Coracle Instructions

[Teej84]

Hello all!

Newbie here thought I would give you all a big hello as I plan to on these forums a lot! I have a few projects that I want to do to improve my bushcraft skills and I hope you guys can give me hints and tips on how to get them done.

I would also like to personally thank all those people who have taken the time to send in some fantastic articles that a long with a couple of books have been my entire schooling on bushcraft!

I am now looking to go big and attempt to make a coracle. This has been a dream of mine for a while and after meeting a nice bloke who let me use his this summer my desire has been greatened.

I have read several threads on these forums but infortunately there are no proper instructions! Does anyone have any? I have been tempted to try it by eye but as its my first one I am not sure whether its a good idea or not!

Let me know what you guys think!

Teej

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Ewe for the edges,willow for the webbing and a tarp for the drum shape.

Nick

 

[Teej84]

Thanks Nick for your reply,

have found a few more bits and bobs around on the internet to give me a hand but nothing really decent I guess it will be up to me to do, perhaps a video! I am going to scout around this weekend for a decent source of willow I am fortunate to have two different local woods with permission to play!

Came across Hannu's Boatyard just and it seems to have plenty of decent little boats and how to make them but the coracle is from plywood so I am still searching.
http://personal.eunet.fi/pp/gsahv/#XX7

Failing willow are there and other types of wood that would be acceptable?

Any other feedback on this would be good!

TJ

 

[Ogri the trog]

Ewe for the edges
Nick

Are you sure Nick,
I've heard of a bull-boat but never one made from a sheep

TJ,
making one by eye is probably the better way as you're likely to learn more under your own trial and error, than build one to instructions and not thinking about why certain features are included or omitted.

And welcome to the forum too.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[John Fenna]

Try contacting the National Coracle Centre Carmarthenshire - www.coracle-centre. co.uk - it is just down the road from me and was a great help when I wrote an article on Bull boats many years ago.

 

[KIMBOKO]

Just Googled it and found that a Mr. Terry Kenny sells coracles in various finishes, courses and plans (£5).

http://members.aol.com/rainbowkenny/sales.htm

Nick P

 

[jojo]

There is a thread here somewhere when Torjug made something like that, but you'll need to search for it. Welcome to BCUK.

 

[nickg]

Terry Kenny, I believe, teaches coracle making on a weekend up at ironbridge in shropshire - used to be called the greenwood trust - think its still going. I believe that he uses wet ash laths a couple of mm thick and painted canvas.

Yep here you go
http://www.greenwoodcentre.org.uk/10Oct2008-IronbridgeCoraclesShortCourse19-20April2008.php

Good Luck
I always fancied this course myself

Cheers
Nick

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

'River Cottage' had a chap doing it with Hugh, the presenter.

Nick

 

[Teej84]

Hey thanks to everyone for their posts,

John Fenna - unfortunately it looks like the museum's website is down even when I adjusted its url maybe if they fix it in a few weeks i'll have another look.

Jojo - I have looked at torjugs posts there are some brilliant photos there!

everyone else - Thanks for your interest I will keep you updated here on progress

I am heading down to one of my haunts this weekend spoken to some guys who recon there will be just what I need if i 'go deep enough!' hope they weren't just having a laugh!

I may work on making a type of shaving horse down in the woods to make things quicker this weekend esp since it is a private woods and there isn't much of a problem with vandals. (its in a urban area!) I will also locate the materials I want to use and then next weekend crack on with it. Think I am going to go for a Teifi coracle!

Will try and video as much of the building process as posible because there are no videos on the net as far as i could see.

Tj

 

[jojo]

Found this site with a useful photo sequence of building a Ironbridge coracle:

http://www.coraclemaker.co.uk/Building/building_an_ironbridge_coracle.htm

I am sure the details would be transferable to any models. Have fun.

 

[paulnb57]

Have a look at this from Song of the Paddle forum

http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5350

Paul