canoe maker

A previous post describes the dimensions of Voyageur Paddles typically used by canoemen of the Hudson's Bay Company. It appeared in an article in the HBC's company journal, The Beaver. The September 1922 edition features a fur trade canoe with narrow paddles and an improvised sail from a scarlet red HBC point blanket.

The current August edition of the Wooden Canoe Journal has a stunning cover photo of a young Teen paddling a beautiful little canoe. Turns out the main article features 15 year old River Grace of Florida and his restoration job on a 12 foot Kennebec canoe dated to 1926. It is a lovely story of his patient restoration efforts which took over 4 years to complete. Unfortunately, no details were provided about the beautiful looking Northwoods paddle with a distinctive scalloped grip.  For anyone interested, there's a brief online article in Florida Today about this young lad and his canoe story.

Here's a photographic print featured on FineArtAmerica by Bill Curtsinger entitled The Bow And Oar Of A Handmade Wooden Canoe. 

Artist Robert Griffing is well known for his historical art depicting Eastern Woodland peoples and the 18th Century Eastern frontier. Many of his paintings feature bark canoes and decorated paddles. One of his new releases is entitled, "The Paddle Painter" and features a calming scene of a how a paddle might have been decorated with natural pigments in years gone by...

Things have been quiet here as of late in anticipation of a new arrival. Our 2nd son finally decided to enter the world in the early morning hours of August 11th. All is well, but of course free time for paddle carving is non-existent for the moment.

I was, however, able to get this shot of our little one practicing his Canadian stroke with a mini Maliseet style paddle...


Thanks for everyone's patience with the lack of posts while things settle down into a new rhythm for our family.

Even though I missed the 2014 WCHA assembly again this year, some of the attendees have shared wonderful photos of all the canoeing fun. Jim Wilson recently uploaded a Flickr album of much of the action, including one of the long-standing traditions at the Assembly...the Paddle-by. Participants cruise by one-by-one showcasing their wooden boats.

I recognized a few paddling friends, most notably Pam Wedd of Bearwood Canoes. Pam was the wonderful instructor for my own build course way back in '08! She brought along a new 14' Gerrish Replica in a pretty turquoise colour.



Equally stunning was Craig Johnson paddling his 15' canoe (also built at Pam's shop in Parry Sound, ON). Craig makes gorgeous paddles as well (see previous posts here and here). This particular one is sassafras Northwoods style with an indented grip, distinct blade spine and a unique copper tip.



Craig had posted more of his beautiful sassafras creations on the WCHA forums a while back.




He's also come up with a pretty innovative way of mounting copper tips onto the blade end. A photo sequence of the basic process is found is this thread here.

Anyway, seems like a feasible way to temporarily rig up some usable work space in camp. Of course, the lid would have to go back on at night to prevent the critters from getting into the food supply. The lid can be easily removed to snap back on at night and the tied tumpline simply slipped back around the wanigan when it's time to break camp. One of the benefits of lugging a cumbersome wooden box on a trip is the flat surface in camp. Put it on the ground and you have an instant bench for food prep & entertainment. Now that there's this hanging shelf option, I'm looking forward to getting some backcountry time with it.