Good neanderthal skills in use here

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueFiy-uxI4Y

[Patrick Chase]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueFiy-uxI4Y

That was fun to watch. It took me a couple seconds to realize why they were bashing painted dowels into the hull. I can't think of any better way to obtain uniform hull thickness, though, and it's critical to the final/expanded hull form (stiffness goes as thickness cubed, so thick or thin areas may significantly kink the hull when it's steam-bent).

It also helps explain the massive weight of the "bench chisels" from the thread a few weeks back. These guys aren't doing the sort of stuff most of us do.

[Bill White]

Do NOT get into a bar fight with these guys.
Bill

[William Fretwell]

A fun, well produced video. Great with my morning coffee. I hope the canoe lasts a very long time after all that effort. It did look a bit tippy however.

[Patrick Chase]

A fun, well produced video. Great with my morning coffee. I hope the canoe lasts a very long time after all that effort. It did look a bit tippy however.

You'd ideally want a somewhat flatter bottom than that, to raise the metacenter.

I suspect you could achieve a more stable hullform by manipulating the thickness, for example by thinning out the bottom so that it tends to straighten more (and become flatter) when the canoe is steamed and expanded. Stiffness is proportional to thickness cubed, so I doubt you'd have to taper the thickness much to achieve a flat bottom.

All of this has nothing to do with its value as a piece of woodworking, though.

[Michael J Evans]

Patrick,
Sorry for my ignorance, can you expand on why they put the dowels in the hull?

[Patrick Chase]

Patrick,
Sorry for my ignorance, can you expand on why they put the dowels in the hull?

So that they could tell when they'd reached the desired thickness.

If you watch carefully you'll see that they dip the dowels in some sort of paint or dye before driving them home. When hogging out the interior they stop whenever they reach that paint. The result is a uniform wall thickness.

My point in post 5 is that they might have achieved a better hullform if they'd used shorter dowels in the bottom than in the sides, such that the bottom would end up thinner. The wood would then tend to "de-curve" more on the bottom than on the sides during steaming and thereby yield more of a conventional flat-bottomed hull profile. I have no idea whether that was common practice for such canoes, but it seems like it would be a fairly obvious refinement even if the builders of yore didn't know what a metacenter is.

[Michael J Evans]

So that they could tell when they'd reached the desired thickness.

If you watch carefully you'll see that they dip the dowels in some sort of paint or dye before driving them home. When hogging out the interior they stop whenever they reach that paint. The result is a uniform wall thickness.

My point in post 5 is that they might have achieved a better hullform if they'd used shorter dowels in the bottom than in the sides, such that the bottom would end up thinner. The wood would then tend to "de-curve" more on the bottom than on the sides during steaming and thereby yield more of a conventional flat-bottomed hull profile. I have no idea whether that was common practice for such canoes, but it seems like it would be a fairly obvious refinement even if the builders of yore didn't know what a metacenter is.

Thanks,
I didn't realize the dowels worked as a depth stop per se.

[george wilson]

I used to drill holes all over violin tops and backs after shaping the outside of these parts. The holes's depth stopped at a pre set distance from the outside surfaces of the tops and backs. Then,I'd scoop out the interior till the bottoms of the holes were reached. Then,I could begin thinning them near their inside edges,and tap tuning the plates until they were a semi tone apart. This prevents wolf notes as the violin body has no "body frequency" of its own.

Same basic process as the canoe hollowing,but without the pegs.

You should have seen the very large war canoes that the Alaskan indians made. They used HUGE cedar trees. There are some in the Mariner's Museum in Newport News,Va.. The adze marks are very small,and so regular in size and pattern it is amazing.

They used to execute prisoners by pushing the heavy canoes over prisoner's heads, and squashing them. Seems like a strange and labor intensive way of doing it !

Before they had steel tools traded from the white men,they'd build small fires inside the canoes to char the wood inside,making it easier to scoop out the interiors with stone tools. This was continued till the desired thickness was reached inside. Then, they steamed them open like the video showed. I don't know if they used pegs or not,but I can tell you that those natives were expert carvers and wood workers with the most elementary of tools. Especially the hand adze. Their totem poles were extremely accurately made. And,many were very large. We had huge cedar trees up there.

[michael langman]

A most enjoyable video Lasse. Thanks for posting it. It was nice to see the young boy off to the ,watching, and learning, and doing from his elders.