Birch Tripper - Part 2

I recently finished my 2nd commission paddle (read Part 1 here), this one made from Yellow Birch. I ended up sanding down with 400 grit sandpaper rather than my usual 220 grit and it is amazingly smooth.

With some input from myself, my neighbour who commissioned the work has decided on a Great Blue Heron image. We agreed that it would appropriate since the recipient apparently does a lot of paddling in Algonquin Provincial Park and this is probably the most regal bird of the area. While sitting by the shore on my cottage lake (30km from the West Gate of the park) a few weeks back, I witnessed 2 of these magnicifient birds sharing the shoreline and hunting the shallow waters from where I had launched my model canoe earlier. Must be a good spot.

Here is the image I came up with - a composite of some photos & illustrations with some added reeds and cattails.


Closeup of Heron Blade; Unvarnished Paddle
Of course when sealed with varnish, the paddle takes on a more golden hue...


Varnished and ready to go
With this one finished, I'll be taking a bit of a break from paddle making to focus on my full scale birchbark canoe back at the cottage. I doubt I'll be able to get it fully completed now that it is August, but I'm hoping to get the hull stitched up before the summer's over.

Prepping the Bark

Weeks after harvesting the bark, it was time to prepare the stuff for the birchbark canoe build. This involved some pre-soaking before the coiled bark could be safely unrolled on the building bed. I brought down 5 of the largest rolls down to the lake and fastened them together with some nylon cord. I managed to find an old concrete anchor with a rusted chain in the shallows of the lake used this as a tie-down point. Bark is very bouyant of course, so within each roll, I used some stones by the shore to weigh them down and submerge them fully.


Dried bark rolls; Soaking in the lake
After this overnight soak, the bark was carefully unrolled onto the building bed for the messiest part of the process - cleaning. The outer layers of the bark need to be scraped to remove the accumulated moss, dead bark, and general detritus in order for proper stitching with spruce root. Using a dull, broken knife picked up at a flea market for pennies (which I intend to use for harvesting pine resin later) the bark was carefully cleaned. In some areas, this involved peeling the outer layers revealing the clean bark below.


The unrolled bark; Scraping clean; Final result
At this stage, the edges of the bark panels were squared up with a straight edge and utility blade. This is to ensure that there is a clean lap seam when stitched up. For a proper seam, Jim Miller mentions 2", so a the ruler was slipped between the panels to ensure I had this measurement.


Cleaning up the edges; 2" seam overlap
The plywood form was placed back on the bed and using a line rigged up on 2 nails exactly on the centreline, the form was perfectly aligned. Any free lying heavy stones I could find around the property were hauled up and placed on the form to weight it down and ensure it wouldn't move until the foldup of the bark...I'll save that for another post.


Lined up form; Weighted down with stone

Collecting Support Stakes & Prepping Staves

With the Cedar Canvas build behind me, I spent some time preparing some materials for the birchbark canoe build - specifically the 3ft long stakes & staves that'll be used during the foldup of the bark. Instead of paying a small sum for 26, 3ft hardwood dowels, I figured I could save money by harvesting my own. Didn't have to go far. The adjacent hotel property next to our place had a giant pile of wood scraps from a recent landscaping job. After asking the Manager for permission, I was told to take as much as needed. I sifted through the pile (mostly cedar, balsam fir, and maple pieces) and used one of the giant stumps to chop up the stakes and shape their ends to fit into the 1-1/4" holes cut into the building bed. I ended up with 28 stakes of various thicknesses from the pile which should serve adequately for the build


Wood pile; shaping ends with the Wetterlings


The final haul of stakes
To bring all the stakes back, I wrapped them up in a utility strap while using a 30L Barrel Harness to haul the stump back to the garage for when I need to do some re-chopping. The shot below shows the stuff on the building bed. The barrel underneath was used to collect some rainwater during the last monster thunderstorm that ran through our area...30L of water collected in under 15minutes from our rainspout!


The stakes & stump brought back to the garage
During the model canoe build, I found that 1/4" square dowels would work very nicely as inner staves when the bark was folded up to form the hull. The square edges would sit nice and flush with the top of the bark where they were tied to the outer (round) stakes and with an angled edge on the bottom, they would jam in nicely between the plywood building frame and the bark.

While searching through the Home Depot scrap bin (I'm a regular now), I came across some 2x12 cutoffs ranging from 2 to 4 feet. I snagged these up for a buck each and then ripped them into strips using a table saw at the Carpenter's Square while I was there to cut out the building frame. In the end I was left with 28 staves from this cheap source. Home Depot sells 2x2x42" stakes for 89 cents each. Had I purchased these, they would've amounted to $25 with tax and I ended up spending a little over $3 for the materials.

After ripping the wood, I forgot to cut the angle bottoms (quick work with a mitre saw). So instead, I brought them back up north and did this part by hand and shaped the ends with the axe by the growing pile of cut logs on the adjacent hotel property.


Square staves from ripped 2x10 scrap


Shaping with the axe


The angled tips

Simple stuff and another tiny part of the build preparation complete. Slowly but surely, the materials are getting harvested. Next up is sourcing out some cedar.

Cedar Canvas Marathon

Well, the marathon building course at Bearwood Canoes is over. Nine very intense building days coupled with the hour commute each way has been an endurance test for me, but after all the trials and tribulations, I've got me a sweet canoe. It still has to be painted and varnished after the filler has cured in about 4 weeks, but the actual building process is over. Here are some of the pics of the process.


Bending a rib


All ribs bent


Hand sanding the ribs


Garboards and Bottom boards planked


Hammering home the final gore tack


"Birthing" off the form


Hand sanding the exterior planking


Canvassing the boat


Attaching the outwales


Grinding down the rib tops


Seats, Portage Yoke and Stembands in

Decorated Portage Yoke

When I met Pam Wedd of Bearwood Canoes a while back to greet and register for the canoe building course, I mentioned my pyrography and paddle art and that I wanted to do some custom burning on the decking and yoke of the boat. She let me take one of the unfinished, carved cherry yokes that I'd be installing to decorate before the build.


The carved yoke on my messy dining room table
These cherry yokes are by far the most comfortable I've ever tried, with fantastic workmanship and quality cherry for the wood. It seemed to fit perfectly on my shoulders (broader than average) without causing any real pressure points on any protruding bones. The sculpted curvature of the yoke as well as its tapering design on the ends made it challenging for me to come up with a suitable image. At first, I thought about some nature scene, but nothing really fit. Then I thought about some Ottoman Turkish floral designs but they seemed to dainty for this boat. In the end, I went back to the Maori pattern I used on my Cherry Fusion Paddle last year. I found the contrasting, flowy design to be suitable to the curves of the yoke and thought it would be a nice addition when using some of my more tribal paddle art.


Burning the initial lines
Unlike alot of my work that involves transfering images with Saral Transfer paper, I free-handed this one with a basic flow-point, single temperature pyrography pen. After a few days on and off, the basic negative image pattern emerged. Once this is varnished, the natural tone of the cherry with the burned background really looks eye-catching.


The Maori Pattern