dug out canoe

[jamie]

no seats, kneel. better bouancy . 10-14' is about what we do. gonna need enough clay for the initial fire so probably 4 5 gallon buckets. and then some to protect the thin areas.

[stickbender]

JTurner;
google Seminole dugout canoe, and go to the "Seminole Indians with dugout canoes, in Everglades National park, 1921.  It shows the style, they made.  You can see how wide they are, and how many people it held, and the bow and stern style.  Personally, I would go at least 15' or more.  Is this just going to be for you?  Are you planning on putting stuff in it?
Some of the Creek style dugouts, had cross sections that were left in to strengthen the sides.  They were sort of seats, not that wide .  They were just a section or two, that spanned the width of the canoe, and were lower than the sides, and somewhat " U " shaped.  Do you have any marsh areas where you live?  You could use it on a hill, in the snow......   Traditionally, these were poled, but they also had some long paddles, they used while standing.  Sort of like the African natives in their log canoes.  If you use a pole, I might suggest that you use a forked end, or make a hinged " Y " section at the end.  That way you don't sink in the mud so much, and when you pull the pole up, the " Y " end closes, so as not to create much drag in the water.  Also go to State Library,and Archives of Florida.  They have excellent pictures, of dugouts, and the various styles, and different freeboard heights.  You can get some great ideas on how they were made.   Hope this helps.  And good luck.  You can cut to length, the log, and then flatten one side for the bottom, and shape it, and and turn it over, and flatten the top, and start to hollow it.  Look at the pictures, they have a lot of pictures, that show basically how they were made.  The poles were a combination of push pole, with a paddle blade.  Take lots of pictures.

                                                                               Wayne

[jcinpc]

heres a few pics of some of my shell artifactsI find here in Florida.  These are shell  wood cutting tools, They used the busycon shell for the manufactor of the adze.. 1 style would be the whole shell with a notch cut out for the stick to haft and the columnella beveled and the other is the adze cut off the wall of the shell and the bit ground to an angle. Florida has the most aboriginal watercraft found anywhere in the world. A few years back in Newnans lake in Gainesvill during a drought the archs found, after they were alerted, over 80 canoes on 1 end of the lake, archiac to mississipian periods. Very interesting the different styles made.

[jturner]

Thanks guys ive been lookin into this and keep comin up with more questions. Will the heat from burning it out keep it from checking all the way threw or what do i have to do to keep it from spliting? I am cutting it down this week but dont want it to split on me    should i paint the ends? If it does split clear threw can i seal it with pine pitch or how do i seal it?

[jamie]

its gonna check no matter what. even large splits can be fixed with bark and pitch. if you can get cedar bark it makes a great hole filler then cover it in pitch. inner bark from other trees works well too.

[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.