canoe maker

I was able to swing by the Toronto Outdoor Adventure Show on Sunday afternoon to catch the last 2 hours before closing. Greeting guests at the entrance was a beat-up looking, faux bark canoe to set the mood.


This canoe is actually an old cedar canvas with panels of birchbark stapled to the hull. Certainly not meant to be paddled but it was a romantic entrance to event. The thing was a total wreck but luckily there was much more canoe related stuff inside the show.


The good folks from the Canadian Canoe Museum had their booth stocked with volunteers carving away. One of my paddle making instructors from the Artisan workshops at the museum, Don Duncan, was there and we got to catchup and say hello again.



Badger Paddles was well represented again as was Bruce Smith who had a booth showing off his lovely creations. It was there that I got to see friend, Mike Ormsby from the Reflections On The Outdoors Naturally blog. Mike was scheduled to give a solo paddling demo in his 16ft Cedar Canvas. The demo pool at the show is quite small and its miniature size would make it a challenge for any paddler in a larger boat. Always a good humoured jokester, Mike put on quite a show after an accidental dunking. He even wrote all about his (mis)adventure on his site in this great post. I've certainly dunked in front of spectators before so kudos to Mike for taking it all in stride and being willing to laugh at oneself.

For me the highlight of the show was getting a chance to meet the folks of Northern Sound Canoes who make traditional birchbark style craft with plywood-based hull. I've written about such alternative bark canoes before on this site, including those Hans-George Wagner of Germany, Tomas of Poland, and blog reader Johan of Belgium


Northern Sound Exhibit


16 foot Algonquin Model


Another view


Beautiful Edge-to-Edge planking

These canoes were well received I'm told and have generated some interest. While they are based in the UK, the builders are planning a means of making them more available here in North America. Seeing these craft up close got me excited to attempt a build of my own - it certainly solves the problem of limited bark available to builders today...and being birch based plywood, should be a fantastic medium for pyrography decoration as well. I'm giddy with the potential excitement of another build but am not sure the family is that happy with yet another canoe plan in the works.

From the Official Page of Destination Nor'Ouest II, some pics of Episode 5 where the crew decides to burn their (apparently) irreparably damaged 26 foot bark canoe. The captions are my rusty translations from the original french. The 3rd picture shows the crew lashing some sort of strongback or keel to the hull with spruce root - maybe necessary if the gunwales cracked or something. In the end, they decided it should be burned (maybe for TV ratings?)... a shame really given all the work and resources that go into building one.


"Le canot est tr�s endommag�."
The canoe is very damaged


"Les voyageurs r�parent le canot"
The voyageurs repair the canoe



"Les voyageurs r�parent le canot afin que celui-ci puisse porter leurs bagages."
The Voyageurs repair their canoe in order to carry their baggage.


"Les voyageurs disent adieu � leur canot d'�corce, il n'�tait plus possible de le r�parer."
The voyageurs say goodbye to their bark canoe, it was not possible to repair it.

While up north, I came across a beautiful 15 year old bark canoe hanging in the main store of Langford Canoe Company in Dwight. It was built by local craftsman Rick Nash. (Edit: NOVEMBER 5/09 - Recieved an email from Rick mentioning that the canoe was actually built by Ian Cameron of Dorset under Rick's guidance back in 1989)

Rick wrote the chapter on Birchbark canoe building in John Jennings' wonderfully illustrated text, The Canoe: A Living Tradition. I briefly met Rick and his wife Doris at the '08 WHCA Assembly in Peterborough where he had some fantastic models and photos of his work on display.

The fluorescent lighting in the store didn't make for the best photos, but this canoe sure is one heck of a beauty! What really caught my eye was the meticulous running lacing pattern under the outwale side and the pretty, decorative bow lacing. Here are the pics...


Hanging over the side door


Angled shot



Bow closeup



Narrow stitched and sealed gores


Closeup of running lashing

Via Indigenous Boats Blog, some pics of builder Steve Cayard making another bark canoe masterpiece. Full gallery here.

Came across the site of another builder of beautiful birchbark alternative (plywood) canoes. Check out Northern Sound for some more pics and video like the ones below.