Summer 2019 - Working on new paddles

Any morsel of free time was spent working on paddles this summer. At the moment, I have 3 distinct designs being worked on. First up is a 58" replica of the circa 1860's Woodland paddle collected from the St. John River area in New Brunswick featured earlier in this post here.

NORTHEASTERN WOODLANDS (Malecite?) CANOE PADDLE

Circa 1860
5 ft. 3 3/4 in. 
Maple

I didn't have any birds-eye to work with, but just used plain soft maple. Still have to work on symmetry and the grip area, but here is the progress so far. It will likely be stained to match the honey-toned patina of the original.

1860 St. John River paddle in soft maple

Simultaneously, I've been working down a choice piece of spruce to make a reproduction of a pole grip Cree paddle dated to circa 1930-1935. The original with a black painted blade is in the Musee de Quai Branly in Paris, France.

Pagaie

Géographie :  Amérique –  Amérique du Nord –  Canada

Culture :  Amérique –  Cree

Date :  1930-1935

Dimensions et poids :  158.5cm  x 12.5cm, 647 g

Donateur :  Paul Coze

Précédente collection :  Musée de l'Homme (Amérique)

Numéro d'inventaire :  71.1931.44.155

Source Link

My version was hewn with an axe and turned out ok except for a cumbersome knot at the top of the pole grip which created a slight bulge in an otherwise straight shaft. It was easily worked down with a crooked knife creating lots of wood shavings and bits for the evening camp fires.

c1930-1935 Cree Paddle in spruce

The inspiration for this final paddle is an illustration by famed Canadian artist, Arthur Heming (1870-1940), who travelled with voyageur brigades at the very end of the fur trade era. This specific artwork depicted a hardy voyageur  climbing up a steep slope with a tumpline loaded with a crate and large sacks of supplies. A narrow paddle with an oval bobble grip acts as a support stick.

This particular illustration was selected to visualize a description of a tough uphill portage by the canoe party in J.W. Tyrell's Across the sub-Artics of Canada, published in 1898 and available on Archive.org. Heming accompanied Tyrell on this trip and sketched many realistic portraits of the crew and environment. It stands to reason that the accomplished artist drew this paddle design from a realistic sample in the field.

My version was made from a narrow basswood board and also worked down with a crooked knife and spokeshave. Still not finished yet but it is coming along...

Heming Voyageur replica

Here are all three paddle side by side for comparison. Interesting to see that in their raw states, they all have similar pale tone. 

2019 Summer's work so far

Ville K's 2nd paddle submission

Blog reader Ville K from Finland sent in his second paddle creation (see his first paddle here).  This one features the same "Algonquin" blade shape described in Graham Warren's books but has Ville's own style of the elongated Northwoods grip.

This paddle is also made with from aspen and is sealed with a traditional Scandinavian pine tar / boiled linseed oil / wood turpentine mixture. This time around, Ville explained that he applied another layer the next day, when the first treatment was still moist.  He believes this wet on wet  method resulted in a better surface treatment and also resulted in some pleasant tar colour being absorbed into the wood.  Well done!

Blanchard's 2019 Adirondack Auction paddles

Blanchard's Auctions is hosting their Adirondack Auction beginning August 9th. Their online listings of items includes a variety of canoes and paddles.

First off, a vintage all wood canoe listed as a 16foot J.H. Rushton with half round ribs

Full Listing

Also included in the collection is a 72 1/2" long paddle with green painted blade and extended grip. It apparently appeared in a book, Ralph Kylloe's Cabin Collectibles on page 84.

Full Listing

Grip Closeup

Below is a photo of a birds-eye maple paddle from Boston maker F. Brodbeck. It is 68 1/4" long with a motif etched into the short handle base. The company was active from 1898 to 1930, so this paddle can be roughly dated.  For comparison sake, another Brodbeck paddle (with an H inscribed on the grip) was featured on this site here.

Full Listing

Blade Closeup

Etching closeup on grip

Another wide blade with broad handle is featured below This one is 69 1/2" long

Full Listing

2019 Temagami Canoe Festival

Wasn't able to attend the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association 40th anniversary Assembly in upstate New York. Turns out every year there is  small, 2 day canoe-themed festival held in Temagami on the same weekend. This year, I made the drive up on the Saturday to check out the waterside exhibits set up by the main town docks.

One of the neat features was a small brigade of voyageur canoes which made their way to shore and set up camp...

Got to meet Dave from Sewn Home, a new canvas tent maker based out of Timmins, Ontario. He had a variety of tents and tarps setup all with dried spruce poles.

I was there to check out the canoes and paddles of course. Here was a neat one in the booth of a Coureur du Bois trapper. Included alongside the display of  pelts was a hand-made paddle with an etching of the typical travel route in the region from Montreal to Fort Temiscamingue just northeast of here.

 Bob's Backcountry Paddles had a nice booth with wide array of hardwood paddles. Like myself, Bob decorates the blades with some pyrography, mostly maps of local Temagami waterways.

Really liked his portable display stand made from a half log and wire backing...

A solo paddling display was conducted right off the main dock for the audience. You'll also see some folks checking out a red canoe up on the dock in the background. I went over and took a couple of pics as well.

Turns out it was an older model from the Temagami Canoe Co, said to be Canada's 2nd oldest surviving canoe company. The short boat was particular wide, someone akin to a Chestnut Bob's Special. The bow seat was covered with a fuzzy sheepskin top for ultimate seating comfort.

Other wood canvas canoes were on display. Here is a restored 17 foot cruiser made by another local maker, Garden Island Canoe Company. The maker constructs seats with woven nylon cordage that get varnished forming a tough weave that is more ideal that cane for tripping canoes.

Another beauty on display was a 16footer built on the original Prospector form of Chestnut Canoe. The maker, Hugh Stewart from Headwater Canoe Co in Wakefield, Quebec was on hand. Hugh was one of the few individuals to acquire Chestnut canoe forms when the company folded in 1979. This one was being raffled off as a 2nd place prize for a local contest.

The highlight for me was seeing the various birchbark canoes on display. Very impressive was this canoe built by an impressive young lady from Bear Island First Nation with an elder last summer. The canoe made the the trip down the Lower Missinaibi River to Mattice as part of inaugural journey.

The cedar thwarts had etchings of a feather and the maker also implanted feathers in the stem deck weavings...

The main outfitter in town also had an impressive collection of modern canoes...

Inside was a rare treat...another bark canoe dated to be at least 80+ years old but needing substantial repair. With the broken lashings holding the thwarts, the canoe has widened quite a bit, but the woodwork was very neat revealing a skilled builder.

Next year I plan to attend the whole 2 day event with the WCHA and setup the historic paddle display.

Braunschweig model canoe (c1775-1780)

Found another miniature canoe model dating to the late 18th century in the collection of the Municipal Museum of Braunschweig. Apparently, it was featured in a recent exhibition  entitled "Wide Look: Municipal Museum of Braunschweig and the Cultures of the World"

Source Link

A few of these model canoes have been mentioned earlier on this site. The 1760 Chartres Canoe, the 1760 Farquharson model, the 1794 Rennes canoe and the Mashantucket Pequot model canoe. These canoes were constructed as souvenir reflections of native life in America and produced as a unique collaboration between native groups and French Canadian nuns living in the St. Lawrence River Valley. 

Often purchased for wealthy patrons in Europe, most were collected by British soldiers. The Braunschweig model traces it origins to German mercenary officers serving with the British during the American Revolutionary period. 

The Braunschweig (Brunswick) regiments  arrived in Canada during the summer and fall of 1776 and took up quarters near Trois-Rivières, a major full-sized canoe building center and home to an Ursuline monastery where these model canoes were being fabricated. The regiments all came from lands ruled by Duke Herzog Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1714 - 1774), a famed collector of curiosities in his lifetime. Tourist souvenirs were obtained to enrich the Braunschweig and other private cabinets during this opportunity. The cabinet collection of Duke Herzog Anton Ulrich was ultimately transferred to a municipal museum (Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig) in 1899 where records reveal that this birchbark canoe  entered the archives.  

The paddles are decorated in a variety of basic styles. One is fully painted red, not unlike the artwork by James Peachey created roughly in the same time frame. Another contains diagonal stripes very much the paddles from Chartres, and the final paddle features a series of dots that match the decoration on the canoe. With a new paddle making season approaching, I might attempt a full sized replica of one of these Braunschweig paddles, much like the full sized Neuchatel replica made last year