Dugout canoes were traditionally made from chestnut or pine logs in Eastern North America, using controlled fires to hollow them out. The fires were then extinguished at intervals to scrape the burned wood with wood, shell, or stone tools, resulting in a flat bottom with straight sides. The key is to keep the fire small, aiming to burn a short section of the tree without getting it too big to burn higher up the tree than desired.
The art of crafting a wilderness dugout canoe keeps ancient traditions alive as sunlight filters through dense foliage. Master archaeologists rely on ethnohistoric sources that mention how Native Americans made dugout canoes using stone tools and fire. Contemporary examples of dugouts include Echo Hill Staff Naturalist James Stankiewicz, who demonstrates how Chesapeake Native Americans would have used fire and scraping implements to make these canoes.
The bottom of the canoe was burned in the same method to have a flat bottom that would enable the craft to carry large loads while gliding through the water. The final procedure was to coat the entire canoe with a bucketaw or even without steel tools.
However, making a native American dugout canoe can be challenging due to injuries, such as second-degree burns from kneeling on hot coal or a log burned through a basket of corne. Modern chainsaws, adzes, and fire are often used, but gauging the thickness of the canoe remains a challenge.
📹 From Tree to Canoe Part 1 – Chopping and Burning
The first step in our journey to make an Early American Dugout Canoe. Special thanks to Erik Vosteen for his help and expertise …
What are dugouts made of?
Dugout, any boat made from a hollowed log. Of ancient origin, the dugout is still used in many parts of the world, including Dominica, Venezuela, and Melanesia. Sizes of dugouts vary considerably, depending on the bodies of water they ply. The hull of a dugout used for ocean travel—as it was on both coasts of North America and continues to be elsewhere—could be as long as 30 metres (100 feet). The dugout is streamlined outside for maneuverability and is dug out by burning, chipping, and scraping to make it both strong and buoyant enough for its intended cargo. It formed the basis for more complicated construction by the addition of planking to the sides, such as in the pirogue. See also canoe.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.
How are dugouts made?
Dugout, any boat made from a hollowed log. Of ancient origin, the dugout is still used in many parts of the world, including Dominica, Venezuela, and Melanesia. Sizes of dugouts vary considerably, depending on the bodies of water they ply. The hull of a dugout used for ocean travel—as it was on both coasts of North America and continues to be elsewhere—could be as long as 30 metres (100 feet). The dugout is streamlined outside for maneuverability and is dug out by burning, chipping, and scraping to make it both strong and buoyant enough for its intended cargo. It formed the basis for more complicated construction by the addition of planking to the sides, such as in the pirogue. See also canoe.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.
What are the cons of a wooden canoe?
Cons: Susceptible to sun damage. Lack of rigidity can lead to poor performance over time.Heavy.
Best For: Recreational paddlers and rambunctious kids. Perfect for a cottage.
Softshell. Travel canoes are made of durable and flexible reinforced fabrics like PVC, polyester and nylon. Some require setting up an internal structure, giving form to the fabric, while others are completely inflatable. Many will pleasantly surprise you with their durability, performance and price. Some models are rated for class IV whitewater.
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.
Are canoes easy to make?
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.
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 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.
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.
How were Aztec canoes made?
Most general-purpose canoes – those depicted in codices – averaged 14 feet in length, were dug out from a single tree trunk and had upturned ends. They were propelled by wooden pole or paddle.
This article is written largely with information from Mexicolore, and used with their gracious permission.We thank them for allowing us to share this story here.To learn more about the lives of the Aztec Indians, visit their web site here: Mexicolore.
Mexicolore (“Mexico – the Lore of the Land”) was established in 1980 by Graciela Sánchez and Ian Mursell. Together they have worked for over 35 years in partnership with museums, the BBC, schools, institutions, groups and individuals to educate about Mexico’s culture and people.
Don Antonio de Mendoza, the viceroy of New Spain, commissioned a book to be created in 1535 to document the history of the Aztec rulers and their conquests, a list of the tribute paid by the conquered, and a description of daily Aztec life, using traditional Aztec pictograms with Spanish commentary. This book is called the Codex Mendoza (a codex is an ancient manuscript).There are also several other Mesoamerican codex books, and together these comprise a priceless historical record of ancient Aztec life in the 16th century.
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.
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.
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.
📹 Making a Stone Age Dugout Boat with Fire
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“Stone Ax (Some assembly required)” … I see what you did there! Also, Andy, please keep the boat and add a floating aid on the left side (when facing from the seat, looking at the camera). There are many cultures who still use such canoes with side floats. I mean, the alternative would be getting another log-canoe and adding them side to side, but I think the floats would be easier to make since you don’t need to dig into the log (with fire or tools) more than is needed to attach them to one or two thinner logs. The next step, after the canoe with side-floats, could be a raft made with lots of smaller-diameter logs tied with rope.
I love these projects man, it’s so cool seeing someone re-create early tech. I think an issue you’re running into, though, is that you’re just choosing any old wood. You said your supplies were limited, which is fair, but even still, I think a big part of what these projects hinge on isn’t just the process of creation, but the selection and quality of the materials you use
Im really curious about your perspective of this “adventure” youve been going on through the ages. Is it fun to learn about old techniques and technologies, and then apply them yourself? What have been some of the struggles we dont get to see on camera? How long do things like this take? did you ever expect this series to garner as much attention as it did and how did you react.
I know this article is 4 years old and this comment will probably never be seen, but this website and especially this project has helped me a lot with my feelings about my body. I’m just under 5 feet tall and that has always been one of the hardest things in my life, since in our modern culture being small is associated with being weak and really has no advantages. But between this project and articles in the mines I’ve started the realise how many things it IS useful to be small for… they’re just not things we actually do anymore. Thank you!
I feel like the choice to commentate during the process, while still out of breath, was a great one. Like… all the numbers and shots of doing stuff were beautifully illustrative of how much effort this stuff takes, but just hearing that effort in yalls voices just makes me FEEL it on a deep, instinctual level. XP
I think this is one of the most wholesome of your articles. Sure, the addition of the expert CATptain sailor and the kids adds some extra niceness for likes and comments but overall this is the project where I saw the most success to pain ratio ever. Even perusal you splashing was a bit wholesome too! 😀 You all seemed more professional having talked to experienced people and applying their concepts and ideas (not that you haven’t done it before, take that for granted) and it looked, maybe through edition magic that the project was way more straightforward than most without serious issues and setbacks. I always hate perusal you suffer with all the problems these projects have and in the end you manage to success (even through many, many articles) and I am truly happy when you do, but for a change I liked that this one turned out so much better and easily. I consider this a complete success and I’ll watch when you add stabilizers to it. You all rock! Great team! Pay my salute to the CATptain!
I’m only 8 minutes into the article and I’m loving it and I’ve got to say your Mel chemistry advertisement was done so smoothly and entertaining with your niece and nephew that I didn’t even notice there’s an advertisement until we’ve got back on track that was really done nicely nice and smooth and didn’t wasn’t jarring and displacing like a normal commercial it was really pleasant. You’re doing great.
Andy and team: I originally came to this website just fascinated to learn the behind-the-scenes things that go on in producing stuff for our every day lives. And now that you’re in this new phase of HTME I’m even more drawn in. I absolutely love and admire the commitment you all have to this project, down to using your own ceramic bowls to mix the prehistoric glue. Keep up the good work! I look forward to perusal you progress through the eons.
Man, my first instinct would be to make it “wider”, by adding another smaller log on one side using two struts to spread out the weight, since wood typically floats by itself. That’d help the balance, and add a little more flotation overall. I’d also take the lesson learned by making my own pottery to build up the sides by making a longer lip, firing it solo, and then seal it onto the boat via the hot pitch method so I have a waterproof barrier where I ran out of wood. Not authentic, but probably less of a flip-trap. Very cool work though! This whole series looks amazing (I’m coming to it as of today) and this is like my dream job. I love doing stuff from scratch!
5:55 I love the little fella chippin in. Just how I imagine it would have been in the day, kids learning by example from their fathers (or uncles). Nowadays, all my kids see of my work is me hunched over my keyboard, they have no idea what I am doing. Tried to explain it, but it just goes over their heads.
You could add extra bits of a log to the sides for balance and still make it usable. I can’t remember where I saw that kind of old boat before but it’s sort of log “training wheels”. They wouldn’t need to be very big either. I’m loving this series, btw. 😀 Edit: You already seem to have this thought out. Respect. I didn’t see this before adding my thoughts. lol. I just didn’t want to forget what I was thinking.
I worked at a Boy Scout camp as a lifeguard for a few years. At one point, we had a challenge for the campers to make a “boat” with the stuff they could find around camp and race to see who made the best boat. Although some cheated and found dock foam (the stuff that makes old wooden docks float, basically looks and feels like much finer styrofoam) some of the wooden… well, basically rafts they made worked surprisingly well. Turns out stability counts for a ton in a race of makeshift boats made by teenagers. Also, pro tip, as it looks like you noticed, using an adult PFD on a child doesn’t really work. Both for how they can move and for how they float, the PFD rides up really far and wouldn’t keep their head above water.
You should look into a long reed or other hollow stick, it keeps your face out of the fire while you blow and it enables you to concentrate the oxygen and heat to one area for a stronger burn. It’s great for using fire to cut holes in logs for something like a cabin or a hinge hole for a cantilever lift.
You might be able to widen it a bit using hot water. Fill it with water and then baked rocks until the water boils and wedge sticks into the top to slowly widen it where you need it, the process can also cause the ends to rise up slightly in the classic canoe shape. You’ll need to do more research on that though as I’ve only read about it in books. Steam shaping might come in handy when making your bow too.
I got candidate in master of sport in rowing and gotta say, that canoe is a really good one. The problem is that you’d beed a great deal of experience of balancing yourself to actually row it. Kids did that because it’s easier for them to balance yourself. Though, with some practice, you’ll be able to use it too
Just as a tip for the next time you are carrying something like a log. Take a loop of rope and instead of just sticking a bar through it and having two points of weight being hwld by two people, twist the bar(log) around until the rope is twisted together so that there is only one point of weight being supported by two people.
Just an FYI, the reason the canoe waw very tippy was because of the fact you wrre in that kneeling position. Canoeing is all about using your body weight to control and steer, the padel really doesnt do as nuch as you might expect. You should have your legs in front of you, with your knees turned outward toeards the edges of the canoe, gove you much bettet control
I have done that kind of canoe, althoug using a steel axe. The tree chosed is too narrow. And the first step is to shape the bottom in contact with the water. When done, THEN you start carving the wood with fire. Better if when you made the first cut, let more wood in the sides, for higher “walls” of the canoe, in order to avoid water filling the canoe when there are waves.
The earliest boats were crude reed bowls called a variety of things such as Basket Boats and Coracles. Most are coated in some type of resin for waterproofing. Sadly, they don’t hold up well over the ages so it’s hard to pin down a date. We have remains from the early bronze age and some record stating that cultures had used them for as long as anyone knew their own history at the time. Interestingly, these are still used today in Asia. Furthermore, while boat remnants are rare we do have many neolithic cave paintings depicting boats so the real ages is much older. – Worth noting here that rafts and boats are not the same thing.
So something you can do to help the canoe with the tipping is to add pontoons. These will give you a wider margin of error with the build Edit: to add, what prehistoric people likely did to build canoes was to use fire to cut a downed tree to shape (like how you burned out the sitting area). The stone axes were used to help the process along.
Try talking to some First Nations, or Metis people in your state. See what they can tell you about how their ancestors made canoes. Or talk to James Townsend. In places like Minnesota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, there is a very large amounts of lakes to test out a homemade canoe. Great article. Cheers!
you need to add some pontoons. to stabilize. like RIGHT where you are sitting the second time you flipped over. It won’t be “pure”, I guess, but it should keep you from rolling. How much does the boat displace when you are inside it? How far are you from the water? Best case, get a bigger log. But I think pontoons would help with buoyancy too.
Green tree, of sufficient width, with ZERO bugs, low level limbs (knots), rot, or disease. Chop into log(s) of more than sufficient length. Haul boat sized logs into a cool dry place, like the inside of a dry shed. Allow to dry and season for at least 1 year. THEN use fire to hollow it out… from the beginning. There is NO need to split the log. Just let the fire take the sides down as ar as you need, and just keep chopping away the charcoal as it does so. A PROPERLY BUILT fire hollowed canoe… can take a YEAR OR MORE to build with just two people. Entire villages used to get in on building just one boat, and even with 10-50 people it can STILL take as long as a year; depending on how much wood is removed by hand, how much is removed by fire, how hot it burns, how long it takes to burn out, how dense the wood is, ho many people there are to cut and chop and burn it, and how much moisture is still in the tree trunk. You and just your family? A tree sufficiently wide enoungh for you? If it’s not already rotted out like that then -> at least<- 6 months of DAILY and constant work, working at it. As in "this is my job now". Having to work in the real world though, and dojng this essentially as an ad sense paid hobby... 1-2 years probably not counting seasoning the log in a dry shed. And the whole process NEEDS to be done inside a cool dry area where moisture, insects, fungus, and mold are absolutely kept completely at bay. Even the slightest bit of mold on the log as it seasons can cause leak holes or worse, get inside the wood of the log and obliterate it from the inside out. This would take a LONG time to do, but it is still a concern. Yes you can just take fallen trees and do this, but as you saw it is WAY less reliable.
Late to the party, but in addition to the higher center of gravity it seems the narrow body of the canoe forced you to torque your hips, and when you tried to square your shoulders to the fore of the canoe you were inadvertently pulling yourself over. I haven’t spotted another mention of your boat in other thumbnails (working my way through the reset chronologically) but I hope you didn’t lose it in the fire!
Dude if your ever in Texas i have a huge dead live oak tree that’s about 100 years old and about as big around as 4 of you put together, maybe bigger. You can have a good chunk of it if you want it for a boat! Its not hollow. And its still standing. You will have to do most of the work to get it for free. Just get a trailer and a big azz chain saw!
Why not make a pontoon or catamaran? Ie make two floating stabilizers on either side of the canoe. This would stop the canoe from flipping over. This was used in polynesia as a way to stabilize the boat when going between islands in rougher seas. Making a net to sling between the stabilizers and the main craft also gives you cargo capacity although increases complexity.
I think making the paddle thinner/lighter will help too, so you don’t have to shift your center of gravity as much to paddle. Otherwise yeah, I think outriggers would be the only way to prevent rolling, since it’s so narrow. Would it be cheating to build the sides up higher with wood and pine glue? Assuming that’s even viable…
If you plane the top before you do the burnout it will work a little better. Also you were sitting in it wrong. Feet in front, ass flat on the bottom is how you should start with that kind of simple boat. Think of it similarly to an open-topped kayak. It really wasn’t ever meant to long journeys or a lot of time on the water either.
Unless the previous tool is one time use I don’t think it’s valid to count it towards the cost of creation. It just makes it artificial inflation. It’s sort of like saying the cost of a flight to new york is 100m because that’s the cost of the plane and then saying wait no we also need to include the cost of the machines that made the bolts.