Deck seam clean out

[oldwoodboats]

I'm refinishing my 1942 U 22 and need to clean out the original deck seams before staining and varnishing.

A search of this This forum and others ( and no doubt my stack of old Wooden Boats, etc) identify many techniques; a hand scraper with a 1/8" blade; a circular saw - with a guide strip for every seam; a small 1/8" router also using a guide strip; a Fein multimaster with some kind of special blade ( I have an older Fein but not the special blade as best I can tell from this forum); and probably more

Would appreciate posts from anyone with recent experience; the good, bad, and ugly before I dive in.
Happy New Year
Gene Porter

[jwoldeboat]

Gene,When I went to clean out the deck seams on my 21' capri I used a heat gun on the seams to warm up the seam compound and then was able to pull the seam compund out of the seams in long pieces,be careful not to get the compund too hot. I am reasonably sure that the deck seams had been re-done from original and I have no idea what was used but when warmed with the heat gun the deck seam compund became very elastic. Might be worth a try
Joe Williams

[oldwoodboats]

Thanks Joe; very helpful
Gene