canoe maker

Another "Celebrity Paddle" featured at the Canadian Canoe Museum is that of Eric Morse (1904 - 1986). A display to Morse features a worn canvas pack and packbasket along with a tripping paddle featuring the Coat of Arms of the Northwest Territories where Morse did a significant amount of paddling.


Eric Morse Display at the CCM


Blade closeup
Recently ordered a copy of Morse's Paddling Memoir, Freshwater Saga from a used bookstore and found it a pleasure to read. I was surprised to find out that although Morse was a lifelong outdoor enthusiast, he was 49 when the he and several diplomats in the fledgling United Nations began their arduous annual canoe treks. Dubbed "The Voyageurs" by the media, they were the first group of recreational canoeists to travel remote wilderness areas just for pure paddling pleasure. Very inspirational!

More info on the group and their travels can be read at this link here.

Stand-up Paddling might be the new rage in watersports, but is certainly not a new phenomenon. From this EBay Link, a reproduction sketch originally featured in Harper's Weekly (1874).


INDIAN SKETCHES, INDIAN CANOE RACE
Harper's Weekly, June 1874.
Closeups reveal the natives using narrow-bladed, pole style grip paddles in the scene which I would assume would make gripping and controlling the paddles a additional challenge.


Paddle 1 Closeup


Paddle 2 closeup

Well, that sad time of year when my paddling season is over has arrived. No more vacation time scheduled until Christmas so the boat was taken on one last tour of the lake. We had just missed the peak time for the fall colour change but there were still some lovely yellows and oranges amidst the background hills. Here are a few shots:










Still, we were blessed with ideal weather for the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and I was especially thankful to still be on the lake this late...last year's final paddle was on Sept 4th. As before, I set our camera on the floating dock, set the timer and tried to sideslip into frame.


Bye Bye from Pen Lake

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadian visitors. Had some time today to upload some more paddlemaking pics from this summer. After my pitiful attempt at a bushcraft paddle back in 2009, I decided to take another try at making a paddle with just an axe and crooked knife. This time around, rather than harvest the wood from a downed tree, I ended up using a left over scrap from splitting the 2x10 spruce board for the canoe pole project.


Split spruce chunk
This piece of spruce had a nice, straight grain for the shaft area (if I avoided the conspicuous knot) and at 5" wide was perfect to try another design. I wanted to try a straight sided Eastern Cree paddle like the kind I posted on here and are illustrated below:


Fresh spruce paddles hung to limit warpage
This style of paddle also feature prominantly in the NFB film, Cree Hunters of the Mistassini and I've posted a screenshot of Sam Blacksmith using such a paddle on a previous post. Apart from the obvious green paint, this one has a distinct spine to add some rigidity to the narrow blade design.


Sam Blacksmith paddling his paddle
Once the blade shape was roughly hewned with the axe, a series of cuts were made in the shaft area with my homemade bucksaw. More axe work and the shaft region was taking shape which was later cleaned up with the crooked knife.


Saw cuts in shaft area; shaft roughly hewn out
After a while, my little one came over with his toy dump truck and started collecting shavings to transport down to the beach, dumping each load in the sand and then returning for more. This continued every few minutes for about 2 hours. Definitely distracting, but it kept him quiet and occupied him at least.


Collecting shavings dump truck game
By the next day, I had progressed to working down the blade and was beginning to shape the handle.


Crooked knife work; Starting to take shape
At this stage, I had started carving a simple roll style grip, but later changed my mind to form a more roundish, flat style which seems to be more consistent with these Eastern Cree Designs in the Canadian Museum of Civilization collection.


Blade Closeup; Grip Photo
I've read of craftsmen using the crooked knife with such skill as to carve a paddle perfectly smooth, leaving no tool marks and requiring no sanding. It'll be a while before my skills progress to that level, but I'm still happy with the relative smooth results I got with this spruce attempt. Still some tool marks on the blade and the shaft isn't perfect, but overall it's a functional paddle that was made lazily over a weekend, and could probably be done in a rush in a few hours of concentrated work.


A weekend's project
Don't think I'll be burning decorations on this one as spruce doesn't take pyrography very well. Maybe I'll dabble in a painted decoration over the winter.

July 23, 2011: UPDATE - Paddle has been decorated. See the final post here

An intriguing little article in the August 1944 issue of Popular Science...

Here are some painted paddles from the American Museum of Natural History. The first one resembles the classic Cree-style design although the tribal affiliation and location here seems to be different. Perhaps some overlap between Cree and Chipewyan in the area.


Catalog No: 50.1/ 8286
Culture: CHIPEWYAN
Locale: NWT, GREAT SLAVE LAKE
Country: CANADA
Material: WOOD, PIGMENT
Dimensions: L:151.5 W:12 H:4 [in CM]



Culture: CHIPEWYAN
Locale: NWT, GREAT SLAVE LAKE
Country: CANADA
Material: WOOD, PIGMENT
Dimensions: L:129 W:11 H:3 [in CM]

Previously, I had posted on fantasy paddle themed puzzle. Turns out it was derived from a painting originally entitled "ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER" by Charles Relyea (1863-1932). Apparently, Relyea was known for his Indian Maiden prints and calendars. The paddle looks like a simplified early Mi'kmaq design cited in Adney's book and obviously the artist took some creative liberties with the presentation.


ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER
Charles Relyea c.1925
Curious to see other paddle themed artwork, I came across another print of his entitled "INDIAN MAIDEN BY MOONLIGHT". It shows another similar shaped, pointed tip paddle with a diagonal slash decoration. In this one, the grip is also just visible and seems to have matching paint.


INDIAN MAIDEN BY MOONLIGHT
Charles Relyea
Later I also found a similar looking painting from a now expired EBay ad. Don't know if it is the same artist as no details were provided but the style looks the same. This paddle is painted blue with horizontal black and gold bands. The grip looks like an elongated tripper style.


Unknown Print