Building Birchbark Canoes

[PG]

No great plan, but hope lac Superior Exploration Co. members will
consider digging some watape on the Oct. 22 trip - a start anyway. We
will need about 30 pounds (if memory serves) per canoe. I will get out
and dig some too before the snow flies. I'll make some more maple
sticks for stripping watape bark.

Tuesday I'm going to my father's to cut a 21 foot ash log. I'm hoping
we won't have to use ash for gunwales, but it is a good wood for it -
though heavier. Just in case.

Our other option is to scarf two pieces of cedar together. I don't -
at this time - have access to cedar longer than 100 inch. Maybe it is
something we could be on the lookout for. We will need about 12 foot
logs or boards and it will have to be straight grained - a tall order
for white cedar.

Scarfing is not a bad idea and might work well enough now that there
are quality waterproof glues on the market. Watape wrapping would
obscure the fact that the gunwales are scarfed.

For ribs I have about a cord of cedar logs and access to another cord
- really large logs - if I can just get time to pick it up.
These will have to be split, not sawn, to form the ribs.

I'll look to my form over the winter and see if it can be resurrected.
I'm hoping LSEC will spring for materials to build more forms (if
needed), and clamps (small C-clamps should do it). I'm envisioning
(hoping for) four canoes going together at once. More conducive to
getting something done for a work crew. With Robert Noveu's canoe -
that should be enough to get us anywhere. Don't recall more members
than that showing up for anything.

I have a form for the bow pieces and will split cedar and bend the bow
and stern pieces over the winter.

Hoping several of us can go visit Ray Boesell in Big Fork with a
notebook, write down everything he says and keep our eyes open on
construction methods etc. It's been a while since I've messed with
this, and you forget. Ray has built somewhere around 300 bark canoes
and knows more about it than most anyone. We will also need to
arrange for purchase of commercial pitch. I refuse to use real pitch
on this. My cousin uses real pitch, and we'd be re-calking the canoes
everytime we went out. Ray should be able to steer us in the right
direction.

There are several books available - noteably those by Gidmark and
Adney/Chapelle - which give information on building bark canoes.
Hopefully several of the members will get time to read them over the
winter. I will attempt to put up some of this information on the
website and maybe in the files section of the website.

June and July will be the most important work detail. It is crucial
that we get out and harvest bark. I was hoping we could do at least
two weekend gatherings to harvest bark. If we can get 10 members out
each time and really work at getting bark - we should have enough plus
plenty left over to give us some choice as to quality. The bark
should be right around 1/8th inch thick - no thinner, no thicker, and
it can't be the type that de-laminates. I will check and see if we can
camp near the harvest area (doubt it will be a problem). I don't
suppose you are familiar with the bark harvesting tools traded by
NWCo? If it were possible to make a few - it might help us enormously.
We will also need light weight ladders.

We should discuss whether we need to make pole ladders or if we can be
flexible enough to use aluminum ladders. They need to be light as we
will be hauling them a long ways in the woods. We need ladders
because the desirable bark is usually at least ten feet off the
ground. Someone suggested we wait until the logger cuts them. That
won't work. This fella uses a feller buncher and it marks up the
bark. Also, if the tree is felled for even a day, the bark becomes
much harder to remove. If we harvest while the trees are standing, in
June or July, the bark will pop almost before we make our cut.

Each piece of bark will have to be rolled on site - inside out and
will have to be placed in a dry area to be flattened out as they dry
(probably at my place). I was thinking between pallets with heavy
rocks placed on top. Members should bring tumps to tote rolls out of
the woods. We should also have plenty of bug dope as it gets pretty
fierce for bugs that time of year. Sorry, my period correctness
doesn't extend to getting eaten alive.

We will have to look at time available in August and September to
begin building.

I'd imagine we will have to finish in the spring. I'm thinking 16
foot canoes as our loads are generally larger than what historical
Ojibwe would carry.

Hopefully we will have four new canoes for trips by late next summer -
or next fall.

Pierre

[intrepidcamper]

If you need more help I can lend a hand. I've never worked on a canoe, but do make baskets of pounded black ask splint, birch bark containers, willow baskets and cattail rush items. V.

[PG]

Do you have good wrists. The most demanding part of the job is pulling the 80 plus watape gunwale wraps and holding them taut as you're doing so. Good way to get carpel tunnel problems.

Splitting the ribs from cedar logs is similar to ash splits, except you need to always split from the middle of your piece and work it to make sure neither side gets too thin.

Will let you know when we are ready to get going on it. Had hoped to get started collecting watape this fall, but doubt I'll be able due to other tasks.

PG

[Dan L]

Hey P,

If you haven't already found it, checkout the WCHA site,
www.wcha.org/birchbark.html
they also have members who build BB and include info on the site.

And a question, you mentioned having to make additional forms, what are they for?? stems or ??

I thought (remembered?) that BB weren't built over a form like W/C, but that the bark is just "pulled up" into shape and then the planking and ribs inserted later.

Either way, keep us posted as to your progress, and take pics.

Dan

[PG]

Rather than "forms" I should say work tables. These are just 3/4 plywood reinforced with 2 inch stock where the uprights that form the shape of the canoe are pegged. The uprights also hold the gunwales in place.

BB canoes can be built on a sand bed too, but it requires a lot more bending over - and i'm not that fond of bending over or kneeling in the dirt.

Just more likely to get a consistent product when their is some continuity to the table or "form" or whatever.

PG

[PG]

Dan:

The upper right hand photo in the website you listed shows Ray Boesell, of Hafeman Boat Works, paddling one of his canoes.

PG

[intrepidcamper]

Yes, I do have good wrists...yet. Same kind of work goes on in making baskets. I have often wondered about collecting Spruce root from Spruce which have tipped over recently in a wind storm. Occasionally you see several Spruce tipped over because the Loggers have cut the rest of the forest behind them, leaving a strip along the road as "buffer zone". Once the trees behind are logged there is nothing to prevent the wind from blowing the ones left down. I have never actually got up to these trees to inspect the possibility of getting roots to work with from them. Any thoughts on this?

[Dan L]

P,

Yes, I know. BTW, here is a link to a plac ethat sells a short movie of Bill making a BB canoe.
www.buyindies.com/listings/4/1/AIMS-4162.html