such as different parts of a single seat frame. Morris is generally know for quality work, but this doesn't represent the height of quality. I've often thought that perhaps Morris stained to get away with mixed wood, or else he got away with this because he stained. You could use dyes (not pigment stains which will muddy wood and highlight the open grain of mahogany terribly) to even out the different woods if you wish, but staining the whole canoe? Not for me.
Michael
