How Do You Build A Dugout Canoe?

A dugout canoe is a valuable tool for post-apocalyptic homesteads based around large lakes or rivers. To make one, first select a large log that can fit a few people and be cleaned of bark. The log should then be hollowed out using tools like an adze or an axe. After the log is hollowed out, shape it, and finish up, you can get your dugout canoe in the water.

To build a wilderness dugout canoe, you will need a large tree trunk, sharp tools like an ax or adze, a saw, sandpaper, and a waterproof sealant like pitch or tar. Sufficient wood must be removed to make the vessel relatively light in weight and buoyant, yet still strong. Dugout canoes transformed rivers into highways and increased the productivity of lakes, ponds, and marshes.

To create a beautiful, functional canoe, first make drawings of what you want your canoe to look like. Next, make a small model of your canoe to see what it will look like in 3-dimension. For the full canoe, screw the planed gunwales temporay to the hull, drill a series of deep 14mm holes through oak cedar for the plugs, and trim the side of the canoe.

The canoe was first carved as a model from a section of a willow, then an actual full size canoe was created from a 30 by 8 redwood log. To learn more about carving a dugout canoe, check out this 1984 Mother Earth News tutorial on selecting, shaping, and hollowing a cedar log to build a canoe.

Why are dugout canoes stored underwater?

The submerged condition of the canoe enhanced its preservation. In fact, all of the Native American canoes discovered in New England have been found under water. The Bethel canoe is one of three found in Connecticut, and is now a part of the anthropology collections at the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History at the University of Connecticut.

Can you make a dugout canoe out of pine?

Dugout Canoes, carved out of a single log, have had the same basic design for the past 7,000 years. Timucuan people of Florida made this 21-foot-long canoe about 500 years ago. Made from a single tree, dugouts transported people, goods, and ideas.

Pine canoe. Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace.

Pine canoe. Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace.

What type of wood to build a canoe?

Northern white cedar is absolutely the best wood for canoe ribs and planking. Its light weight, strength, flexibility and rot resistance can not be matched by any other wood. Although Maine has vast quantities of white cedar, it is still very difficult to find, select and sort out the knot- and defect-free lumber that is required for canoe construction.

The rough stock, ribs, and planking offered by Northwoods Canoe Company are from plain-sawn lumber, which means most of the pieces will have flat grain patterns. All wood is of the best premium canoe grade. A one inch thick board is normally thick enough to produce two ribs or thee pieces of planking. The edges of lumber are rough, so to produce a 3″-wide plank, it needs to start with a 4″-wide board to smooth up the sides to the 3″.

Northwoods Canoe Company has been able to obtain a treasured amount of quarter-sawn white cedar which is available ONLY as pre-cut planking, 3″ wide, 5/32″ thick, in six- to eight-foot lengths.

What is the best wood to make a dugout canoe?

In Eastern North America, dugout canoes were typically made from a single log of chestnut or pine. Carefully controlled fires were used to hollow out these logs. The fires were extinguished at intervals to scrape out the burned wood with a wood, shell or stone tools, giving the canoes a flat bottom with straight sides.

How was the dugout canoe made?

Construction. Dugout canoes used by Indigenouspeoples were constructed from softwoods, such as cedar, basswood and balsam. The gigantic red cedar was the preferred wood used by the highly esteemed canoe builders. Drift logs were desirable but, if unavailable, trees were cut down using a stone maul (a type of tool) with bone, antler or stone chisels and controlled burning.

Hand adzes were used to shape the exterior form of the canoe, followed by hollowing out of the interior. Hot water was used to render the canoe pliable; wooden spreaders were then inserted between the gunwales to extend the beam of the canoe beyond the natural width of the log. High end pieces were carved separately and attached to the bow or stern using a sewing technique. Settlers using iron tools created smoothly crafted dugouts prior to the introduction of the plank-built canoe.

Canoes were colourfully decorated with animal designs using red ochre, black char and assorted animal teeth and shells. Propulsion was achieved using leaf-shaped single-blade paddles and square cedar mat sails.

Types of Dugout Canoes. Although there was considerable variation in size and shape of West Coast dugouts, two basic designs dominated the large, 10 to 15 m sea-going canoes. The Northern style used by Tlingit, Tsimshian, Nuxalk (Bella Coola) and Kwakwaka’wakw was perfected by the Haida of HaidaGwaii. It had a rounded hull, flaring sides and a strong sheer along the gunwales rising to high stem and stern projections. The extended prow culminated in a near vertical cutwater. The intrepid Haida seamen dominated coastal trade and their canoe was the most prized object of trade with the mainland FirstNations.

How easy is it to make a canoe?

So You Want to Build a CanoeIt’s Probably Easier than you Think.. Making a strip canoe isn’t particularly hard … you will need to have some woodworking skills or the patience to acquire them; a budget for reasonably good materials and tools; a place to build it; and some free time..

Time | A Place to Build | Budget | Skills | Choices Choices Choices.

I’m going to take a slightly different approach than most writers might when discussing whether building a cedar strip boat is within the capacity of any particular woodworker.

What tools do you need to make a dugout canoe?

Tools used: Chain saw, ax and adze to remove the material. It can be done with a bucksaw or even without steel tools by using wooden or stone wedges, fire and stone tools. You will need a great deal more time with this method.

1) Make drawings of what youwant your canoe to look like. If you are looking for referenceon indigenous traditional canoes, do a search online for making a dugout canoe.

2) Make a small model of your canoeto see what it will look like in 3-dimension.

What are the steps of making a dugout canoe?

Dugout CanoeStep 1: Get a Log. We bought our log from a lumber company since we were in a hurry to make it on time for a museum. … Step 2: Tools Used: … Step 3: Make a Modle and Remove Bark: … Step 4: Cut, Saw, Adze… … Step 5: Shape. … Step 6: Finish Up… … Step 7: Get Your Dugout Canoe in the Water!

This dugout canoe was created for the Hayward Area Historical Society Museum. The canoe is part of the exhibition from the California Exhibition Resources Alliance (CERA).

This canoe was first carved as a model from a section of a willow. Then an actual full size canoe was created from a 30″ by 8′ redwood log. Choose spruce, pine, cedar, cottonwood or redwood.

We bought our log from a lumber company since we were in a hurry to make it on time for a museum. Try to find a downed tree to use as your log. Ask around; keep your eyes out; be ready, as you will want to work the log green since it carve much easier. Best to find your log next to water so you can get your boat into the water with out hauling. Some times you can find a log washed up on on a beach.

How thick is a dugout canoe?

Phil Johnston of Orofino has made more than twelve dugouts (including the one in the BLM Lewis and Clark Bicentennial poster), and this is his most recent, put in a pond just a week before our test put it in the rapids. It is 19′ 10″ long, 33″ wide and weighs about 1400 pounds, made of Ponderosa pine. The flat bottom is 28″ wide. It has minimum chines, about 3-4″ at 55-60 degrees, then a vertical side, 19″ high top to bottom. The gunwales are 2″ thick, and the bottom is 6″ thick, twice as much as Walt Marten’s. The bow is quite wide and blunt, though narrowed in half at the entry line. Phil, and the canoeists standing on the bank, were worried about the sharp, vertical sides of this new boat in the heavy cross currents, so we paddled this boat last.

Length overall: 19′ 10″ Width, outside: 33″ Width, bottom: 28″ (4/5 of width) Height, outside: 19″ Depth, inside: 13½” Thickness, gunwales: 2″; floor: 5½–6″ Chines: 55°–60°; 3–4″ Weight: c. 1400 pounds.

This is Phil’s “A” boat, one of his first. It is 33′ long, 33″ wide, and weighs 2400 pounds. The flat bottom is 17″ wide, only a little more than half the canoe’s width, which one would think might make it unstable, but it comes up to 45 degree straight chines a foot wide (huge and steep chines), then to vertical sides, 21″ top to bottom. The bottom is 7″ thick, and Phil said the canoe was very stable in easy water.

How were dugouts constructed?

A type of dwelling, shelter, or other structure that is wholly or partially below ground constitutes a dugout. Dugouts were often carved into the sides of hills, banks, or ravines and were enclosed by a front wall built of sod or logs. Where the terrain possessed little relief, dugouts were hollowed out of the ground to a depth of about two to six feet. They were typically rectangular in plan and measured between twelve and eighteen feet on a side. The roof was supported by purlins, logs, or poles extending the length of the dugout.

Dugouts represent a type of vernacular architecture closely associated with but not unique to the North American prairie plains. Some colonists on the eastern seaboard and Mormon settlers in Utah constructed and lived in dugout shelters. On the Great Plains the dugout was often one of the first dwellings constructed by settlers as they confronted the challenge of building in a largely treeless environment. In Oklahoma dugouts were utilized in the central and western portions of the state. After the land openings some homesteaders built dugouts as a way of validating their claim. In numerous instances, dugout schools and dugout churches were also built.

As dwellings, dugouts were affordable and practical. They provided refuge from tornadoes, a warm hearth in the winter, and a cool retreat in the summer. Problems with ventilation, lighting, insects, flooding or seepage, and the stigma of living underground like prairie dogs, contributed to the perception of the dugout as an expedient but temporary solution to a housing problem. Indeed, the social pressure to live in a frame house, together with improved access to milled lumber, spelled the demise of the dugout as a residential form. Few dugouts were built in Oklahoma after 1900, and many of those still in existence were used as cellars or storm shelters.

How deep should a dugout be?

Historically, most dugouts have been about 12 feet (3.7 m) deep. However, new larger structures are being excavated to depths of 15, 18, and 21 feet (4.6, 5.5, and 6.4 m) and even deeper. A deeper dugout is more efficient because it has less surface area for the same capacity, and thus loses less water to evaporation.