Greetings,
I am a newcomer to this list and to the whole art of boat building. I am
still in the planning stages of building a prospector style canoe and have
some questions about different wood types. Most people seem to use cedar but
it is very expensive and difficult to find in this part of Canada. Other
types of wood that are available are Tamarack, Silver Birch, Diamond Willow
and Spruce. I would like to make the thwarts and seats out of the willow but
am wondering how the tamarack or birch would work for the strips.
Kenton

As coniferous trees go, Tamarack, also called Hackmatack,
(Larix laricina)is quite hard, heavy and stiff compared to white cedar,
pine, or spruce. Tamarack tends to move alot. This means it expands and
contracts more than some other woods when subject to moisture. There
are several advantages to using it. It is somewhat more rot resistant
than ash which is the typical wood for gunnels and it is somewhat
lighter than either ash or cherry (the other wood commonly used for seat
frames.) It would not be my first choice for the hull of a stripper
canoe but it could be used. For the hull of a stripper you want wood
that is light weight, glues well, looks good, sands and shapes easily.
Western red cedar is the prefered wood that meets all of these
requirements. Northern white cedar is not as attractive but in every
other way is superior, if you can find enough knot free wood for a
canoe. There are stands of white cedar in southern Quebec and probably
elsewhere. White pine is also an option as is spruce. I'd use tamarack
for gunnels if I had some nice long clear pieces. Quarter sawn tamarack
works pretty well for this but do not expect to find it at Home Deepott
Seat frames and thwarts might also be a use. You might want to make them
SLIGHTLY beefier than if made of hard woods like ash.
There may be a western species of larch that is called tamarack by some
people. I am not sure if this is the same thing.
I think you can build a stripper canoe out of nearly any wood but the
ones mentioned are the prefered ones. White pine might be the least
expensive suitable wood and since you will be covering it with epoxy
anyway, the fact that is is not very rot resistant is not really a
factor. A white pine hull with a cherry accent strip just beneath the
gunnel would look very nice. Try to find a local sawmill that will sell
you some.
All of this assumes you are building an epoxy wood strip canoe and not
some other method such as wood and canvas.
Now birch is another story.


Kenton Letkeman wrote:
Greetings,
I am a newcomer to this list and to the whole art of boat building. I am
still in the planning stages of building a prospector style canoe and have
some questions about different wood types. Most people seem to use cedar but
it is very expensive and difficult to find in this part of Canada. Other
types of wood that are available are Tamarack, Silver Birch, Diamond Willow
and Spruce. I would like to make the thwarts and seats out of the willow but
am wondering how the tamarack or birch would work for the strips.
Kenton

"Kenton Letkeman" ) writes:
Greetings,
I am a newcomer to this list and to the whole art of boat building. I am
still in the planning stages of building a prospector style canoe and have
some questions about different wood types. Most people seem to use cedar but
it is very expensive and difficult to find in this part of Canada. Other
types of wood that are available are Tamarack, Silver Birch, Diamond Willow
and Spruce. I would like to make the thwarts and seats out of the willow but
am wondering how the tamarack or birch would work for the strips.
Kenton

tamarack is called larch in the old country (europe) and was used
extenisvely in boatbuildign until it was all cut down. but as noted its
heavy for its strength.

in "stripper" construction the wood is "encapsulated" in epoxy resin
soaked fibreglass cloth making rot resistence not very important, if at
all. pretty well any kind of wood will do since the thinness of the strips
and the gentle curves of the hull minimize problems with bending the
strips (the native people who developed the canoe did nto even have the
wood cutting, bending, and fastening techiniques we use. Even so I
understand people manage to break some strips when building.

the advantage of cedar is its light weight. canoes are meant to
be picked up an carried so weight is important.

you'll see stripper canoes with strips of different coloured woods to
make them look like they have racing stripes and other decorative effects.

I would also check out some of the stripper canoe construction websites like
www.bearmountianboats.com for detailed information on woods.

You might find a boatbuilding, woodworking, or forestry book at the public
library which gives the weights of differenct kinds of wood. I use a table
photocopied from Skene's "Elements of Boatbuilding".

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a word of caution. don't expect the first "stripper" canoe to come out
looking like the beauties on the cover of Ted Moore's "Canoecraft" or on
the websites of srtipper canoe suppliers. Its not easy to get all those little
strips nicely lined up and bent just right, and fibreglass cloth soaked in
expoxy is messy stuff to work with and hard to sand smooth. a neighbour
decided to paint his to hide his mistakes. but the second one usually comes
out much better.
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William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-freenet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned