pegged. Some builders wedged the ends of this thwart from outside the
gunwales, the wedge standing vertical in the thwart so that the gunwale
would not split; however, it is not certain that wedging was used in
prehistoric times, although it is seen in some existing old canoes. The
pegs used in this canoe are driven from above, into holes bored through
the gunwale and the tenon of the thwart to lock all firmly together.
Three holes are then bored in the broad shoulders of the thwart about
1½ inches inboard of gunwale for the root lashing that is also used.
The ends of the gunwale members are now brought together, and to avoid
an unfair curve appearing at the thwart in place, short pieces of
split plank or of sapling, notched to hold them in place, are inserted
between the gunwale members as temporary thwarts at points about 5 feet
on each side of the middle thwart. After the ends are brought together
and the final fitting is carried out, a peg is driven athwartships the
ends and a single-part root lashing is carefully wrapped around the
assembly.
Some canoe builders omitted the blunted half-arrowhead form at the
gunwale end. Instead, the inside faces were tapered to allow the two
parts to bear on one another for some distance. The gunwales were then
pinched together and lashed with one or more wrappings. Finally, a thin
wedge was sometimes driven from inboard between the two gunwale ends to
tighten the wrappings. The wedges were usually so carefully fitted as
to be difficult to identify. It is probable that this wedged gunwale
ending represents the prehistoric form, and the blunted half-arrowhead
ending is a result of the use of steel tools.
After the ends of the gunwales have been securely fastened together,
the first pair of permanent thwarts is fitted. These are located 36
inches, center to center, on each side of the middle thwart, a distance
that determines the centers of the mortises in each gunwale member.
Each thwart, made from a ¾-inch by 3-inch piece, tapers smoothly in
thickness from the ¾-inch center to the ⁵⁄₁₆-inch shoulder. The tenon
is of the same dimensions as that of the middle thwart, the width
takes the same form as that of the middle thwart, and the edges are
similarly beveled and rounded. The distance between the shoulders,
taken along the centerline, is 22½ inches, and the centerline length of
the thwart 25½ inches. However, the shoulders and ends of the tenons
must be bevelled to follow the curve of the gunwales hence the extreme
length of the thwart is actually very close to 26 inches. The worker
determines the bevel of the shoulders by fitting the thwart to the
run of the gunwales, the temporary thwarts being shifted so that the
distance between the gunwales equals that set by the measuring stick.
These two thwarts having been fitted, the tenons are pegged as before,
but in the shoulders only one lashing hole is bored instead of the
three employed in the middle thwart.
[Illustration: Figure 32
MALECITE CANOE BUILDING, 1910. (_Canadian Geological Survey photos._)
Weighting gunwales on bark cover on building bed.
Resetting stakes.
Shaping bark cover and securing it to stakes.]
[Illustration: Figure 33
FIRST STAGE OF CANOE CONSTRUCTION: assembled gunwale frame is used to
locate stakes temporarily on building bed. Instead of the gunwales, a
building frame was used in some areas. (_Sketch by Adney_.)]
The second pair of thwarts is placed 30 inches, center to center, from
the first pair, one at each end, and on the basis of this measurement
the tenons are cut as for the others. These two thwarts are made of
⅝-by 4-inch pieces tapering in thickness each way from the center to
the shoulder, where they are a scant ⁵⁄₁₆ inch thick, the tenons having
the same dimensions as in the other thwarts. In width the thwarts are
worked to an even 3 inches from shoulder to shoulder, but in the form
of a curve so that when each thwart is in place its center will be
bowed toward the ends of the canoe, viewed from above. As in the first
pair, the shoulders and ends are cut to a bevel to fit the gunwale;
at the centerline they each measure 12 inches shoulder-to-shoulder in
a straight line athwartships and 15 inches end-to-end. Allowing for
bevel, the maximum length is just over 15-⁵⁄₁₆ inches. These thwarts
are drilled for single gunwale lashings and the corner edges are well
rounded from shoulder to shoulder. The distance from the centerlines
of these last thwarts at the bow and stern to the extreme ends of the
joined gunwales is 33 inches, so the finished gunwale length is 16 feet.
After the endmost thwarts are pegged into place, the temporary stays
are removed. At each step of construction the alignment of the gunwales
is checked by measuring with the measuring sticks and by sighting,
since the shape of the assembled gunwales, in this case of the inner
gunwales, is very important in determining the sharpness of the
completed canoe and the fairness of its general form.
The assembled gunwales are now ready to be laid on the building bed
which, for the Malecite canoe, is 20 feet long, about 3½ feet wide and
is raised about 1½ inches at midlength so that the canoe bottom will be
straight when the craft is in the water. The gunwale frame having been
carefully centered on this bed, with the middle thwart exactly over the
highest point in the surface of the bed, some scrap split-planking is
laid across the gunwales and the whole weighted down with a few flat
stones. Next, 34 stakes from 30 to 50 inches long are prepared, each
made of a halved length of sapling. Around the outside of the gunwale
frame 26 of these are driven in pairs opposite one another across the
frame, about 24 inches apart and placed so that none is opposite a
thwart, except for the stakes at the extreme ends of the gunwale frame,
which are spaced about a foot from their nearest neighbors and are
face-to-face, about 1½ inches apart. All the stakes are driven with
the flat face about an inch from the gunwale frame and parallel to its
outside edge. Finally two more pairs of stakes are driven at each end,
the first pair about a foot beyond the end of the gunwale frame and
1½ inches apart, the second about 6 inches beyond these and similarly
spaced. The length between the outermost stakes, measured over the
gunwale frame, is about 18½ feet. Great care is taken to line up the
last pairs of stakes with the centerline of the gunwale frame.
[Illustration: Figure 34
SECOND STAGE OF CANOE CONSTRUCTION: stakes have been removed and laid
aside, and the gunwales shown in first stage have been removed from the
building bed. The bark cover is laid out on the building bed, and the
gunwales are in place upon it, weighted down with stones. (_Sketch by
Adney_.)]
If the canoe is to have a slight rocker near the ends and is to be
straight over the rest of the bottom, the ends of the gunwale frame
will be blocked above the building bed so that the frame is not hogged
on the bed.
After the builder is satisfied with the staking, each stake is
carefully pulled up and laid to one side, off the bed but near its
hole. The weights are then removed from the gunwale frame, which is
lifted from the bed and laid aside, and the bed, if disturbed is
repaired and re-leveled.
The roll of birch bark is now removed from storage, perhaps in a nearby
pool where it has been placed to keep it flexible, and unrolled white
side up on the building bed. As the bark dries, it will become more and
more stiff, so it will be necessary to moisten it frequently during
construction to maintain its flexibility.
The bark is usually long enough, but often it is not wide enough. If
the bark is too short, it may be pieced out at this time, or later. If
it is not wide enough it is centered on the bed; the piecing out will
be done later. The gunwale frame is now laid on the bark, care being
taken to place it as nearly as possible in its former position on the
bed.
The bark outside the frame is then slashed from the edge to a point
close to the end of each thwart, and also to points along the frame
halfway between the thwarts, so that the edges can be turned up. While
it is being slashed, the bark cover is bent slightly, so that it is
cut under tension. Later, when the required shape can be determined,
these slashes will be made into gores, the Malecite canoes having
flush seams, not overlaps, in the topsides and bottom. If a fault is
noted along the outer edge of the bark, a slash may be placed so as to
allow the fault to be cut out in the later goring; irregularity in the
position of the cuts does no great harm to the progress of building
these canoes. The slashes are usually carried to within an inch of the
gunwales on the bed. It is not customary to slash the bark close to the
end, there the bark can usually be brought up unbroken, depending upon
the form of the end.
When the bark has been cut as described, it can be turned up smoothly
all around the frame so that the stake holes can be seen and a few
of the stakes can be replaced. The frame and the bark are then
realigned so that all stakes may be replaced in their holes without
difficulty. When the frame and bark are aligned, the frame is weighted
as before and the bark is turned up all around it, the stakes being
firmly driven, as this is done, in their original holes. The longest
stakes are at the ends of the frame, as the depth of the hull is to be
greatest there. The tops of each pair of opposite stakes are now tied
together with a thong of basswood or cedar bark, to hold them rigid and
upright.
[Illustration: Figure 35
MALECITE CANOE BUILDERS NEAR FREDERICTON, N.B., using wooden plank
building bed with stakes set in holes in the platform. This was a late
method of construction, which probably originated in the early French
canoe factory at Trois Rivières, Que.]
After the bark is turned up around the frame, its lack of width becomes
fully apparent. At this stage, some builders fitted the additional
pieces to gain the necessary width; others did it later. The method of
piecing the bark cover and the sewing technique, however, is explained
here.
The bark is pieced out with regard to the danger of abrasion that would
occur when the canoe is moving through obstructions in the water, or
when it is rolled or hauled ashore and unloaded. If the bark is to be
lapped below the waterline, the thickness of the bark of both pieces
in the lap is scraped thin so a ridge will not be formed athwart the
bottom; here, however, most tribes used edge-to-edge joining. If
there are laps in the topsides, the exposed edge is toward the stern;
if in the midlength, upward toward the gunwale; and if it is in the
end the lap may be toward the bottom, because this makes it easier
to sew, and because in the ends of the canoe there is less danger of
serious abrasion. Many tribes used edge-to-edge joining everywhere
in the topsides so that the direction of lapping was not a matter of
consideration. The type of goring, whether by slash and lap or by
cutting out a ~V~-shaped gore, will, of course, have much to do with
the selection of the method of sewing to be used.
It is to be recalled that in canoe building no needle was used in
sewing the bark; the ends of the root strands were sharpened and used
to thread the strand through the awl holes. Much of the topside sewing
in a bark canoe was done with small strands made by splitting small
roots in half and then flattening the halves by scraping. Large root
strands quartered and prepared in the same manner, or the cores of
these, were sometimes used in heavy sewing or lashing at the gunwale or
in the ends of a canoe.
As noted previously, root thongs were used well water-soaked or quite
green, for they became very stiff and rather brittle as they dried
out. Once in place, however, the drying did not seem to destroy their
strength. Rawhide was also used for such sewing by some tribes.
The sewing was done by Indian women, if their help was available, and
the forms of stitching used in canoe building varied greatly. The root
sewing at the ends of the canoes ranged from a simple over-and-over
spiral form to elaborate and decorative styles. Long-and-short
stitching in a sequence that usually followed some formal pattern was
widely used. Among the patterns were such arrangements as one long,
four short, and one long; or two longs, two or three shorts, and two
longs; or one short, five of progressively increasing length, and then
one short; or six progressively longer followed by six progressively
shorter. Cross-stitching, employing the two ends of the sewing root as
in the lacing of a shoe was also common. Sometimes this was combined
with a straight-across double-strand pass to join the ends of the ~X~.
The harness stitch, in which both ends of the sewing root were passed
in opposite directions through the same holes, was often used, as was
the 2-thong in-and-out lacing from each side used in northwestern
canoes having plank stem-pieces.
If the root strand was too short to complete a seam, instead of being
spliced or knotted the end was tucked back under the last turns or
stitches, on the inside of the bark cover. In starting, the tail was
placed under the first turn of the stitch, so that it could not be
pulled through. To finish sewing with double-ended strands, as in the
harness stitch, both ends were tucked under the last turn or two.
Commonly two or more turns were taken through a single hole in the
bark; this might be done to clear some obstruction such as a frame head
at the gunwale, or to provide a stronger stitch, or turn, as in the
harness stitch and others, or to allow for greater spacing between awl
holes in the bark. (Since the awl blade was tapered, the size of the
hole it made in the bark could be regulated by the depth of penetration
of the blade as it was turned in the hole.)
The length of stitches varied with the need for strength and
watertightness. Long stitches were about I inch, short stitches from
about ⅜ to ½ inch in length. The run of the grain, of course, was a
consideration in the length of stitch used.
[Illustration: Figure 36
SEWING: two common styles of root stitching used in bark canoes.]
The piecing of the side panels was done with a great variety of sewing
styles, according to strength requirements. The strain put upon the
bark in molding it by rib pressure was greater in the midlength than
in the ends; and the sewing differed accordingly. The over-and-over
spiral, with a batten under the sewing, was used for sewing in the
midlength, as was back-stitching, a variety of basting stitch in which
a new pass is started about half way between stitches, thus forming
overlapped passes or turns. Back-stitching was usually done in a
direction slightly diagonal to the line of sewing, so as to cross
the grain of the bark at an angle with each pass. The double-thong
in-and-out stitch, in which each thong goes through the same hole from
opposite sides, was frequently used. The simple, spiral over-and-over
stitch was used in sewing panels in the ends of canoes, as was the
simple, in-and-out basting stitch using either a single or double
strand.
When the sides were pieced out edge-to-edge, the sewing was usually
done spirally, over and over a narrow, thin batten placed outside the
bark cover. This batten might be either a thin split sapling or, more
commonly, a split and thinned piece of root. If the pieced-out sides
were lapped, then the harness stitch was commonly used. The lap might
be some inches wide to decrease the danger of splitting while the bark
was being punched with the awl, afterward the surplus was cut away
leaving about a half inch of overlap. On rare occasions the strength
of a lapped-edge seam was increased by the use of a parallel row of
stitching.
[Illustration: Figure 37
COMPARISON OF CANOE ON THE BUILDING BED (above), with gunwales or
building frame weighted down by stones inside bark cover, and (below)
canoe when first removed from building bed during fifth stage of
construction. (_Sketches by Adney._)]
In making the canoe watertight, it is to be remembered that some forms
of stitch make the bark lie up tight all along its edges while others
bind only where the stitch crosses the seam. The in-and-out stitch,
which was used only above the waterline, cannot be pulled up hard
without causing the bark to pucker and split and cannot be made very
watertight with gum. The over-and-over stitch, in either a spiral
form or square across the seam on the outside and diagonally on the
inside, is very strong; when a batten is used under the stitches it
can be pulled up hard and allows a very watertight gumming. When this
style of sewing is used without a batten across the run of the grain,
as in the gore seams, it cannot be pulled up as hard, but will serve.
Back-stitching, which was much used in the topsides, can be pulled up
quite hard and makes a tight seam when gummed, as do the harness stitch
and cross-stitch. The ends, regardless of the style of sewing used,
were more readily made tight by gumming than the other seams in a bark
canoe.
Two basic methods, with some slight and unimportant variations, were
used to fasten the bark to the gunwales. One employed a continuous
over-and-over stitch, the other employed groups of lashings. On a canoe
with the lashing continuous along the gunwales, the turns were made
two or more times through the same hole on each side of each rib head
to allow space for them. This might also be done where the lashing was
in groups, as described above. Usually, a measuring stick was used to
space the groups between thwart ends so that each group came between
the rib heads. The groupings could be independent lashings, or the
strand could be carried from one group to another. If the latter, it
was passed along under the gunwale in a number of in-and-out stitches
or in a single lone stitch either inside or out, or else it was brought
around over the gunwale from the last full turn. Some tribes use both
ends of the lashing, passing them through the same hole in the bark
from opposite directions below the gunwales; the ends might be carried
in the same manner in a long stitch to the next group. In some elm and
other bark canoes employing basswood or cedar-bark lashings the bark
was tied with a single turn at wide intervals; when roots were used
in these, however, small groupings of stitches were customary. When
group lashings were used with birch bark, the intervals between groups
was usually relatively short, though in a few canoes the groups and
intervals were of nearly equal length.
[Illustration: Figure 38
THIRD STAGE OF CANOE CONSTRUCTION: the bark cover is shaped on the
building bed. The gores have been cut; part of the cover is shaped and
secured by stakes and battens. "A" shows battens secured by sticks
lashed to stakes. (_Sketch by Adney_.)]
In an independent group, the ends of the strand were treated as in
whipping, the tail being under the first turns made and the end tucked
back under the last--usually on the inside of the gunwales. Where there
were inner and outer gunwales the lashing was always around both,
and the tail might be jammed between them. If a cap was used on the
gunwales, the lashings were always under it. The use of a knotted turn
to start a lashing occurred only in the old Têtes de Boule canoes.
On the Malecite canoe, the sides are pieced out in one to three panels
rather than in one long, narrow panel on each side. The panel for the
midlength requires the greatest strength and is usually lapped inside
the bottom bark. The latter is first trimmed straight along its edge,
and the panel inserted behind it with a couple of inches of lap. Then
the two pieces of bark are sewn together over a halved-root batten with
an over-and-over stitch. (Other tribes used some form of the harness
stitch, or a similar style, allowing great strength.) The middle panel
does not extend much beyond the ends of the first pair of thwarts on
each side of the middle. The next panels toward the ends are lapped
outside the bottom bark and are sewn with the back-stitch. Then,
if still another panel is required at each end, this too is lapped
outside and is sewn in the lap with an in-and-out stitch. The ends of
the panels are usually sewn with an over-and-over stitch that runs
square with the seam outside and diagonally to it inside the bark. (The
harness stitch was used here by some tribes, as were many forms of the
cross-stitch.) The ends of the canoe and the gores have already been
sewn during an earlier stage of the building process.
Once the sides are pieced out, the bark is ready to be turned up and
around the gunwale frame and clamped perpendicularly. To effect this,
small stakes are made by halving saplings, so that each half is about a
half inch thick. The butt of each half is cut chisel-shaped, with the
bevel on the flat side; the rounded face is smoothed off, and it may
be tapered toward the head of the stake. Between two of the slashes
a length of bark is now brought up against the outer stakes; against
the bark the small, inside stake is placed with the round face of the
chisel-pointed butt wedged against the outer face of the gunwale. The
top is then levered against the outside stake, so that the flat face of
each clamps the bark in place. The top of the inner stake is then bound
to the outer.
[Illustration: Figure 39
CROSS SECTION of canoe on building bed during third stage of
construction (above) and fourth stage. (_Sketch by Adney._)]
In setting the inside stakes, care is taken that their points do not
pierce the bark. No inside stakes are required at the ends, as here the
outside stakes are so close together in opposing pairs as to hold the
bark in a sharp fold along the centerline of the cover. This of course
is also true of the stakes beyond the ends of the gunwales.
After a few lengths of bark have been thus secured, they are faired
between the stakes by inserting thin strips of split sapling, or
battens of wood or root, along each side of the bark, under the inside
and outside stakes. These battens are placed about halfway up the
upturned bark. Some builders used long wooden battens, as this gave a
very fair side when enough lengths were secured upright; others got
the same results with short battens, the ends of which were overlapped
between a pair of stakes on each side.
[Illustration: Figure 40
MULTIPLE CROSS SECTION through one side of a canoe on the building
bed: at the headboard, middle, first, and second thwarts. Gunwale is
raised and supported on sheering posts set under thwarts. Crown of
the building bed is shown by varying heights of bottoms of the four
sections.]
When the bark has been turned up and clamped, the gores may be trimmed
to allow it to be sewn with edge-to-edge seams at each slash. This
is usually done after the sides are faired, by moving the battens up
and down as the cuts are made, then replacing them in their original
position. The gores or slashes, if overlapped, are not usually sewn at
this stage of construction.