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dug out canoe
JW_Halverson:
The Lewis and Clark Trail museum in Washburn, ND has a dugout canoe made from a monster old growth cottonwood tree. It was partially roughed out with chainsaws but then was finished with adzes and axes. It was all done with local volunteer labor, so they may be able to give you some pointers. You may want to contact them for further information, 1-877-462-8535.
I have heard of running a shallow chainsaw cut down the length of a log to control splitting and checking. If you float the log and mark the lighter side, I would imagine a saw cut along that upper side would be your best bet. And from experience, if you are going to carve cottonwood, do it when it is green, the stuff is pretty ornery when it dries. An axe bites into cottonwood pretty well when green, but for some reason it just rejects the cutting edge when it is dry.
Oh, and if you gotta use it for firewood, cut down the tree at -40F, and split it while it is still -40F, otherwise you will never get it split! I once heard an old timer say he would rather burn his last axe handle in the stove than have to split another stick of cottonwood. Another case of OLD=SMART
david w.:
cool topic. I'd like to do this someday
wildman:
I got a place on the ohio river eyeballed a big drift log all summer with the intention just never could stop shootin fish long enuff . I wish you all the luck post lots of pics
jturner:
just got a new camera and computer. gonna try to knock the beast down this week, have pics up as i go.
swamp monkey:
I made one of these during the Lewis and Clark bicentennial and it was work but fun. A few things I learned. burning does not speed things up with cottonwood. It holds too much moisture. If you let it dry it will crack so bad you can trow a cat through the gaps. work it wet and keep it that way. Resinous conifers make great use of burning out. We used axes, but an adze was worth its weight in gold. We left the bottom thicker than the sides to it was sure to stay afloat with the right side pointing up. You can drill on pilot hole in the bottom to gauge thickness. Plug it with a stick when you reach your desired thickness. Sides we eyeballed.
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