canoe maker

Another paddle photo find in the December 1910 issue of  Rod and Gun in Canada ( Vol. 12, No. 7 ). The article entitled, "A New Brunswick Canoe Trip on the Fascinating Tobique" by Stephen B. Bustin features an image of the Maliseet guide posing with a slim guide paddle with tapering grip.

Found a Youtube video of the the replica "Grandmother Canoe" being paddled at St. Mary's Maliseet First Nation. After a brief, informal interview with G. Wayne Brooks, the video shows some folks bringing in the beautiful canoe to shore. Lovely paddles are being used to power this special craft. Here are some screen shots and the full video below...

My latest discovery of of old periodicals on Archive.org is the outdoor themed publication, Rod and Gun in Canada. It was first published in June of 1899 and ran in various incarnations until 1974. While not strictly a canoeing magazine, many of the issues feature some sort of canoe related expedition to hunting grounds or fishing spots and make for great reading. Archive.org currently has 38 early volumes of venerable magazine for copyright free browsing and use.

The Sept 1910 issue (Vol 12 No.4) has an article entitled,  "Diary of a Canoe Trip" by   W.C. Gaynor.  It documents an  82 mile canoe trip from the border of New Brunswick into Quebec. Gaynor took the liberty of crediting his Maliseet guides for their superb performance in the many rapids and included a photo of them in his article.

The full page photo luckily captures both a full frontal view of a the main Guide's paddle (right) and a profile view of another.

Here's an interesting update regarding the famed 21 ft "Grandfather" canoe discovered in Ireland and repatriated to St. Mary's Maliseet First Nation back in 2009.

Documentary make Joe Kearney created a podcast on RTE Radio1 (Ireland) explaining the spiritual significance of the canoe. A bark replica of the original was built under the guidance of Steve Cayard and appropriately named the Grandmother Canoe.

Longtime followers of this blog will know of my gushing awe for the traditional paddles carved by Rick Nash of Woodland Heirlooms. Many of his beautiful creations have been featured on the site before (click here for all these posts).

Here's another paddle that's been recently updated on his page of Maliceet Class Paddles. This one from split cherry is 66" long with all the incising decoration done with a jack-knife and nail...

While searching on my computer of old saved images, I came across another Maliseet style paddle from New Brunswick that I haven't posted on. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have the original link or photo credit source about it, so if any readers of the blog recognize this paddle, feel free to comment.

Not the best lighting but a bit of photoshop adjustment and closeup of the grip reveals a decorative carving with the letters "HBC". No other info on the date or dimensions.




"HBC" Inscription on Grip

On a side not, be sure to visit Lloyd's Canoe Canada East site which features some great DIY canoe related projects. In particular, it was his tutorial on making a canvas portage pack that was a major source of inspiration & instruction for my own Woods No.200 canvas pack restoration back in '09.

Here's a great shot dated to around 1900 showing a Maliseet guide leaning back for a pose in his bark canoe...

Lunt's Ferry near Fredericton, New Brunswick

c 1900

NBM (LS-AA242)

A grainy closeup of the paddle shows a rectangular grip area with some scalloped cutouts down to the shaft

Paddle Closeup

Here are some additional black and white images of a Maliseet paddle in the collection of the British Museum (see earlier descriptive post here). The photos are a bit grainy but the first shot at least shows the full length of the paddle to give an idea of its proportions. A closeup of the blade shows some interesting etchings which deviate from typical abstract scroll patterns...


The full description:

"Canoe paddle, hand-carved, with incised designs on blade and shaft. Blade decorated with an image of a man with a leister in a canoe, night-fishing, with his woman in a peaked cap to paddle for him, and a birchbark torch to see by. Both peaked cap and canoe are in Maliseet style. A second design shows a woman with braided hair, a hip-length jacket with ribbon applique borders, leggings with elaborated selvedge edges, moccasins; she is standing, with a fish in her right hand and a knife in her left. The paddle handle has a border of lines and cross-hatch, surrounding a Scotch thistle above a salmon leister's head."

Another one of the paddles on my ever growing "to do list" is the 1896 Malecite St.John River Paddle documented in Adney's Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America.  The blade looks to be standard beavertail with a distinct spine, but the grip has some rectangular features and a carved drip ring which suites the paddle nicely.



Adney's St. John Malecite Pattern
After casually examining some of my books the other day, I recognized this grip pattern on the cover of Graham Warren's must have paddle making book, Canoe Paddles: A Complete Guide to Making Your Own. The grip is featured near the bottom right of his book cover..



G Warren's book cover, St.John Malecite grip on lower right
Warren's first publication (which I blogged about here) has a complete illustration with a table of offsets for this pattern as well. Graham has also graciously re-published an article on his website entitled The Malecite St.John River Paddle (.pdf format) that appeared in Open Canoe in 1996 which features the detailed pattern for anyone interested in this design. The 2011 article entitled "Know Your Paddles" by Beth Stanley in Canadian Woodworking also has a closeup shot of this grip featured below.



St. John River Malecite Grip
At this stage though, it'll be while before I start this one. Still waiting to be completed is the decoration on the Yellow Birch York Sunbury replica. Plus I've been working on some more canoe related homemade camping gear that'll be posted on soon.

Many thanks to blog reader and paddle maker Luc Poitras for once again finding an excellent example of a Malecite paddle online - this one from the collection of University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a full image of the paddle including the grip area, but some low-resolution photos reveal an exquisite carving on the blade

In my opinion, Rick Nash of Woodland Heirlooms is the finest traditional paddle carver around today. His magnificent paddle creations (all featured previously - click here) are just stunning to amateur hobbyists like myself. His latest creation for a client included an equally beautiful display case made from butternut (73" x10") and lined with a dark teal coloured velvet. It was constructed with a special channel in the middle so that the shaft of the paddle fits with pressure.  Feast your eyes on the gorgeous paddle art below...

Came across a snapshot article from Daily Gleaner outlining a visit of Canadian Architect Douglas Cardinal  to St. Mary's First Nation in New Brunswick. The story features some photos of the replica of the Grandfather Akwiten built by Steve Cayard and G. Wayne Brooks at the St.Mary's First Nation in 2009 (more info on Steve Cayard's site here).

Anyway, the newspaper article had a close up Brooks & Cardinal holding some traditional paddles...what looks to be both an older set with curved notches in the grip and a new set with some basic etching.

The Minnesota Historical Society has a paddle in their collection dating to 1839 (see posts HERE and HERE). The grip is adorned with some elaborate chip carving and includes the initials "W.D." Although the paddle was discovered in Minnesota, the shape and decorative design is consistent with East Coast Abenaki style paddles.




Thought I would try to replicate this design with some 6/4 cherry I had on hand. After sawing out the blank up north, it was brought down to the city to be worked down in the backyard. Here is a shot of the paddle setup on the horse...


Here's a shot of the blade pretty much done, though I plan to round out the pointed tip to match the original a bit more. Grip area still needs more work...



My version isn't meant to be an exact replica since I reduce the length to fit my preferred length of 58". The grip area isn't proportional to the original either since it would've turned out to be too narrow. Here`s how it stands now with some final work needed to the grip and shaft:

The backyard workshop in winter

Reworking on the shaving horse

The original oval-shaped shaft felt too thick so it was worked back into a round shape with a crooked knife. Didn't realize I acquired so much grey hair this year...

Another paddle is in the works. For a few months now, I've been intending to replicate the c1878 Maliseet Paddle from the York Sunbury Museum...see posts here, here, and here.



c1878 York Sunbury Maliseet Paddle

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), I made a carving error with yellow birch stock that was originally sourced for this paddle. Instead, I ended up with a custom design influenced by the Maliseet / Passamaquoddy paddle at the McCord Museum.

Luckily, another board of Yellow Birch was on hand and I ended up chopping out the rough outline with the axe. Given the pressure of using up my last yellow birch board, I didn't end up taking pics of the chopping process (most readers have seen enough of those pics I'm sure.) Unlike last time, this board was much easier to work with an axe,  spokeshave and crooked knife without tear out and catastrophic results. After working out the general shape without wrecking the blank and cleaning up the paddle with the spokeshave, the following pic just after Toronto received a paltry speckling of wet snow that was typical of this year's "winter" in the city.






The backyard workshop

Over the next few weeks, the paddle was worked on whenever time and weather permitted. The board stock for this one was originally 6/4 which meant that the paddle started off a little thicker than the usual 5/4 boards I source out. A decision was made to leave the shaft oval shaped rather than round like is usually done with my other creations. Furthermore, the last few paddles have been  thinned and carved to be very flexible as users. Since the original highly-ornamented paddle was likely for ceremonial purposes and not for daily usage, it was  decided to leave  it a little thicker than usual and maintain  a bit more stiffness than what I usually prefer in my user paddles.

Luc Poitras, a fellow paddle carver, emailed  a question about the woodburning equipment I use so in the future update, I'll be sure to include details and pics of the equipment and technique.

This weekend is a holiday here in Canada and the marks the unofficial start to the canoeing season. We're heading up north as well where my canoes will finally hit the water after a winter of hibernation storage. Hoping to test this one out and get some pics of my last few paddles as well.


Sept 1, 2012 UPDATE: Part 2 has been posted online

Paddle carver Luc Poitras sent in pics of his latest Malecite style paddle complete with carved drip rings, blade spine and decorative etching. This beauty is made from yellow birch and carved entirely with a crooked knife...no spokeshave or sanding.









Given my own experience with a tough yellow birch board that was frustratingly difficult to carve, Luc's all hand carved paddle is amazing.