Cesar's Bark Canoe/Cesar et son Canoe d'ecorce

[timtom1]

Doe anybody know if this video is any good?

Cesar's Bark Canoe/Cesar et son Canoe d'ecorce

and also if it is where I can get a PAL uk version I can't seem to find it on the National Film Board of Canada website?

 

[Calypso]

I think it's a good video. If you enjoyed the Ray Mears programme making a birch bark canoe this one will complement it. It starts with the maker (a 67 year old Cree Indian) selecting a birch tree, felling it and removing the bark. The process of making the canoe varies in several details and the canoe is then beautifully decorated. There is no narration but there are some subtitles to let you know what's going on. These are not only in English but French and Cree Indian too!

I have seen it in Canoe shops. I'm sot sure where you are in the North West but try contacting Carlise Canoes. If they don't have it they might be able to order it for you.

Good luck!

 

[torjusg]

I also love the Ray Mears Bushcraft dvds. Excellent stuff. Your motivation is unknown to me, but if you plan on learning how to make a canoe, this video is strongly recommended. I learned how to make a spruce canoe (a crude one though) in one of the latest issues of the "Bulletin of Primitive Technology", using the book "Building a Birchbark Canoe" by David Gidmark for additional reference.

My motivation for using spruce bark instead of birch bark was (and it may apply to you as well):
- Big spruces are easy to find. Good birch bark is difficult to find, even in Norway.
- If I used birch bark I would probably have to use smaller sheets to cover the entire hull.
- Destroying a bark sheet by a beginner's mistake isn't that much of a disaster when you use an easily replaced spruce bark sheet.

One picture from the construction can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/torjusg/kanobygging.jpeg

Torjus Gaaren