I have come across a few logs that split in half when handle during the timber harvest. curious if anyone has made one. I don’t know that I will float it, as much as just interested in doing the cutting, burning and so on. what species would be optimal. Ther was a lot of poplar and ash taken, so likely those are the logs I have available. Figure one already split saves a lot of work.
The First Nations people in our area would use Western red cedar logs as canoes. Some of them were quite large and would hold quite a few people. I am not sure on the technique but I think it was a combination of using steam and stone chiseling. I found this article about making a dugout canoe west coast style. Canoes of the First Nations of the Pacific Northwest
Do tell, Sourwood - are you solely interested in the primitive stuff (and this would be a great hobby build, btw) or do you also endeavor to build other slightly less primitive boats? I only ask because years ago, “The Family Handyman” did a couple articles on cedar strip canoe building- quite the project!
Eric VW , I want to play with the burning out the and scraping. But I might go modern when I am done and strap a Hemi onto it.
Well I found one that is long enough to carry a war party of braves. The half of the split log (over half) already has a V started in the center. Just have to decide how long I want and study it for curves. no dragging- I managed to negotiate this out of some saplings. Had to set it down and pick it up from the opposite side a couple times
I seen an old original one in a museum in Montana, battlefield of the Little Bighorn, ( Custer’s last stand). The thing was quite large and looked very heavy and cumbersome. Pretty sure it was cottonwood. And if memory serves, I bet the tree it came from had to be in the 48” range at least. The sides and bottom still seemed pretty thick and was 7ft long or better (maybe?)probably much longer. Seemed like it would require a lot of effort to portage it very far
The old guy on Mountain Men built dugout canoe in the last couple of seasons. He did it on commission. It actually floated when he tried it out.
I was interested in trying that once. Saw one either real wood or possibly fake at one of the Indian casinos. Many years ago. Huge thing. Hold probably six people with room to paddle. 40” diameter log. My memory sucks. Thought it would be cool to build one of those. There’s only one tree on our property big enough to build that thing. An old pine tree I always called grandpa.
Look up Tom Oar dugout canoe and I bet YouTube will have a condensed video of his building of the canoe.
Heat and rain delayed my project this summer. I sliced 8 feet off this as will cut back yo the first round at the right for the hopeful canoe. Plan is to debarked it out in the woods then set up near my OWB for a source of burning coals. .
Kenzie came out and lent a hand with some CSS. I cut some rounds out and clot the canoe down to size. Kenzie removed most of the bark while I was cutting up more rounds from the cut off pile . We split enough to load the Mule, and I hauled the project up with the tractor. The trunk is near the OWB, while I am getting the frame ready to set it on.
