and the gores cut or the overlaps properly arranged, all is ready for
sheering the gunwales. First the weights are removed from the gunwale
frame so that it can be lifted. If the inside stakes have been properly
made and fitted this can be done without disturbing the sides, though
the ties across each pair of outside stakes may have to be slacked
off somewhat. Before lifting the frame, some short posts, usually of
sapling or of waste from splitting out the gunwales and thwarts, are
cut in lengths determined by the measuring stick or from memory, one
for each end of each thwart, and one for each end of the gunwale frame.
Those under the middle thwart ends in this canoe are 7½ inches long,
those under the next thwarts out from the middle will be 9 inches,
those under the end thwarts will be 12 inches, and those at the gunwale
ends will be 17 inches long. These posts, cut with squared butts, are
laid alongside the bed. The gunwale frame is now lifted and the pair of
posts to go under the middle thwart are stepped on the bark cover, the
gunwale is lowered onto them, and while the frame and posts are held
steady, stones are laid on a plank over the middle thwart. Next, the
ends of the gunwales are held and lifted so that a pair of posts can be
placed at the thwarts next out from the middle. More weights are placed
over these, the operation is repeated for the end thwarts and, finally
at the gunwale ends, so that the gunwales now stand on posts on the
bark cover, sprung to the correct fore-and-aft sheer and steadied by
the bearing of the outside of the gunwale frame on the rounded faces of
the inside stakes. Now the sheer has been established and the depth of
the canoe is approximated.
[Illustration: Figure 41
FOURTH STAGE OF CANOE CONSTRUCTION: bark cover has been shaped and
all stakes placed. The gunwales have been raised to sheer height; "A"
indicates the sticks which fix the sheer of the gunwales; "B" indicates
blocks placed under ends to form rocker. Side panels are shown in
place, and cover is being sewn to gunwales. (_Sketch by Adney._)]
To protect the bark cover from the thrust of the weights used to
ballast the frame, some builders inserted small bark or wood shields
for padding under the heels of the posts. By some tribes the posts were
notched on one face, to fit inside the gunwales near the thwarts, and
there were also other ways of assembling the gunwales themselves.
It should be apparent that the operations just described would serve
only for canoes in which the sheer had a gentle, fair sweep. For canoes
in which the sheer turned up sharply at the ends, the gunwale members
might have to be split into laminations and prebent to the required
sheer before being assembled into the gunwale frame. To accomplish
this, the laminations were scalded with boiling water until saturated
and then the gunwale members were staked out on the ground or tied
with cords to set the wood in the desired curves as it dried out. The
laminations were then wrapped with cord and the gunwale was ready to
assemble. To produce a hogged sheer, the gunwales were made of green
spruce and then staked out to season in the form desired; a hogged
sheer was also formed by steaming or boiling the gunwale members at
midlength.
The canoe, as now erected on the building bed, has a double-ended,
flat-bottomed, wall-sided form. The gunwales are sprung to the proper
breadth and sheer, and the bark is standing irregularly above them. At
this point, on canoes not having outwales, the bark cover was laced or
lashed to the gunwales. Since the Malecite canoe has outwales, these
are now made and fitted. They consist of two white cedar battens
about 19½ feet long, perhaps 1 inch wide, and ½ inch thick. The face
that will be the outboard side is usually somewhat rounded, as are all
the corners, and the corner that will be on the inside and bottom of
each batten when it is in place is somewhat beveled. The outwales are
placed between the bark and the outside stakes, the inside stakes being
removed one by one as this is done. The removal of the inside stakes
allows room for the outwale to be inserted in their place, between
the outside stakes and the inner gunwale face, and it allows the bark
to be brought against the outside face of the inner gunwales. In the
process of fitting the outwales, the battens along the sides may have
to be removed and replaced, or shifted, and the cross-ties of each
pair of outside stakes may require adjustment. Beginning at midlength,
the outwale is pegged through the bark cover to the inner gunwales at
intervals of 6 to 9 inches. The pegging is not carried much beyond the
end thwarts in any canoe and could not be in canoes having laminated
gunwales near the ends.
The Malecite canoe has bark covers over the ends of the inner gunwales,
and these are now fitted so that they can be passed under the outwales
and clamped in place. The ends of the outwales are forced inside the
stakes at and beyond the ends of the gunwales, assuming a pinched-in
appearance there, and they may reach a few inches beyond the ends
of the bark cover; they will be cut and shaped to the length of the
finished canoe later.
The outwale pegs are made by splitting from a balk of birch, larch, or
fir roughly squared dowels about ¼ inch square and 6 to 9 inches long.
Each dowel is then tapered and rounded each way from the middle to
form two shanks that are between ⅛ and ³⁄₁₆ inch in diameter over 2 to
3 inches of length. The ends may be sharpened by fire. The dowels are
then cut in two, providing a pair of pegs with large heads. These are
driven in holes drilled through the outwales, bark cover, and gunwales,
and when well home, the protruding ends are cut off flush. Toward the
ends of the gunwales, the spaces between the pegs increase, and at
the extreme ends, the outwale will be lashed to the gunwale by widely
spaced groupings of root strand. These are usually temporary, as the
final lashing of the bark to the gunwales will secure the outwales.
After the outwales are secured in place, the bark is fastened to the
assembled gunwales with group lashings. In the Malecite canoe being
built, these are independent, each grouping consisting of eight to ten
complete turns of the root strand. The intervals between, roughly 2
inches, are usually spaced by means of a special measuring-stick to
insure evenness. Before the lashing is actually begun, however, the
excess bark standing above the gunwales is cut away. The bark either
is trimmed flush with the top of the gunwale, or enough is left for a
flap that will fully cover the top of the inner gunwale, to be turned
down under the lashing. The latter method, the stronger, was used by
many builders. In making the turns in the group lashings, two or three
turns may be taken through a single hole in the bark; the Malecites did
this to avoid having the holes too close together. The result is that
the group when seen from outboard appears as a ~W~-form, with only two
or three holes in the bark for an entire group. Care is taken to lay
up the turns over the gunwales neatly, turn against turn without open
spacing or overlaps and crossings.
When this is completed, the ends of the thwarts can be lashed, the
strand passing through the holes in the shoulders, around the two
gunwale members, and through one or two holes in the bark cover. The
groupings for the bark cover are spaced so that these lashings do not
overlap them, and thus the lashings serve a dual purpose.
Next, the gores are usually sewn and the ends of the side panels
closed. To do this, the temporary side battens outside the bark
are removed. Since this is a Malecite canoe, the gores are sewn
edge-to-edge with an over-and-over stitch, the strand crossing the
seam square outside and diagonally inside. When these seams and those
remaining in the upper panels are sewn, the rather stiff bark holds the
shape formed on the building bed to a remarkable degree.
The canoe can now be raised from the building bed. To set it up at a
most convenient working height, the weights are first removed from the
gunwales and the remaining stakes are pulled up. The canoe is then
lifted from its bed and turned upside down over a couple of logs, or
crude horses. Traditionally, logs or sapling were rested across two
pairs of boulders or the logs were tied between two pairs of trees at
convenient distances apart. More recently, horses, formed by sticking
four legs into auger holes drilled in the bottom of a 4-foot length
of timber, were used. After the canoe is on its supports the ends are
ready to be closed in.
The stem-pieces customarily used by the Malecite builder are formed
from two clear white cedar billets a full 36 inches long and in the
rough nearly 1½ inches square. The billets are first shaped so that
the outboard face of each stem-piece is about ¾ inch wide, making it
a truncated triangle in cross-section. Then, along lines parallel to
the base of the truncated triangle, it is split into six laminations
which are carried to within 6 or 7 inches of the end selected to be the
heel of the stem-piece. Just clear of the laminations a notch is cut
into the top side of the heel, to hold the headboard, as will be seen.
The piece is then treated with boiling water until the laminations are
flexible, and the curve of the stem-piece can be formed and either
pegged out or tied with cords until it dries in the desired shape.
When dry the laminations are tightly wrapped with basswood bark cord,
leaving the form of the stem-piece a quarter arc of a circle, with
short tangents at each end, as shown in the illustration (p. 35).
[Illustration: Figure 42
FIFTH STAGE OF CANOE CONSTRUCTION: canoe is removed from building bed
and set on horse in order to shape ends and complete sewing. Bark cover
has dried out in a flat-bottomed and wall-sided form. (_Sketch by
Adney._)]
Next, the ends of the outwales are cut to a length determined by the
quality of the bark already in place; if the bark in one end is not
very good, it may be cut away somewhat and the canoe made shorter by
this amount at both ends in finishing. After the ends of the outwales
have been cut, both are notched on the inside at the extreme ends to
take the head of the stem-piece. The outwales may or may not project
¼ or ½ inch beyond the stem and the stem head may project ½ or 1 inch
above the top of the outwales of the canoe; these matters, at the
builder's option, decide the length of the notch and the fitting of the
stem-pieces.
The stem-piece is now placed between the folded bark end of the canoe
with the heel resting for a small distance along its length on the bark
bottom; the head must come to the right height above the outwales, as
noted. While one worker holds the stem-piece in place, another trims
away the excess bark at the end to the profile of the outboard face of
the stem-piece. Thus the profile of each end is cut and the rake of
the ends is established. The bark is next lashed to the stem-piece.
In this canoe it is done with a spiral over-and-over stitch, a batten
made of a large split root being placed over the edges of the bark, as
the lashing proceeds, to form a stem band. The turns pass alternately
from outboard around the inboard face of the stem-piece and through it;
the awl inserted in the laminations from one side opens them enough to
allow the strand to be forced through. Care is taken to pull up the
strand very hard each time. As the outwale is approached, the bark is
cut away at the notching in each so that the outwales can be brought
snugly against the sides of the stem-piece. Here the strand is brought
up one or two times over the outwales, abaft the stem head, before the
bitter end is tucked, thus locking the outwales to the stem-piece and
the bark. Then a lashing is placed around the outwales just inboard
of the stem-piece, passing through a hole in the flap of the end
deck-piece of bark and through the side bark. This lashing holds the
outboard end of the deck piece flap. At the inboard end of the flap,
another lashing is required, but the pinched-in outwales require
additional securing outboard of this point; hence a lashing is passed
just inboard of the middle of the flap, a little outboard of the ends
of the inwales, and about six inches inboard from this lashing another
is passed through the side bark and around the gunwale and outwale on
each side. These three lashings hold the outwales snug to the ends of
the gunwales and against the projecting bark ends in the pinched-in
form of projecting outwales.
[Illustration: Figure 43
RIBS BEING DRIED AND SHAPED FOR OJIBWAY CANOE. (_Canadian Geological
Survey photo._)]
The heels of the stem-pieces rest on the bottom bark and the sewing is
carried down to where the cutting of the profile makes an end to the
seam, the solid part of the heels extending about 6 to 8 inches inboard
of this. Next, any sewing required on the bottom is done. When the bark
cover has been given a final inspection on the outside and all sewing
has been completed, the canoe is lifted from its supports, righted, and
set on the bed or on a smooth grassy place.
All seams are now payed with gum on the inside of the bark while this
can still be done without interference from the sheathing or those
parts of the structure remaining to be installed. The Malecites used
only spruce gum tempered with animal fat. The gum, heated until it is
sufficiently soft to pour like heavy syrup, is spread with a small
wooden paddle or spoon, and is then worked into the seam and smoothed
by rubbing with the thumb dipped in water to prevent the gum from
sticking and burning. It is first worked into the ends, between the
bark and each side of the stem-pieces, particularly near the heel below
the waterline. When the crevices are filled, a piece of bark (in later
times a piece of cloth was used) wide enough to cover the gum alongside
is well smeared with warm gum and pressed down along the inside of the
stem-pieces. On each seam, at gores, and on side panels a thin narrow
strip of bark is smeared with gum and pressed over the seam after the
latter had been well payed. The bark is now carefully scrutinized for
small splits, holes, or thin spots since these can be easily patched
from the inside at this stage of construction. In fitting bark strips
and in gumming, great care is taken to obtain a flat surface; the edges
of the strips inside are faired to the inside face of the bark by
smearing gum along the edges. The canoe is now ready to be sheathed and
ribbed out.
The sheathing for this canoe has been split in advance out of clear
white cedar in splints about 5 to 9 feet long, 3 to 4¼ inches wide, and
⅛ inch thick. The butts of each piece have been whittled to a feather
edge, the bevel extending back about 2 inches. Also, some pieces of
basket ash have been split out of saplings for temporary ribs to hold
the sheathing in place.
A total of 50 or more ribs in five lengths, the longest about 5 feet,
have been made up from white cedar heartwood and bent to the desired
shape.
In deciding the rough lengths of the ribs, the builder can resort
to various methods. He can prebend ribs in pairs to a number of
arbitrarily chosen shapes: the first set of six pairs to the desired
midsection form; a second set of five pairs to the form of the section
between the middle and first pair of thwarts; a third, of five pairs,
to the section at the first thwarts each way from the middle; a fourth,
of four pairs, to the section between the end and the first pair of
thwarts each way from the middle; a fifth, of three pairs, to the
section at the end thwarts; and a sixth, of two or three pairs, for the
section at or near the headboards. This makes from 50 to 52 frames in a
canoe measuring 18 or 19 feet overall.
Each frame piece is treated with boiling water and then bent, over the
knee or around a tree, to a slightly greater degree than is needed.
While thus bent, each pair is wrapped lengthwise over the end with a
strip of basswood or cedar bark to hold the ribs in shape. Sometimes
a strut is placed under the bark strips to maintain the desired form,
or a cross-tie of bark may be employed. The ribs are then allowed to
season in this position.
Another method, which will be illustrated later (p. 53), involves
placing ribs of green spruce in their approximate position and forcing
them against the bark. In this method, a number of long battens are
placed over the roughly bent ribs laid loosely inside the bark cover,
and are spread by forcing a series of short crosspieces, or stays,
between them athwartships. The bark is given a good wetting with
boiling water to make it flexible and elastic, so that the pressure
applied to the battens by the temporary crosspieces brings the bark
to the shape desired for the canoe. The rough lengths of the ribs are
determined by use of a measuring stick or by measurements made around
the bark with a piece of flexible root or a batten of basket ash. The
ribs, in any case, are made somewhat longer than required to allow a
final fitting when being placed over the sheathing.
It can be seen that the exact form the canoe takes is largely a matter
of judgment and of the flexibility and elasticity of the bark, rather
than of precise molding on a predetermined model, or lines.
[Illustration: Figure 44
DETAILS OF RIBS and method of shaping them in pairs in a bark strap or
thong so that they take a "set" while drying out.]
In the Malecite canoe the ribs are wide amidships, 3 or 4 inches, and
narrow to 2½ or 2 inches toward the ends. The thickness is an even ⅜
inch. Most birch-bark canoes have ribs of even thickness their full
length, but in a few the thickness is tapered slightly above the turn
of the bilge, usually when the tumble-home is high on the sides and
rather great. The width, as previously explained, is usually carried
all across the bottom; above the bilges there is a moderate taper.
The sheathing of the canoe is now first to be put in place. In the
Malecite canoe the center pieces are the longest; they are tapered
each way from their butts, which overlap about 2 inches amidships. The
ends are made narrow enough to fit readily into the sharp transverse
curve of the bottom and are long enough to pass under the heels of the
stem pieces for an inch or two. The pieces of sheathing on each side
of the center pieces are fitted in the same manner, and by the time
two or three courses are in place they must be held in some manner at
the ends. This is accomplished by means of the rough temporary ribs
mentioned earlier. The sheathing is laid edge-to-edge, with the butts
overlapping, and, if there are not enough long pieces to complete the
bottom amidships, three or four lengths, with overlapped butts, will be
used. As the sheathing progresses, more temporary ribs will have to be
added. At the turn of the bilge, the sheathing will bend transversely
as pressure is applied by the temporary ribs; the bark must be again
wetted so that the angular bilge can be forced into a roughly rounded
form. Particular care is required in finishing the sheathing below the
gunwale to be certain that the top strake will be close up against the
sewing of the bark at gunwales, but no particular attempt is made to
make the edges of the sheathing in the topsides maintain edge-to-edge
contact.
The pressure of the temporary ribs, the heads of which are forced under
the gunwales, and the elasticity of the bark due to treating it with
boiling water are enough to rough-shape the canoe.
Before the permanent ribs are placed the sheer is checked. If it
appears to have straightened, the ends of the gunwales are supported
by means of short posts placed under them, with the heels standing on
the heels of the stem pieces or on the sheathing. Then some stakes,
each having a projecting limb or root, are cut and are driven into the
ground with the limb hooked over the gunwale to force it down.
After measurements have been made for the first rib with a strand of
root or an ash batten, it is now cut to a length slightly more than
would permit the rib to be forced upright when in place. The ends of
the rib are set in place in the bevel, or notch, on the underside of
the gunwales, against the bark cover, and with the bottom part of the
rib standing inboard of the head. Then, with one end of a short batten
placed against its inboard side, the rib is driven toward the end of
the canoe with blows from a club on the head of the batten. If the rib
drives too easily it is removed and laid aside; if too hard, it is
shortened. It must go home tightly enough to stretch slightly the bark
cover by bringing pressure to bear on the whole width of the sheathing.
Care is taken, in this operation, to keep moist not only the bark but
also the sewing, particularly along the gunwales, so that all possible
elasticity is obtained. The ribs are set, one by one, working to within
two or three frames of the midship thwart; then the other end of the
canoe is begun. The last three or four ribs to be placed are thus
amidships. In every rib driven, the tension is great, but no rib is
driven so that it stands perpendicular to the base. Those first driven
stand with their bottoms nearer the midship thwart than the ends, and
this angle, or slant, continues to amidships; the ribs in the other end
of the canoe slant in the opposite direction.
It will be evident that skill is required to estimate how much pressure
the bark will stand before bursting under the strain of the driven
ribs. It is also apparent that the shape of the canoe is controlled
by the shaping given the ribs in the prebending, for this fixes the
amount of tumble-home and the amount of round, or rounded-~V~, given to
the bottom athwartships. No fixed rules appear to exist; the eye and
judgment of the builder are his only guides. To show how much strain is
placed on the bark, however, it may be noted that inspection of two old
canoes showed that the gunwale pegs had been noticeably bent between
the inner and outer gunwales.
It appears to have been a rather common practice, after all the ribs
had been driven into place, to allow the canoe to stand a few days and
then again to set the frames (where unevenness appears in the topsides)
with driving batten and maul, the bark cover and the root sewing or
lashings having been again thoroughly wetted.
The headboards are now to be made. These are shaped in the form of an
elongate-oval from a wide splint of white cedar about 4 inches wide
at midlength and ¼ inch thick. The narrow end is first cut off square
or nearly so; the bottom end is notched to fit in the notch in the
heel of the stem-piece and the top has a small tenon at the centerline
that will be fitted into a hole drilled or gouged in the underside
of the inner gunwales where they join at the ends. The length of the
headboards in the canoe being built is 15¾ inches over all, and when
they have been made for each end, they are checked as to width and
height to see that they can be fitted. Next, the extreme ends of the
canoe between the stem and the headboards are stuffed with dry cedar
shavings or dry moss so that the sides stand firm on each side of the
bow outboard of the ends of the sheathing, which ends rather unevenly,
just outboard of where the headboards will stand. This completed, the
headboards are forced into position by first stepping the heel notch
in the stem-piece notch and then bending the board by placing one
hand against its middle and pulling the top toward the worker. This
shortens the height of the board enough so the tenon projecting on its
head can be sprung into the small hole under the inner gunwales, where
it becomes rigidly fixed. Its sprung shape pushes up the gunwales and
makes the side bark of the ends very taut and smooth, while supporting
the gunwale ends.
Two thin strips about 19 feet long are next split out of white cedar
to form the gunwale caps; these are ¼ to ⅜ inch thick, and taper each
way from about 2 inches wide in the middle to 1 inch wide at the ends.
These are laid along the top of the inner gunwales and fastened down
with pegs placed clear of the gunwale lashings. The ends of the strips
are usually secured by two or three small lashings; the caps thus
formed often stop short of the ends of the inner gunwale members. If
the caps are carried right out to the stems, as was the practice of
some Malecite builders, the lashings of the outwale are not turned in
until after the caps are in place, in which case the bark deck pieces,
or flaps, are put in just before the final lashing is made.
[Illustration: Figure 45
SIXTH STAGE OF CANOE CONSTRUCTION: canoe has been righted and placed
on a grassy or sandy spot. In this stage splints for sheathing (upper
left) are fixed in place and held by temporary ribs (lower right) under
the gunwales. The bark cover has been completely sewn and the shape of
the canoe is set by the temporary ribs. (_Sketch by Adney._)]
Next, the canoe is turned upside-down and all seams are gummed smoothly
on the outside. The ends, from the beginning of the seam to above the
waterline, may be heavily gummed and then covered with a narrow strip
of thin bark, heavily enough smeared with gum to cause it to adhere
over the seam. In more recent times a piece of gummed cloth was used
here. Above this protective strip, the end seams are filled with gum so
that the outside can be smoothed off flush on the face of the cutwater
between the stitches. All seams in the side and bottom are gummed
smooth and any holes or patches remaining to be gummed are taken care
of in this final inspection.
If the canoe is to be decorated (not many types were) the outside
of the bark is moistened and the rough, reddish winter bark, or
inner rind, is scraped away, leaving only enough to form the desired
decorations. When paints of various colors could be obtained, these
were also employed, but the use of the inner rind was apparently the
older and more common method of decorating.