Canoe Building Workshop
Learn How to Build a Beautiful Wood & Canvas Canoe During This Unique 6-day Canoe Building Class. Traditional Woodworking Skills & Carpentry.
This course is designed to cover all the major steps in the construction of a wood and canvas canoe. Using traditional woodworking skills and hand tools, we'll guide you in all aspects of birthing a new, beautiful wooden canoe.
Join like-minded people for a week of traditional woodwork whilst learning how to build one of the most iconic craft ever to have been paddled.
Using traditional woodworking skills and hand tools, we'll guide you in all aspects of birthing a new, beautiful wooden canoe.
We'll begin our busy 6 days, with the magical art of steam bending wood - gently coaxing the almost 5o shaped ribs over the form. Using hand tools, we'll shape each and every plank as we hand nail them on and create the solid hull. Setting up a large canvas hammock, well seat the canoe into its sling and stretch the canvas in all directions, creating a fully canvassed hull. Finally, using a special filler recipe, we'll waterproof the hull by rubbing in this filler to make the canoe abrasion resistant and waterproof. Other tasks needing attended to will include shaping thwarts and decks as well as assembling and hand-caning the seats.
The joy of this type of canoe construction is that you are working with hand tools and sustainable natural materials to create something durable, aesthetic and that will last a lifetime; no glue, epoxy, harsh chemicals or future landfill problems.
What's more, the woodworking skills that you will gain are invaluable and infinitely transferrable to other projects from creating furniture to garden structures. To build a wood and canvas canoe requires steam bending wood, mortise and tenon joinery and shaping wood with tools such as planes and spokeshaves. It's a great learning ground.
What Are Wood & Canvas Canoes?
Wood and canvas canoes were born out of the birch bark canoe tradition of the North American continent. They take the best design qualities of the original canoes (flexible ribs with thin planking) and replace the birch bark covering with canvas. What results is a very robust, sturdy and well designed canoe which is absolutely beautiful. These are not the same as cedar strip canoes (or 'strippers'). Strip canoes are typically made out of edge joined strips of wood, sandwiched between fibreglass and epoxy. We've built these too, but much prefer the sturdiness, longevity, repairability and aesthetics of wood and canvas canoes. We also loathe to work with epoxy resin with its impacts on health and the environment.
Because of the aesthetic qualities of these canoes, people often assume that wood and canvas canoes are fragile and must be paddled with care. Its easy to forget that this is the craft that shaped Canada! At the Folk School, we've been putting these canoes through their paces in Scotland for over 12 years and we can attest to their rugged capabilities. They've seen off bony rivers, rocky coastal waters and boat swallowing loch gales with nothing more than a touch up of varnish or a worn out woven seat! We wouldn't trade our boats for the world. What's more, every part of the canoe can be replaced or repaired (often on the river bank!) and there are many wood and canvas canoes still in service after 100 years. They are the opposite of a landfill problem and are simply a joy to paddle.
How Building A Canoe Course Works
Some of the elements of building of a wood and canvas canoe take time - for example it takes a few weeks for the special filler applied to the canvas to cure. This means that it's not practical to build a canoe from absolute start to finish with a group. What we have done is distill the process down to the essential processes meaning that it is possible to build a canoe in 6-days. To do this we prepare some of the stock in advance which takes a lot of the mundane machining out of the equation and saves much time. On the course we then build the canoe to the point where we apply the filler which largely leaves only painting and sanding to do.
Some of the elements of building of a wood and canvas canoe take time - for example it takes a few weeks for the special filler applied to the canvas to cure. This means that it's not practical to build a canoe from absolute start to finish with a group. What we have done is distill the process down to the essential processes meaning that it is possible to build a canoe in 6-days. To do this we prepare some of the stock in advance which takes a lot of the mundane machining out of the equation and saves much time. On the course we then build the canoe to the point where we apply the filler which largely leaves only painting and sanding to do. For those who wish to go on and build their own canoes, you will learn all the major steps to enable this.
During the course we will build one canoe together and perhaps (time allowing) work through a portion of a second boat. At the end of the course, there may be a chance for one of the students to take away the finished boat but this is dependant on interest and also subject to an additional payment to cover the cost of the materials and preparation time. If you are interested in this, please make us aware of this upon registering.
We'll Cover:
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Stock dimensions and preparation
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Steam bending the ribs and stem stock
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Hand-nailing & shaping the planking
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Fairing the hull
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Canvassing; stretching and tacking
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Applying the filler
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Assembling the seats; joinery and hand-caning
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Preparing the thwarts and decks.
Canoe Building Course Details
This course will be based at a workshop space close to Aberfeldy and Dunkeld.
Full arrival details will be sent out well in advance of the course.
