canoe maker

I recently received a comment from blog reader ManX who provided a link to his paddle project. The original forum post needed to be translated from Italian and from what I gathered, he split a plank from a log of Black Cherry (P. Serotina) wood back in 2012 and just recently finished carving a paddle inspired by the c1900 Antique Penobscot paddle posted back in 2011.


His post features plenty more photos but here are few showcasing his work...

From the April 2015 Current Selections page of CherryGallery.com...

This post on the Paleoplanet forums features a beautifully carved and decorated paddle by member, Dauntless.



Catalog No: 50.1/ 9825
Culture: ABNAKI, PENOBSCOT
Regions: EASTERN CANADA, NORTHEAST
Dimensions: L:182 W:20 H:3.5 [in CM]
Accession No: 1916-9

It's been a while since the Cherry Gallery has posted anything paddle related. Their October current selections page features two interesting antique paddles. The first is a cute model paddle with a distinctive stepped style grip commonly seen in some Penobscot paddles which formed the basis for the classic "Northwoods Style" grip favored by Alexandra Conover-Bennett...

Thanks to WCHA members Rob Stevens and John Fitzgerald, I received some more photos of the Peabody Museum's current exhibit, The Legacy of Penobscot Canoes: A View from the River. In particular, John was able to get some very clear shots of the famed green bladed paddle I've gushed about over the years...





As mentioned previously, this paddle was documented by Adney and Chappelle and features a unique style grip. It is a long and tapered grip style that has been carved out in the center, giving the grip face a distinct concave face. You can just make this out on the top right corner of Fig 72 in Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America

The Peabody Museum of Archeaology & Ethnology has a new exhibit featuring birchbark canoes and paddles. The exhibit entitled, The Legacy of Penobscot Canoes: A View from the River runs through April 30, 2016.


Their facebook page has some great photos of an interesting bark canoe purchased from Penobscot builder Francis Sebattis in 1912. It has the wonderful, graceful lines of canoes from this region and looks amazingly well preserved.  The single seat is also an interesting addition and looks to be woven with more natural material.





A search on the Peabody's online collections database reveals the following info:

 Canoe has a split-wood rush seat at one end (presumably making this end the stern) and 4 thwarts. The thwarts are mortised and tennoned and lashed with split root and nailed to the gunwales. The first thwart (from the bow) is parallel in form while the remaining three thwarts flare out at their ends. Inwales and outwales are secured with screws (and possibly nails) and split root lashing at regular intervals; the screw holes are filled with putty. (4 screw points are exposed iat the inwales, two screw points at the bow and two at the stern.) Wooden pegs are used to secure the gunwale caps to the rest of the gunwale assembly. There is a slot-head screw in the port side gunwale cap amidships.

Seats in bark canoes are rare in the first place and this is the first time I've seen a seat woven with such material. Might be an interesting project to replicate with left over strips of birchbark from a canoe build.



Also in their display is the green bladed decorated Penobscot paddle I've posted on many times before, including this recent post with photos courtesy of Bob Holtzman of Indigenous Boats. The museum's facebook feed has a small but updated photo of the blade's decoration  pattern.




I'm hoping to carve and make another one of these paddles out of Sassafras this summer, but life keeps getting busier and busier . This year's extremely harsh winter wreaked havoc to our home and we have some major repairs to contend with before my paddle making hobby can resume again.

Superb blogger of Indigenous Boats, Bob Holtzman, has posted some personal photos of canoe-related exhibits at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Included in this display are some wonderful closeups of a favourite paddle design I've always wanted to see with my own eyes. It has served as the inspiration for my own cherry interpretations (posts here and here). It looks to the be the paddle illustrated in fig. 72 of  Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Adney sketched 1/2 of the blade pattern, included some dimensions and identified the paddle as a 71" long (180cm), maple wood Passamaquoddy dated to 1849.





Despite the difficulty in photographing dimly lit museum pieces behind glass, Bob was able to get some shots of the paddle on display.







The paddle was captioned with the following info...

 "The blade of this elaborately decorated paddle is painted green. The double-curve design was executed by removing the paint while it was still wet. The stepped motif and crosshatching are suggestive of Penobscot or Passamaquoddy manufacture. The handle exhibits graceful carving and shows much indication of use." 

Until now, the only photo of this paddle I've seen was the official museum pic showcasing the white scroll design on the blade.




Closer inspection reveals that that scroll pattern of the official pic and the display model are different. Now I'm wondering if the paddle is painted on both sides with slightly different scrolled patterns or if the museum has 2 distinct paddles in their collection.

Back in 2010, Bob also sent links and photos to some paddles at the University of Maine's Hudson Museum. It included a paddle with an attractive, segmented style grip.

Recently came across this newly uploaded video (52 min) called "Agwiden" showcasing an 18 foot birchbark canoe build. Steve Cayard was the builder invited to the Penobscot Nation to help construct the first bark canoe there in over 60 years. Lots of closeups of the build technique. Learned some new things about bark canoe construction.

Can't seem to embed the video due to restrictions by the film-maker, but here is the direct link for viewing on Vimeo...

http://vimeo.com/77745115

One of the neatest things is around the 4 minute mark where Steve climbs up the trunk of the monster birch to harvest the bark. Never saw this standing method of bark harvesting before...no need to haul a ladder into the bush!




What also caught my eye was the elegant paddle used by Chief Barry Dana during the initial launch (around the 48:00 mark). Here is a screen shot...





The grip style is what Adney described as a "Malecite Group" paddle (Fig 65) belonging to a 18 foot Passamaquoddy Ocean Canoe.




I've carved quite a few paddles with this simple but effective grip style, including one of my earliest cherry paddles from 2008. It is quite comfortable when draping the wrist over the wide palm area. Here are some shots from the old condo balcony "workshop"




Ended up decorating this with a burned image of a Chickadee on a white pine branch...


For all you folks in the south who get to paddle year round...enjoy it! The temperature right now feels like a chilly -22 Celsius with the windchill.

Came across this beautiful photo of Butch Phillips, a Penobscot tribal elder in a bark canoe with some traditional paddles...

A while back, paddle maker Luc Poitras sent me some wonderful historic images of Wabanaki styled paddles. The one below is an photo of Penobscot Chief Peter N. Tuester and another (unidentified) person holding some slender paddles.  These tall slender paddles look reminiscent of the collection from the facebook page of the Passamaquoddy Cultural Heritage Museum  posted about here.

In the Maine Woods (1905 Edition) has a wonderful full-page vintage photo (p.92) of a guide and sport after a successful deer hunt...

The guide is using a paddle with a distinctly scalloped grip. Here is a closeup...



Unfortunately the blade isn't visible in the photo, but the grip area seems identical to a Guide's paddle found on this site's archive page originally advertised by Gould Auctions in Maine.

An Ebay posting found today of a Tiger Maple paddle. Seller claims it is late 19th century from the Penobscot Nation in Maine...




Seller's Description:

A beautifully made and gracefully shaped canoe paddle from the Penobscot nation of northern Maine. The wear and color of the lovely surface makes it evident that it is significantly old, most probably late 19th century. There is no damage. It is 56 3/4" long by 4 3/8" wide.

Original Paddles; Replica; Grip Closeup



Much more comfortable to hold it on its side near the bottom of the grip...