canoe maker

Ever since getting a copy of Dr. Gordon Fisher's recent publication, Guideboat Paddles: An Adirondack Treasure, I've been curious about some of the paddles apparently on display at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain, New York.

I stumbled on a few personal photos on Flickr and Picasa of folks who've visited the museum and happened to get shots of the paddle display. Here's one from deshantm revealing 4 distinct paddles on a mounted display. The first two paddles have some interesting blade designs and grip style.


Adirondack Museum Paddles
Flickr user Alan Teichman, also had a shot illustrating the same paddles, but managed to get a clearer shot of the captions.


Photo Authorship Credit: Alan Teichman
Given the resolution of the original photo, here's what I could make out for the paddles (left to right)...

� Single Bladed Paddle made by Bradly ?, a young medical student on vacation in the Adirondacks around 1900. He copied the shape from an Abenaki model and added the Indian motif on the grip for a "romantic look"

� Single Bladed Paddled made by Dr. George Everett at Lake Ozonia for Dr. Edward Prescott of Potsdam. Dr. Everett was a summer resident who made cherry paddles as a hobby finishing them scraping with a broken piece of glass and applying a mixture of linseed oil, turpentine and vinegar

� Single Bladed Paddled designed and made by James McCormick around 1934. McCormick was a carpenter and boat builder...he made over 500 paddles of cherry and maple before his death

� Single Bladed Paddled purchased with a Rushton Indian Girl canoe. The owner added the red paint, his initials and the ??? to give the paddle a more romantic native look

I really wish museums would consider adding more virtual galleries on their websites. I think it encourages more interest in visiting the museum to see artifacts such as this in person.

Many thanks to Graham Warren for directing me to the April 1997 issue of Wooden Canoe Journal where an article by Barry Beals describes an interesting asymmetrical grip. Co-developed by Beals and Jim Walker of Battenkill Canoe Ltd, the unique grip is a fusion of two popular styles, the standard pear and T-grip. In theory, the flattened portion of the half pear cradles the palm more comfortably and the half-T portion allows the thumb to curl around into a more natural position while still providing a positive hold on the paddle. Below is a blurry shot (apologies) of this grip design sketched out in pencil on a piece of maple stock.


Battenkill Grip
Despite the fact that I don't do much extreme white water paddling, I've been wanting to make a functional whitewater paddle for when I encounter some basic rapids on river runs. I envisioned this grip really shining in whitewater conditions and so decided to make another whitewater paddle using Graham Warren's blade design.

I had another piece of birdseye maple stock from which the Sparrow Solo had been made carved back in '08 and this would make the bulk of paddle. Since the edges had been planed square at the mill, some waste pieces of black walnut were easily laminated for the edges.


Laminating walnut edging
A slip of the sawing at the throat of the paddle left a major flaw in symmetry but I'm hoping to correct this by reshaping this area when it has been thinned out more. Below is a shot of the blank so far...


Whitewater paddle awaiting work
If anyone has made a Battenkill grip or come across paddles with this grip design, feel free to post a comment or send me some pics for posting.

The Gould Auctions site has some fascinating antique guide paddles from their current lot. Check out this 7 & 1/2 foot long monster recently discovered in a coastal Maine barn.


Painted 7 1/2 foot (90") guide paddle
Wagon Wheel Blue and Ox Blood Red
Here's another long antique guide paddle with interesting grip and grain pattern...


Early Maine Paddle
Tiger Maple
76" long
Blade width 9 1/4"

Also found this picture of three paddles from one of their archived pages of completed auctions. The paddle on the left has an interesting scalloped design and rudimentary roll grip at the top. Unfortunately no other details


Set of 3 paddles

John Lindman's recent Bark Canoe newsletter mentioned various films that feature bark canoes (or replicas) prominantly. One of those is a 1986 film by the National Film Board of Canada entitled Ikwe. Here's the description:

A young Ojibwa girl of 1770, Ikwe awakens one night from a disturbing dream about a strange man. The arrival of a young Scottish fur trader transforms her dream into reality. Marrying him, Ikwe leaves her village on the shores of Georgian Bay. Although the union promises prosperity for her tribe, it means hardship and isolation for Ikwe. Values and customs clash until, finally, the events of Ikwe's dream unfold with tragic clarity.

Many of the shots in the film have wonderful closeups of bark canoes and some interesting paddle designs. In particular, I noticed a prominance of what seemed to be authentic paddle grips. Here are some sceenshots.


In the above pic, a Cree guide named Bluecoat is using a broad, flat grip style, very reminiscient of the flat style seen in some earlier paddles. In particular, it reminded me of the flat style of the Iroquois paddles displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum and the Diamond Passamaquoddy I'm still working on.


The female lead, Ikwe, is seen using a bobble style grip on her paddle in a manner I've seen in many archived photos of natives paddling bark canoes. Some examples from the Minnesota Historical Society can be found here, here, and here.

Lindman mentions that some of the canoes were built by Bill Hafeman, but the one pictured below looks very similar to the style and form of Jocko Carle and Basil Smith. David Gidmark's book mentions the near vertical stem as a classic feature of Carle's canoes and the scalloped winter bark decoration with the fish look identical to a canoe I saw being repaired at the Canadian Canoe Museum a while back. Of course, I could be totally wrong in my assumption that it is the same canoe, but it would be a neat bit of info if this canoe was indeed a "movie star".


Bark Canoe in Ikwe


Another shot


Jocko Carle Canoe Repair at the CCM

Fiona and Mike Ramsay of Badger Canoe Paddles graciously sent my a new paddle accessory as a product test (thank you!). Descriptively called a Paddle Sock, it is a stretchy knitted material that serves to protect the paddle from scratches and dings from rough handling.

The Paddle Sock seems quite narrow right out of the package, but it easily slips over the grip and shaft of my Heirloom Paddle and nicely stretched to accomodate the blade.


The end can be simply cinched closed with the drawcord or the the excess material can be folded back onto itself and held in place by looping the elastic drawcord over the face of the blade as in the pics below.


I wanted to try it on my widest paddle, the Arctic Whitewater display paddle with an 8 inch wide blade. It was pretty tight, but the material did stretch sufficiently to accommodate this design.


Certainly, it fit some of my other designs, including the ultra narrow, but lengthy Solo Sparrow.


I was curious to see if the pointed end of the Fusion Paddle would protrude through the knit fabric, but the material seemed strong enough to tolerate this rare paddle design too.


All in all, a very versatile and practical product for the reasonable price of $18.95 CND. Compared to many of the high end, fleece lined canvas paddle bags from Duluth or Frost River, this material is certainly thin and wouldn't protect against severe dings from dropped paddles or objects crashing onto them, but for the price and usability, this is a great little accessory to protect against more common scars and careless scratches on your valuable paddle.

Many thanks to Flickr user catlennox for permission to post her photo of the stunning Maliseet Paddle at the York Sunbury Museum in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Despite poor lighting in museums generally, she was able to capture enough detail in this exquisite bit of paddle heritage.


Photo Credit: catlennox
The full citation at the new Artefacts Canada mentions that the paddle is dated to at least 1878, made from maple, and is ornately carved with a stylized fiddlehead design.

Last summer, I blogged about my attempt to use photoshop on images of this antique paddle to enhance the beautiful etched patterns. After adjusting some of the colour levels, adding a spotlight effect, and using the unsharpen mask feature, I was able to adjust catlennox's image too to bring out some more contrast.


Photoshop adjusted
Still it's no substitute for checking out this paddle in person. While I've still got other paddle designs on the go, I think my future direction will be replicating these historic museum paddles as authentically as possible. Better get started on chip-carving practice!

The season's first canoe jaunt is always a moment I eagerly look forward to. I was lucky enough to escape up north for a brief weekend getaway last week and took advantage of our early spring to hit the cottage lake a month before usual. Under mixed sun and cloud and a brisk spring wind, I was able to try out the newly completed Maple Northwoods along with some other favourites to initiate the 2010 paddling season.






Activity on the lake was non-existant with most cottages still closed for the season. I was able to spot a small flock of Common Goldeneye ducks and a lone solitary loon was wailing in the distance. Tranquility that'll be surely gone when the G8 Summit and all the accompanying security invades our tiny lake in June. Before then, our nearby neighbours will have a very unpleasant surprise when they arrive to open up their place...check out their dock and boat shed. Never underestimate the power of lake ice!


Uh-Oh!