Building the Canoe

I have begun work again on the canoe. I finished the frames for the seats awhile ago and this weekend I plotted out the holes to be drilled in each through which to weave the cane. Now I need to rasp the hard edges, sand and varnish them and then I can begin to weave the cane. I also purchased a drill and all the screws, bolts and nuts needed to install the seats, the gunwales, the decks and the thwart.

The weather here has been mild and i have been taking advantage of the warm evenings to work on the canoe in the garage. Over the course of 2 nights I clamped on the gunwales, drilled and countersunk pilot holes and screwed the gunwales to the canoe. I had a minor problem with the cordless drill I had bought running out of juice after an hour of work so I returned it and bought a golld old corded drill. I also had to exchange the screws I had bought because they were too short. Now its onto the decks and the thwarts!!

On Saturday I drove through the pouring rain to a lumberyard in Westlake where I purchased a 1"x6"x16' Oak board from which to make the gunwales. The owner was of Polish extract and spoke the language to his mates as they dug through their stock to find a board long enough. Once that was accomplished I watched them ply their trade as they ran the board through a massive planer and then cut it upon their cast-iron table saw into 6- 3/4"x3/4"x16' lengths. There was a big knot in the board so 3 of the lengths are solid, one is iffy and two will definately break where the knot is but since I only need 4 I am good to go.

I have been slackin' on the canoe as well, not having done anything since we returned from Alaska but today I finshed up the last 2 mortise and tenon joints on the 2nd seat and glued it together. You can see the seat frames in the picture. Now I need to get a drill, make lots of holes and begin to cane the seats. I also ned to make a trip to a lumber yard and pick up a 1"x 4"x 16' piece of hard wood for the gunwales and a shorter piece for the thwart to frame up the canoe. I don't think we'll be canoing beneath the awesome autumn foilage this year :(


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I have been dreaming about the trip I want to take with this canoe and family...down the connecticut to the sea, down the connecticut from the headwaters, up lake Champlaign, up the St Lawrence threading the 1000 Islands, through the boundary waters...
I have taken advantage of the warm evenings and am entering the homestretch with the canoe. The decks are installed and have been shaped and sanded along with the gunwales. I broke out the jigsaw and carved out the thwart and sanded it up too. The next step is to sand the canoe completely and apply several coats of varnish to it. I think I am going to use my yard sale woodworking tools to carve something into the thwarts and the decks. Then I need to buy the plastic cane and string the seats. A Winters worth of work nay I plan to give her a test run before the soulstice :)

I spent the past 2 weekend nights weaving the seat cane and all i need to do now is mount them and the canoe, save a coat of varnish is done! (Colleen still has to sew the border on her quilt!) The weaving did not take as long nor was as difficult as i had imagined. It consisted of 7 steps. The first step was to lay down vertical rows from back to front; down through the hole and up the one to the right and back and so forth skipping holes on the side rails to keep the strands aligned.

Step two was to lay horizontal strands over the vertical strands back to front just like the vertical strands.


Step three was to lay down another set of vertical strands over the horizontal strands. Step four (top right corner pic) is where the weaving began. The 2nd layer of horizontal strands had to go over the top strands and under the bottom strands. This was the most time-consuming part of the whole process. Step five was to weave the first diagonal strands. Over the vertical strands and under the horizontal strands.

The top left pic is a close up of step five and the top right pic shows step five halfway done. Step 6 was weaving the 2nd vertical strands; this time over the horizontals and under the vertical strands. The lower left pic is Step six complete. Step seven was to bind the strands by laying down a piece of thicker cane over the holes and then bringing a strand of regular cane up and over and back down through the same hole the length of each rail. You can see a close up of Step six and Step seven in the lower right pic.


Here is a completed seat. Next i figure out where to mount them, drill four holes in the corners of each seat, 8 holes in the inwales and hang them on machine bolts with a pvc spacer to keep them in place then a'canoing we will go...:)

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