building my canoe

[WhichDoctor]

Considering this is the first i have ever made i think im doing pretty well

Bloody hell man, that is incredible! :You_Rock_ :notworthy . I cant wait to see it finished, I've no doubt it will work grate.

Its got a good shape so far, having a flatish bottom and curved sides will make it quite stable.

You've gone and set me off now, got to have a go at that coracle I've been wonting to make for years .

 

[torjusg]

I think I want to get the book if it is still in sale. But I have heard something about the Iroquis making permanent canoes of spruce bark, if you find that and scan it for me I would be most grateful!
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The only mention I have read about spruce canoes are in this book. I have quite a few on Native Americans way of life and artifacts and I can't remember seeing any mention of this. there was also an article on birchbark canoes in the Wooden Boat magazine, i think I have got it somewhere, if you want some photos. I can fish it out and scan.

From the book: There is ample evidence to support the belief that many of the tribes also used temporary canoes of other bark such as elm and spruce. Invariably the quality of these other barks, particularly spruce were such that their use was often more laborious and the results less satisfactory than with birch..... but with care spruce bark could be used to build a canoe almost as good as one of birch bark.

So it must be possible to build a good spruce bark canoe but it may well take more time and effort to get a good result. It seems it was a fairly common occurence than in need people did use whatever was available.
I had a quick look on amazon.com and the book is available .

Yeah, I found it. Thanks, I would be very interested in seing those photos.

I really need to experiment with different types of boats, because the birch bark is however not as poor as in the UK, very much of borderline quality when it comes to make canoes.

So my primitive alternatives pretty much are:
- Skin currach (which probably was what was most frequently used in this part of Europe).
- Spruce or elm bark canoe.

My dilemma is that I would rather use those skins for something else than wasting them on a boat.

A solution could be to make one season lasting spruce or elm bark canoes. Not particulary ecological, but in the old days (with fewer people) they could do that without having a too bad conscience. I will test both once again, but for now I have to settle with my small coracle. But I wouldn't dare crossing a lake in it.

Dugouts don't fit into the semi nomadic lifestyle that you would expect in my area.

 

[jojo]

I'll hunt for that magazine! I have seen photos of birch bark canoes, both made of single large pieces of bark, but equally, I think it is possible to build a canoe using small pieces, a sort of patchwork! using good bits of bark. Obviously I am not likely to be able to put this to the test, birch bark here is as rare as a hen's teeth . Have a look at this two sites.
http://www.jumaka.com/birchbarkcanoe/materialspage/materials.htm
http://www.birchbarkcanoe.net/default.htm

Also in the book, there are drawing for Umiaks, alaskan whaling boats, sort of fairly similar to Curraghs. There is no reason why a smaller version of these could not be built.

 

[torjusg]

I'll hunt for that magazine! I have seen photos of birch bark canoes, both made of single large pieces of bark, but equally, I think it is possible to build a canoe using small pieces, a sort of patchwork! using good bits of bark. Obviously I am not likely to be able to put this to the test, birch bark here is as rare as a hen's teeth . Have a look at this two sites.
http://www.jumaka.com/birchbarkcanoe/materialspage/materials.htm
http://www.birchbarkcanoe.net/default.htm

Also in the book, there are drawing for Umiaks, alaskan whaling boats, sort of fairly similar to Curraghs. There is no reason why a smaller version of these could not be built.

Thank you very much! Excellent links. But I still think these people have a lot better material on their hands than I can ever hope to find. The thickest bark I have found is about 0,5cm and theirs look like it's at least double of that. But it may be worth a go. I have heard of canoes built of up to 9 sheets of bark, but I think I may need more.

 

[jojo]

You are right, they get really the best materials. I gather the bark Henri Vaillancourt uses is something like up to1/4", 6mm thick, he is one of the very best builder of bark canoes. But if you can get 5mm bark, that's pretty good too! you should not have much problem using it to make a canoe.

 

[jon r]

my hand is much better today!

Should have some more pics by the end of the day!

 

[leon-b]

looking forward to seeing the pics
leon

 

[jon r]

i didnt manage to take any pics but i can tell you that i only have 6 more ribs to make. Then i just have to fit them all

 

[leon-b]

are you planning to use this canoe alot or every now and then
leon

 

[jon r]

well im guessing that im really going to like paddling across my local lakes! so proberbly quite often especially in the summer!

 

[pierre girard]

first i thought about boiling the ribs to make them bend and i even had a go. However that turned out to be too much of a faf

So instead i cut the hazel fresh, made the ribs and managed to bend them without the majority snapping I just very gently trained them to take a bend.
Then i tied both ends of the ribs together so that they kept their shape. Finally i dried the ribs up against my radiator (amazingly they didnt crack!) When they were totaly dry after a day or 2 later i took the strings off and they kept their shape!

And there you have it, a rib!

However i think now im going to use boiling water and a towel to bend the rest to get them just the right shape.

Any questions please ask because it helps me too!

Not sure it would work the same with hazel, but when I bend ribs for birchbark canoes, I split them green, from cedar, and bend them, two at a time, over my knee. Bending two together seems to keep them from cracking. For the birchbark canoes, it is best to have two (roughly) 90 degree bends giving you a flat bottom to your canoe.

JoJo said: "I scanned these drawings from "The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America". There are dozens of drawings from Native American canoes from various tribe, ans weel as skin boats from the arctic. It s a real useful resource book. That's the book I used when I built my canoes. can scan more pages if you are after something specific and it's in there."

An excellent book. The last birchbark canoe I built was off lines from one of the Ojibwe canoes in the Chapelle book.

As to bark: The best bark is about 1/8 inch and pliable. 1/4 inch bark is easy to come by here, but it does not make good canoe covering, as it is too stiff and likely to crack. The best bark is usually about four to six feet off the ground and is seldom more than four feet in length. Making a canoe from multiple pieces is not the hard to do and often produces a superior canoe - in spite of what Gidmark says. Finding a long enough piece of good bark to build a whole canoe out of one piece of bark is almost impossible today. I usually cut three foot by four foot pieces, flatten them between a couple of pallets, and place stones on top of the upper pallet until they dry flat. It usually takes seven of these pieces, plus six half pieces on either side of the "belly" of the canoe, to complete the canoe covering for a 15 or 16 foot canoe.

 

[jon r]

I was talking to a man the other day and i showed him my canoe. he thinks ive done a great job on it but he thinks i could do with a keel on the ends. what do you think?

 

[jojo]

I asume what he meant was to add stem pieces as in the drawings I posted the other day? Yes you could do that and it would lenghten the waterline length of your canoe and make it more directionally stable and add to the stability, simply because it would give more volume in the end of the boat. Depending on how far you have got now, it may be worth it and would mean cutting tne middle line stringer you already have and add a more sharply curved piece, just like in the drawing and fitting the ribs accordingly. Or you can keep it as it is, slighly less volume, but makes the canoe more manoeuverable. Have a look here: http://www.arctickayaks.com/Lines/LinesNorthAlaskaRetrievalUMN-N.pdf
That's the lines I used to build my daughter's little kayak, it is about the same size as yours and it has got fairly similar forward hull lines to your canoe, its very manoeuverable and turns on a sixpence. I am thinking of building a longer 12ft version, that's when I get time! Iam going to sell the little one, my daughter is no longer interested in boats and it's too small for me, although I have used it!

 

[torjusg]

Not sure it would work the same with hazel, but when I bend ribs for birchbark canoes, I split them green, from cedar, and bend them, two at a time, over my knee. Bending two together seems to keep them from cracking. For the birchbark canoes, it is best to have two (roughly) 90 degree bends giving you a flat bottom to your canoe.

JoJo said: "I scanned these drawings from "The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America". There are dozens of drawings from Native American canoes from various tribe, ans weel as skin boats from the arctic. It s a real useful resource book. That's the book I used when I built my canoes. can scan more pages if you are after something specific and it's in there."

An excellent book. The last birchbark canoe I built was off lines from one of the Ojibwe canoes in the Chapelle book.

As to bark: The best bark is about 1/8 inch and pliable. 1/4 inch bark is easy to come by here, but it does not make good canoe covering, as it is too stiff and likely to crack. The best bark is usually about four to six feet off the ground and is seldom more than four feet in length. Making a canoe from multiple pieces is not the hard to do and often produces a superior canoe - in spite of what Gidmark says. Finding a long enough piece of good bark to build a whole canoe out of one piece of bark is almost impossible today. I usually cut three foot by four foot pieces, flatten them between a couple of pallets, and place stones on top of the upper pallet until they dry flat. It usually takes seven of these pieces, plus six half pieces on either side of the "belly" of the canoe, to complete the canoe covering for a 15 or 16 foot canoe.

Excellent info there Pierre!

 

[jojo]

Found one of the Woodenboat mag. That's some of the photos in the article.

That shows those bark canoes are quite strong.

That bark is 23feet long by 54" wide

 

[jon r]

thats a nice birch bark canoe! :notworthy

Great info there jojo! thanks!

 

[jon r]

This is how far i am now!

Just got to fill that gap with 4 more ribs! The only problem is that i need to wait for the ribs to dry before i fit them propperly, and all this fog in the air isnt helping! I took it in the house but i could only manage to get it into the coldest room in the house! Typical!

Im hoping to finish making the ribs today!

 

[spamel]

You've picked a funny time of year to make it if you want it to dry out!



It's looking good, I really can't wait to see the finished article. This has inspired me to have a go aswell, I may have to wait till next year though when I get back to UK, but it would be a great project for the summer months with all that daylight!

 

[jon r]

It's really taking shape now! All ribs are made and just need fitting propperly!

 

[leon-b]

very nice, how are you going to keep the ribs in place ?
leon