100% Homemade Canoe

[Muskrat]

I'm just spitballing this while I sit out on my porch drinking beers on a perfect night. Is it possible to build a canoe from only self harvested material, with a caveat of where I live, in Kansas? I obviously can't build a birch bark, so it would have to be some sort of canvas or hide covering. Wood choices for the frames and stringers are difficult here. We have some decent hardwoods, oak and walnut is available to me but those trees don't run straight grained for long around here because of the constant wind and storms, and that seems like a heavy option. Probably the lightest and straightest grain I could harvest off our family farm is cottonwood. Willow or sycamore could be taken along the riversides. We have cedars around here too, but not the good boat building type. It is extremely knotty.

I have a friend with a loom, so if I grow a flax crop I could have canvas made. The other option would be deer hide. We have a huge herd that runs our farm and beds down in an abandoned Christmas tree farm. There are so many deer harvested around here it would be no problem to get the hides, and I could get sinew for any lashings.

The one thing I can't wrap my head around is making my own canvas sealer. I'm hoping some of you guys might know the way the old timers did it. I have no idea, but if it can come from a plant source, I can grow it. And I could probably find any mineral additives that may be necessary.

Help me out here on this crazy quest with anything you have to offer. Wood selection, coverings, sealers, anything. Will it ever get built? Not likely, but if there is a way I'll keep all the knowledge until I have the time for it.

 

[yellowcanoe]

google bull boat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_Boat

 

[Muskrat]

Oh yeah. I know about bull boats. I'd prefer a more elegantly shaped craft, but the other concepts are sound. How would one seal the seams of the hides if more than one are stitched together? How would one even seal the hides in general for a longer lasting boat? Bull boats were typically short term use boats. I'd prefer a little more longevity.

 

[Philtrum]

I'm confused. Do you mean to say you don't have Kevlar groves and epoxy that oozes from male and female plants (resin and hardener from different sex plants)? And graphite or aluminum deposits in the soil? Kansas must be a very strange place.

 

[Muskrat]

That's a good point Phil. I need to get out there and strike oil and start distilling it.

I have been wanting to build a small forge, so the aluminum might not be too far off.

 

[Muskrat]

Well, I found a basic filler recipe: silica, linseed oil, turpintine, and a drying agent.

Silica. That one is easy.

Linseed oil. That comes from the flax seed that would be grown for the fiber as well.

Turpentine. This is a little tougher. To make turpentine you collect a lot of pine resin and then distill it. I already have and use a still, but there's no way I'm putting pine resin in it. I imagine the taste would never come out. Fortunately, a simple still is easy to make. My first distiller was made from a beer keg, some copper tube, and a trash can.

Drying agent: I still need to look into this more, but basically they are non ionic salts. A little more digging and calcium carbonate is a non ionic salt used as a drying agent. Calcium carbonate is probably the easiest thing to find here besides grass. Limestone.

 

[tump_lion]

dugout?

 

[Muskrat]

After all that, I was thinking of a dugout too. I know the Lewis and Clark expedition made cottonwood dugouts around here. That's probably the most traditional canoe for the area anyway. I wonder how much that would weigh?

Somehow in my warped mind that seems like too simple of a solution. I know it's not easy, but I'm a glutton for an involved process.

 

[memaquay]

Checkout this thread by Daveo, skin on frame building. I think that would yield realistic results using all local resources.
http://www.canoetripping.net/forums.../diy/155-skin-on-frame-16-solo-canoe-finished

 

[Muskrat]

I think skin on frame would be easier than traditional cedar canvas construction. Less wood too. I could probably get away with cottonwood for the stringers and use willow for the ribs.

 

[latremorej]

Lapstrake canoe construction, no fiberglass needed as its just wood and glue.

 

[Muskrat]

Lapstrake canoe construction, no fiberglass needed as its just wood and glue.

If I was up in your neck of the woods lapstrake would be the way to go, just like Rushton, but I'm not blessed with the good timber around here.

I will look into homemade glues, but I doubt anything like that would work for long, if at all. Rushton and the other Adirondack lapstsrake builders used copper tacks or ring nails to join planks. That presents its own challenges for one off production, but I supose it could be done.

I guess what this thought excercise is showing me, and what I knew it would, is that building a lightweight and long lasting boat from absolute scratch is quite a task. We are lucky to have these engineered materials (wood and canvas included) at such easy disposal.

I've been doing some reading on skin on frame construction. I'm already familiar with the method, but I've been looking into alternatives to the modern method. Some suggest using willow shoots about 1/2" diameter to use for the ribs. This is as simple as collecting shoots and bending them in green and allowing them to cure into their shape.

I'm thinking building a skin on frame and covering it with hide would be the easiest now, but that hide would need to be replaced frequently. I don't do much hunting anymore, so I would feel bad sewing on a new hide every year.

The alternative would be making my own canvas, which would be extremely time consuming, but much longer lasting.

Perhaps, I'll start with a hide for year one until I have the flax grown and loomed for year two plus.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Here in Iowa, Birch for a bark canoe is pretty rare.
Pine tar would be easier to make. Splitting slats from a log , and whittled sticks for plugs and pins. If I was serious about it, that's is where I'd start.

I often wondered what the Indians used to cross a river, or a lake for that matter ? Maybe they traded for canoes. They may have burnt out logs. But guessing they just suffered through Hypothermia.

Something ultra lite ? Good luck !

Jim

 

[Guest]

South of the birch line They also made a lot of canoes out of elm bark. Unfortunatly, the elms are are gone.
Turtle

 

[Muskrat]

Ha. Unfortunately. There are some elms around here, but they are all introduced as far as I know. I doubt anyone would be too pleased with me stripping the bark off of a tree in their front yard, especially the ones that would be girthy enough to make a canoe from.

 

[sailsman63]

I will look into homemade glues, but I doubt anything like that would work for long, if at all.

I know its been a while since anyone posted in this thread, But I was intrigued by the idea. You might find fish bladder glue, AKA issingglass, interesting. Looks simple to make, if time consuming, and has a reputation for water resistance when properly prepared.

If you are already looking at oil/resin mixes for protection (= varnish) most glue should be in places that it would not be soaked through, just have some sprinkles slough off the surface.

 

[Muskrat]

Awesome! Never heard of that before. I'll have to check it out. First thing I came across was making it out of carp. We certainly have plenty of those around here. They tend to jump out of the water and right into the boat along the Missouri river, so I wouldn't even have to try to catch them.

 

[Canotrouge]

I like how these guys take it!! From the movie Happy People a year in the taïga.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvrNqyX7XPQ

 

[sailsman63]

That's a much more refined shape than I ever expected out of a dugout canoe...

My first exposure to the idea of Fish-bladder glue was in a discussion of Mongolian horse bows. They would use it to set and bind a sinew back for the bow much as we use epoxy to set glass or carbon fiber today. They would then cover it with birch bark, though on one bow forum, a guy says he uses snakeskin... :/

So you are plagued by those Asian import carp? They have not yet migrated to my area. I've seen pictures of people hunting them by running a boat over their shoal to make them jump, then shooting them in midair with a bowfishing rig. Looks to be an interesting time.

 

[Muskrat]

The Asian carp are here, but they aren't usually a problem in the canoe. They jump when they're startled so that doesn't happen unless you are pulling to shore or in behind a wing dike. Its the power boats that really set them off. They have been known to land in boats, and when they do they typically leave some slime and a stench after you get them out. Luckily this hasn't happened to me yet.