100% All-Natural, Zero-Chemical Canoe

100% natural canoe. All wood parts hand carved. Original, one of a kind design combines Kalaallit Kayaks, Mi'kmaq Canoes, and Vietnamese Thung-Chai.
Frame is Ash and Walnut, finished with Tung Oil, and lashed with Hemp dyed with Walnut and rot proofed with Pine Tar.
Skin is is woven Cane and organic Canvas dyed with Walnut and rot proofed with Pine Tar, and sealed with Tung Oil.
12ft x 28in, 41.0lb.
Includes matching paddle of same woods plus Western Red Cedar blade and shaft core.
Built in 2023, stored inside, never wet.
Complete build story available at WoodPostBand dot Com, within 'Crafts' dropdown menu, 'Tamboura' section.
$14,700

That's beautiful!

But I can't imagine not floating it at least once...

Thank you Dana. Tomorrow.
I made her, for me, what I wanted, but always in mind that she'd be for sale. A trophy for the den of a TypeA's lake retreat. To be admired, shown off, instead of paddled. And figured they'd prefer a 'virgin.'
But most of those types aren't versed in old school techniques, aren't aware oiled canvas is proven technology. And maybe they'd prefer knowing she floats is a proven fact.
Plus, ain't nobody buyin her, and I made her for me, because I want all-natural canoes. So tomorrow we head to the lake. And maybe next week to the river.

Wow. Interesting methodology and looks like some really nice woodwork.

By all means, paddle it. I suppose there's something to be said for the trailer queens & display boats hanging from rafters but things that are meant to be used should be used & enjoyed (IMO).

Is that a portage yoke or just a decorative thwart? Because if it's a yoke it's nowhere near the balance point.

GladMax said:

Complete build story available at WoodPostBand dot Com, within 'Crafts' dropdown menu, 'Tamboura' section.
$14,700

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Here is page 1 of the Tamboura pages:


New rule: Site gets 1% of all sales over $14,000 USD.

Gamma1214 said:

I suppose there's something to be said for the trailer queens & display boats hanging from rafters but things that are meant to be used should be used & enjoyed (IMO).

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Click to expand...

Trailer queens and rafter displays are only worth the dream they inspire, and if they do not/can not function then the dream is a false promise. It may not be the wisest choice tor ride that '32 Panhead to Sturgis, but I hope it's ridden on local backroads. Tamboura is designed and assembled for surf crashing and at least Class III, but I hope she experiences more than ponds and small lakes.
Thing is, she is not my boat. She is meant for another, so I can continue to create them.

Dana said:

Is that a portage yoke or just a decorative thwart?

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I get that a lot. It is a decorative carved thwart intended to invoke a seagull, or a skate, while riffing on idea of portage thwart. The rear thwart is likewise too far aft to be a true backrest, it is a decorative carving intended to invoke arms leaning back onto the gunnels, the rear wing of a race car, and stag horns. They are carvings, they had to be something, this is what these became. I have a stash of cherry root, some canoe in the future is planned to have thwarts that look like currents twisting through Class IV rapids.
And intended eventual plan is to make a V shaped strap of webbing which links from center notch of forward thwart, to outboard notches of aft thwart, to function as shoulder portaging support.

Glenn MacGrady said:

Here is page 1 of the Tamboura pages:

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Thanks. Wasn't sure of legalities of internal post links, had copied/pasted ad from Craigslist listing.

Glenn MacGrady said:

Site gets 1% of all sales over $14,000 USD.

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Site can have 100% of earnings over $14,000USD for Tamboura, no matter which of her many listings the sale comes from. A life goal of mine is to make a canoe that at least one person agrees is worth $90,000USD, be happy to part with 1% of over $14k on that one too.

GladMax said:

A life goal of mine is to make a canoe that at least one person agrees is worth $90,000USD

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Every canoe that I know about which has sold for more than $90K was made by someone who died a long time ago as shown in the picture below. Living builders usually get much less for similar canoes as indicated in the following link. A high auction price usually requires at least two people who think a canoe is worth that much. Good luck,

Benson

Those are great pictures, Benson, thank you.

Yes, creating a canoe considered equally as valuable as a high end bass boat is a lofty goal. Shoot for the stars. If you don't make your target, at least you were the best you could have been.

When wood-canvas canoes came out, they were considered ugly, mass-produced junk. People bought them in such numbers that they took over the market... because they were cheap. The exact same thing happened when aluminum replaced wood-canvas, and when plastic replaced aluminum. Canoes at one point in history were hand made short yachts, but the niche has been largely abandoned, left open for over 100 years. There are most certainly individuals who can afford $90k canoes out looking for exactly that type of artisan object, would buy $$$$ canoes if they knew the specific object existed.

All those canoes you showed me, even if collector's items made by legendary names, were of machine made parts assembled on mass production forms. Tamboura is completely hand carved, could only be hand carved, and she is of an original one of a kind design. She is my second canoe, first Skin on Frame. Yes, Benson, exactly: auction. If I continue to push my envelope in making the most intricately and artistically carved, creatively conceived canoes that I can, if I am provided remainder of my natural expected life span: I see no difficulty imagining two people competing for my lifetime masterpiece could bring it's new-sale price to at or above $90k.

And the one who would win will have seen Tamboura or a subsequent boat of mine, and know I don't stop until every half square centimeter is shaped, by hand to a shape only possible to be shaped by hand, till it all harmonizes just right.

Took on 1/4 cup of water in first 10min, no more thereafter for next hour. About to be expected, better (less leak plus quicker take-up) than decent built plank-on-frame canoe I think.
More stable than I feared: about same as my 10ft Northstar ADK-LT.
Not as fast as I'd hoped: about same as my 13ft Mohawk Royalex.
Not as straight as I'd hoped, maybe bit turnier than the Mohawk.
Fully as amazing as my mood allowed it to be, far more profoundly thrilling a nature connection than any chemical canoe of my experience.
Next week: my usual river.

After last week making sure Tamboura held water at a lake who's banks I could hike back to my car from if she didn't, today I took her to the regular stretch of my regular river. She's not near as slow as I thought: I got the 5.4m stretch in my usual-for-that-water-level time of 1:15.
I mean, yeah she is: she's slow! She has to be! Her skin is wrinkled especially when she hydrates (tho maybe my weight in midships stretches her out some), she's heavier than kevlar (tho same weight as Royalex). And she's widened out from build spec of 29in, to 31. But an all natural boat, connected with Nature instead of blocking it with petro-chemicals? Lifted me up, energized me I guess. And 1:15 is exactly how long I take in my ADK-LT at 2ft at the Bellevue gauge.
After returning last week I re-oiled the stem stitching. This time she took water for about five minutes until the gap between the trestle keelson was glossy, but no more than that for the next hour and a half of paddling.
In terms of tracking, she has a lot more rocker than design specs. I think I was overzealous in ensuring she didn't hog during the three years she's been suspended from my garage rafters. Could probably get her back to where she's designed to be by re-rigging her suspension system. On the other hand, about boats, I am a fan of an Andre Segovia quote: "A guitar is like a woman. She is what she is." If my boat isn't the best she could be the places I tend to take us, it just means I have to be better at it. I'm out there to team with my boat in the conditions as they present, which are never a controlled engineering environment anyway.
Wow, when she hit the waves! Went through them like a stadium race buggy in the bumps! Smooth and sweet as could be! While lively and light! Never any place higher than 6in waves for longer than 50ft in that section so I'm not talking white water, but compared to the slap and kick I am used to in my Northstar ADK-LT, it was: 'This is what she wants to do! I gotta find more of this!' Probably some to do with rocker, more to do with being a V-ed Elliptical hull, and her lashed wood frame.
I've never thought 'wallowy' in either of these two trips, but perhaps a perception of flex is why I thought she felt slow on the lake.
She's going back into storage because I'm hoping someone wants a 12ft, handcarved decorative wallhanging in their house more than they want $14k and therefore she's gotta stay pristine, but I drew these hull lines for the type of handling I thought I'd want before I had any experience paddling at all. I think if I get the rocker back to 1in in front, 3/4in in rear, she'll be right where I want. I prefer Tamboura's mix of handling characteristics to the two (three if you count the ADK I've only taken out once) boats I've gotten used to. This boat is real. I cannot wait to make more.

Soon to be featured in SmallBoats Magazine, online supplement to WoodenBoat Magazine!

I don't get to write the article they do, and Editor said she has to look forward to see when article will fit so I'm completely unsure as to when it'll be published, but this morning got email from Editor saying she wants to include Tamboura...