Veneer for bark...

[L.W. Baxter]

I've been reading my Christmas present, a first edition, mint copy of The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America by Adney and Chapelle.

It gets me stirred up, thinking about staking out a building bed in the backyard and putting together a self-designed canoe of natural materials, no epoxy, no screws, especially no sanding , and no hang-ups over the imperfections.

Trouble is, suitable bark is hard to come by.

I was thinking, would an eighth-inch veneer, say of douglas fir or mahogony, be pliable enough to replace bark as a building material? Maybe if it was soaked in water before starting? Note, I'm talking of a building process where the skin of the boat is crucial to the structure, as most parts of a traditional bark canoe are held in place by pressure against the skin, not fasteners.

According to the book, most barks employed in canoes were about 1/8" thick. But is birch bark more flexible and tougher than a high-grade, rotary cut veneer? I imagine it is. And a veneer would need a water-proofing treatment of some sort.

Just idle questions to fill-out my daydreams.

Could be a good weekend (or 2 or 3) project to do with the kids, though. They're always wanting to "help" me in the shop, which is usually not possible, given the toxins and the power tools I normally use...

--Lee

[Ken Hutchins]

Veneer won't do it, you need bark. Now here is your excuse to head east for the wooden boat show. :D Gotta get some Birch bark. :D

[imported_Steven Bauer]

My friend Norm had a piece of bark stashed away to make a canoe but he passed away and I have no idea what happened to it. He took a course where they built a canoe in a week. The basic tool was the crooked knife.
Another friend has a beautiful birchbark canoe - with an interesting history. My friend saw an ad for a birchbark canoe for a ridiculously low price, I think $200. He figured it was trashed but went to look at it anyway. When he got there it was a beautiful canoe in mint condition. It turns out it was about 10 years old but had never been in the water! It was a display hanging on the wall in a Timberland Boot Store. The seller had bought all the fixtures in the store - shelves, lights and stuff, and was surprized that the canoe came with it. It's really a beauty. smile.gif

Steven

[L.W. Baxter]

Sounds good! I've got family in upstate NY, so I can pretend I'm just going to visit them . ;)

But here's another one, while I'm percolating.

Also according to the book, "temporary" canoes were often built of spruce bark. I can certainly get my hands on some of that!

Spruce bark is stiffer, and won't handle cutting gores to bring it to shape, but, according to Chapelle at least, "with care spruce bark could be used to build a canoe almost as good as one of birch bark."

He may be overstating things a bit. And he admits that it is much more "laborious." But it might be easier than driving 6000 miles round trip...

[L.W. Baxter]

Steven, so, does your friend use it? I hope so.

I wonder if, after ten years hanging on a wall, the bark would have dried out so much as to be brittle and less waterproof.

[Bruce Hooke]

I heard tell that there are places that sell birchbark (for canoe-making) so if you can afford to go that route you might want to do a bit of scouting around on the Internet, althought you would loose part of the building experience that way :D . Even in the heart of birch bark canoe country in Northern New England, it is still very hard to find suitable bark.

I got a chance to paddle a couple of birch bark canoes and watch some building demonstrations at the Wooden Canoe Heritage Assembly ( http://www.wcha.org ) last year. They are pretty amazing boats! I watched Steve Cayard, a very skilled birch bark canoe builder from Maine, splitting out perfect 1/8" thick planks from a cedar log -- very impressive.

[Todd Bradshaw]

Some of the first "non-bark" canoes were built using the same basic techniques but substituting canvas for birchbark. Another idea if you can find small amounts of real bark are to start with big models. A friend of mine had a birchbark about six feet long hanging over his desk which was incredibly cool and large enough that the building details were the same as the full-sized boats.