Rawhide canoe seat lacing pattern

[frozentripper]

This is still online, for anybody wanting to make canoe seats in this Huron pattern...

The original page that I used made seats for my stripper years ago showing the pattern and description disappeared, as things often do on the internet. Maybe it's been replaced here:

https://canoeguybc.wordpress.com/tag/rawhide-lacing/

Making the seats was an enjoyable way to spend evenings and they turned out to be a good match to the wood tones in the stripper.

The basic pattern can also be used to make rawhide furniture (maybe a good winter project which is why these pix are here)... for a finer weave add in more rows of lacing.

 

[BWCA66]

Pretty much snowshoe pattern.

 

[Guest]

Thanks! Just what I need to make a rawhide seat for my new Slipstream faux Birch bark Betula.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Rawhide is cool !
But if you want a long lasting look alike, go with nylon Snow Shoe cord.

It will likely outlast your canoe !

Jim

 

[frozentripper]

BWCA...

Pretty much snowshoe pattern.

This was an easier lacing pattern that was chosen when building the stripper... an older canoe bought during the 60s sometime had a different method of doing the lacing but still produced the six-pointed star shapes running through the rawhide that creates the attractive design. I really can't remember now what the exact differences were, I'll have to get to where the canoe is stored to find out.

Glad you guys liked the idea... once you start in with rawhide lacing, it's addicting and you might want to make more (like making furniture, here we go again).

If you do make canoe seats, you'll probably have to splice rawhide because otherwise the lengths get very long and time-consuming to feed through and around all the loops and strips. Make sure that the ends of the splice nub (they will dry sharp) will be facing down towards the hull bottom and not facing up, where they will poke holes in pants and butt. Also keep the splice near the wood frame where the splice nubs will not tend to catch on anything.