What Is the Eastern First Nations Canoe?
The Eastern First Nations canoe is a textbook of native material use, employing large sheets of birchbark wedded to thin bent white-cedar ribs, held in a tension structure by stem and stern arcs and robust thwarts, stitched together with woven spruce roots, and waterproofed with native spruce gum seeps. It was constructed from the outside in, beginning with carefully driven stakes defining the length, plan-view outline, and beam of the craft.
The birchbark sheets were laid in the resulting “cradle,” and cut to create a fair shape. The seams, like all the other elements to follow, were stitched together with spruce roots. Thin ribs soaked into suppleness were then laid into the bark envelope and stitched into the gunwales, stems, and thwarts. Pitch was used to waterproof seams and knot holes.
When winter was closing in, the Ojibway covered their canoes’ interiors with clay and sank them in shallow water, weighted down with stones. Resurrected in the spring, they were ready for another season after drying out for a few weeks. Beyond knapped flint and the later addition of the multiuse “crooked knife,” few tools were employed in the construction of a canoe.
History of the Wood-and-Canvas Canoe
The “head of navigation” is the limit a vessel can work upstream. Thousands of rivers carried colonial American trade along the East Coast and inland to where water falls across granite breaks. Beyond the breaks are millions of miles of streams punctuated by dangerous rapids and wicked cataracts. Yet our frontier society flourished above the breaks, where the only useful cargo paths were streams. An indispensable part of our maritime heritage involved load-bearing boats nimble enough to run rapids but light enough to carry across impossible torrents. First Nations craftspeople developed the ideal craft for this service: canoes.
There were many other native boats. The hide-on-frame Inuit kayak of the far north was a light hunting platform. We recognize many variations of the pirogue dugout, a tree-trunk canoe burnt and scraped out; although too heavy to carry easily, they served their purposes.
The Chippewa/Ojibway of the northeast forests worked with knapped flint, birchbark, seeps of tar, and spruce-root cordage to create tough cargo boats ranging in size from 16′ one-person hunting craft to 50′ voyageur canoes; the larger ones carried two dozen paddlers and several tons of trade goods. The classic canoe form endures today and may never be improved.
On these pages, we’re examining the skills involved in building a celebrated outgrowth of the birch-bark canoe: the wood-and-canvas Ojibway model perfected in the late 1800s.
How to Build a Wood-and-Canvas Canoe
In 200 years, the form of the Ojibway canoe has not been altered significantly. The tools and materials to build such boats have changed, however; the cedar ribs remain, but the birchbark skin has been replaced with cedar planking sheathed with painted canvas instead of birchbark. This tougher, more forgiving, and equally graceful canoe is an object of grace and practicality.
Synthetic materials have copied the form, some more successfully than others. There is no question that generations of paddlers enjoy thin water because of the near-indestructible Grumman aluminum canoe (the fruit of materials advances in aeronautical fabrication) and thin-skinned plastic canoes. For many experienced modern voyageurs, however, the wood-and-canvas canoe is the proper partner in exploring the complexity of rushing fresh water beyond the first daunting portage. The canoe was born here.
Sine Qua Non is Latin for “without which, not.” To build a wood-and-canvas canoe, a few stakes in the earth are not enough. What’s needed is a robust and carefully measured form. This jig (above) is a professional shop’s production form for a specific model of canoe. Years of thought and refinement went into its perfection. The metal strips secured on its face will automatically “buck” the clinch nail points back into the ribs when the planking is attached.
The he steambox is another sine qua non of canoe building. Steam is typically produced by a propane-fired clam boiler boiler or turkey deep-fryer paired with a big boiling pot whose lid is weighted down lightly. The lid is pierced for radiator hose to carry the steam a short run to a big wooden box rigged with internal wooden racks or dowels to hold the lengths of wood to be steamed. How long must the wood be steamed? The rule of thumb is an hour per inch for hardwood, and you’ll tweak this according to the efficiency of your setup and the species and dimension of your wood (see Steam-Bending Frames at the Bench for elaboration). Some builders cover a steambox with old blankets or rugs to keep the heat in.
Using a steambox is playing with fire. Don’t leave it unwatched. At day’s end, disassemble what you can and take away the insulating blankets. Use thick oven mitts or woodstove gauntlets to pluck out your steamed wood; you can sustain a serious burn before you’re aware of the damage.
When the ribs are in place, the planking is laid on with many incremental adjustments, and with deliberate variance in the plank width and shape to keep a fair sequence of planks from keel to inwale.
The bow and stern stems are signature parts of the canoe’s form. They are made of ash, and require steam-bending off the boat, on a dedicated jig.
A steel strip, called a compression strap (above), is clamped onto the stem’s outer arc where the wood fibers are in maximum tension; it exerts compression on the stem’s outer fibers, which are otherwise under tension as the piece is bent. This discourages breakage. Steam and quick work make for a successful bend.
Anchored to the form at its midpoint and where it flattens into the canoe’s hull, the stem will retain its shape after it dries and cools. The much thinner ribs, which are made of white cedar, are bent symmetrically (above) and nailed into the canoe’s inwale, which is clamped to the building form.
Steamed wood, after removal from the steambox, is pliable for a few minutes at most. Hustle but stay safe. Clear a broad way between steambox and canoe. Know what rib (distinctly marked in inches or station) you intend to pull out and where it’s going to go.
Because most of a canoe’s ribs span both sides of the boat, and the window of suppleness is brief, bending ribs is usually a two-person job. The ribs in the narrow bow and stern sections can’t be bent to such a tight curve, so they will be pairs, with each rib mortised into the bow and stern stems and secured with copper ring-shank nails.
To minimize weight, a canoe is made up of thin stock, which is strong enough but requires a certain kind of fastening. Because the rib is only about 5⁄16″ thick, and the planking about 5⁄32″, there’s not enough holding power for a nail or screw. Instead, the canoe’s hull is fastened with hollow-ground copper clinch nails. These nails, when driven, meet the steel strips on the construction jig and curl back solidly into the rib to provide a firm hold.
In places not backed by steel strips, you’ll need a clinching buck, a steel or bronze shape with heft that will fit into tight places and meet the clinch nail’s delicate point to turn it back. If a clinch nail strays from your planned path, take it out and use another.
Few of a canoe’s planks need to be steam-bent, but they’re often wetted down with a sponge or rag to make them more supple. The builder begins nailing planks nearest the canoe’s keel (the jig is upside down). As the planks progress from keel to sheer, the lay of the planks must be adjusted; simple parallel planks become impossible. When a new plank overlaps the just-nailed plank, it must be trimmed to lie flush; with one end of the new plank securely clinch-nailed, a small block plane can shave away as much width is necessary to mate with the plank above it.
Some “cheater planks” will be necessary in the canoe’s planking schedule, each carefully placed so its ends share a rib-width with its neighbor.
Sailmakers and high-fashion designers rely on fabric’s elasticity to assume a shape. Cotton canvas, usually No. 8, 10, or 12, is rugged stuff, but it can be persuaded to assume the canoe’s shape and provide a near-seamless envelope. For lengthwise stretching, the canvas is broad-clamped at both ends and suspended between strongly anchored vertical posts.
When the canoe is seated inside the resulting envelope and blocked down hard from the overhead, a winch or serious tackle exerts high tension. Canvas pliers seize one jaw width at a time and lever the fabric over the plank edges to be secured by the same 11⁄16″ tacks used for the planking—although this time, instead of being clinched, they are driven straight through the top edge of the planking and rib and into the inside rail. There should be a pucker or eyebrow over the tops of the fastenings; if there isn’t, the canvas has not been pulled tight enough.
Generally, building a wood-and-canvas canoe begins with a special relationship with a local sawyer to obtain cedar, ash, and other woods of exceptional quality. The canoe begins with a form or plug that expresses the performance the builder desires. Ribs of 5⁄16″ white cedar are steam-bent symmetrically to the form and fastened to the canoe’s inwale, which has been clamped to the form.
Individual cant ribs continue forward and aft in the thinnest volume of the canoe. Cedar planks of 5⁄32″ thickness are fitted tightly and nailed to the ribs with clinch nails. A canvas sheathing is stretched over the canoe’s structure lengthwise. Canvas pliers stretch the canvas athwartships and up to the inwale so the canvas can be secured with copper fastenings. When the stretched canvas is secured, the bow and stern excess is cut just long enough to form a doubled seam over the stems. The prepared canvas is painted in several penetrating coats with a preserving finish. The outwale, thwarts, seats, bow and stern aprons, and floorboards are fitted.