A view from the workbench window
Our new canoes are built from quarter sawn northern white cedar ribs and planking. Typically the all the ribs will come from the same tree as does the planking. It is no easy feat sourcing material for building like this but we think it's worth it.
Vertical grain (quarter sawn) rib stock fresh off the table saw
The finished ribs ready for steam bending
Ribs are bent on the form
Emily planking the hull
The hull is just about planked and ready to come off the form
The hull is off the form and Emily continues to plank it
It is almost more work getting the canoe to the stage of varnish once it comes off the form than it is to get the hull to the stage of coming off the form.
The Temagami Traveler in the finish room
Old Town Sailing Dinghy
To insure accuracy, we test bent a few ribs for fitting.
Everything looked good so we proceeded with more.
Emily loading the stem box with ribs
More ribs are bent on the hull. We can only replace a few at a time due to severely broken ribs.
It takes time, patience is the key, and you just can't rush anything.
Emily installing one of the nearly 40 ribs to be replaced
Kingsbury Canoe
The original inner gunwales were made from fairly atrocious stock with lots of knots that resulted in cracks and rails that were broken in several places.
The Kingsbury getting new inner gunwales.
The Kingsbury before being canvassed.
The new inner rails have been installed and all the structural work is complete
New workbench
We made a new workbench for the shop. It was built from scrap materials lying about the shop. The construction is mortise and tenon joinery that was draw bored together. It will serve as a utility bench, mainly for metal shaping and sharpening tools.
Dry fitting the legs, aprons, and stretchers.
The finished bench with a 3 inch thick top.
Canoe building class
Our canoe building classes finished up the other week. This is were you can come to our shop and build your own canoe under our tutelage. For more information check out our website.
http://www.wood-canoe.com/classes2.html
Here are Walter and Steve working together on planking the Smoothwater they built.
Decks
Well, what in the world should we show next? How about decks? Here are some shots of installing decks in a new canoe.
Some of the tools used to shape the decks.
Each deck is cut from a pattern and then hand shaped with planes, a draw knife, spoke shaves, and chisels.
They are secured with silicon bronze screws and finish washers
Note the grain pattern. Just one of the many attentions to detail around here at Salmon Falls Canoe.
Canoe Seats
The seats we make are made with mortise and tenon joinery.
It takes longer to make seats with mortise and tenons than it does with dowels and they are more difficult to make but they are eons stronger and just a better joint for this application.
