De Pan

When I made the decision to use rough sawn white cedar lumber for the birchbark canoe's ribs and sheathing, I miscalculated the amount of wood I needed. Resigned to the fact that I'd have to waste another day to drive to the mill where the clear white cedar was purchased, I stumbled on a great find at RONA (Canadian equivalent to Home Depot). Normally these home reno stores are loaded with construction grade lumber, but this time I managed to find some near perfect, clear, straight-grained Western Red Cedar 2x4's AND at 50 off no less!


Straigt grained clear WRC
Sure WRC is not traditional birchbark canoe material but I was forced to use this wood when making the gunwales given that I couldn't get a hold of white cedar at the required length. The darker coloured sheathing might be a nice accent against the pale white cedar ribs, especially after seeing a red cedar planked canoe at the WCHA assembly last summer. Of course 2x4 are actually closer to 1½" × 3½" in dimension, and this worked out well since the sheathing width in my boat is meant to be between 3-3½ inches wide anyway and about 1/8-1/16" thick. Given that splitting is usually done on green cedar wood, the splitting is often more controlled and sheathing even thinner. César Newashish demonstrates the process in César's Bark Canoe, splitting a huge board of cedar over and over again until he ends up with 5 ft long pieces that are paper thin, split right down to a single grain line.

Given that this dimensional lumber has been kiln dried and my wife has expressely forbidden the soaking of any more wood in our bathtub after the making of my canoe model, I figured the best I could do was split each board into 8ths and then shave down the rest with crooked knife or block plane. Here are some pics of the sequence:


Initial split


Two halves


Starting another split with the knife


Following the grain


Quartered pieces; Splitting down to eighths


Final sheathing splits (about 1/8")
Not every 2x4 split this evenly and there are some shorter pieces of scrap that I'll be using for temporary sheathing when the rib bending phase comes. Many of the pieces have a wonderful tone and when laid out on the floor I can begin to visualize what the final boat will look like.


Some of the sheathing blanks laid out
Still a lot more work to do, but I'm optimistic that I'll be paddling this sucker by the late spring.

A big day! Time had come to insert the soaking cedar sheathing and custom fit the pre-bent ribs into the canoe. I couldn't help but remember my frustrating experience with setting the sheathing in my model canoe. Try as I might with temporary ribs, the sheathing kept slipping. This time, another procedure was tried. Strips of sheathing was placed in the hull and held in place with the tension of the headboards squeezing them against the hull. The top layer of sheathing close to the gunwales was held with trigger clamps. The system worked well enough to hold the thin cedar in place but still allow for some movement and adjustment.


Soaked sheathing layed out; Stacked sheathing at the stern
The tied rib bundles were put into position and marked at the height of the gunwales. The tops were cut with a saw and then carved to a chisel shape with a knife. Forgot my crooked knife this time around, so ended up using a Farrier's (Hoof) knife I had picked up a while back.


Rib bundle; Sawing the tops; Carving tip to chisel point
The ribs tips were squeezed under the bevel of the inwale. I've read of horror stories of some people forgetting to carve this all important bevel or carving on the wrong side of the inwale and having to carve it after the stitching of the hull. Can't imagine having to do this after the fact. With a piece of scrap cedar rib and some hardwood scrap as an mallet, the ribs were slowly pounded in (not to vertical) all the while soaking the bark with plenty of boiling water to prevent it from splitting. After getting the ribs on either end soundly installed, I had a pleasant visitor swing by and pose with the work so far.


Tapping in ribs


My boy enjoying all the action
After letting the bark stretch for a few hours, the whole thing was soaked in hot water again and the ribs pounded home to their final position. The canoe was then laid out to dry out in the brief sunshine. Here's the final result...


All ribs in


Another angle
Still a few cosmetic things to get done like making bark decks, carving and pegging gunwale caps, and of course gumming the seams, but the major stress of the build is behind me.