Birch Bark Canoe Building Process Journal
ARCH 2505: STUDIO 3 BIRCH BARK CANOE PROCESS JOURNAL BRAEDEN MARTEL
The Tchiman
Processing
Introduction
Harvest
Conclusion
Building Process
The Birch Bark Canoe
The birch bark canoe was the principal means of water transportation designed and used by indigenous peoples. Once the voyageours landed in North America, the canoes started to be used extensively in the fur trade. The Canoes proved to be imperative for the success of the fur trade due to the canoes being the only watercraft suitable. Their light, and sustainable properties allowed them to grow and become the main shallow water method of transport in North America.
Each material used in the birch bark canoe comes from mother earth in it’s most natural form. The materials used in a birch bark canoe are thoughtfully sourced, choosing materials based on their properties, learned through generations of peoples, passed on through stories. Over the years, the design of the canoe has not changed much, because it doesn’t have to change. The canoe was built from the natural materials, without much processing, allowing the canoe to return to the earth to feed the next generation of canoes.
The Harvest
“I found this canoe in the bush... some assembly required.� Marcel Labelle
Meso was a powerful spirit, the keeper of the forest. He understands that the trees arer Mother Earth’s lungs, and they must be protected. There was a time when all trees were suitable for canoe building, however, the people began to be wasteful. Meso grabbed the Cedar trees and twisted them. He did this knowing that Cedar trees needed to be straight to be used for canoes. This way only some trees were straight, and could be used. Meso also saw wastefulness with Birch trees, so he whipped the bark of birch trees to create deep lines in them. This made the birch bark unusable for canoe building since they were no longer waterproof. - Marcel Labelle
Our birch bark must be waterproof since it will function as the skin of our canoe. B irch bark with deep lines cannot be used, as the lines will allow water through the bark. We are looking for ‘“leather bark from a tree the size of your hug.” The spirit Meso whipped white birch trees to give them these deep lines, so the people of the land would not take all of the birch. This means waterproof birch bark is hard to find, but allows the forest to be sustainable. Harvest birch bark at least 3 feet wide, and 4 to 5 feet long.
Straight cedar is imperative. Straight bark means straight cedar. Due to the processing of the cedar, and it’s application in the birch bark canoe, straight cedar is imperative. It is hard to find because the spirit Meso twisted the cedar trees in order to prevent the exploitation of the forest. To help the forest, take only trees that are old and dying. When harvesting the cedar, cut the tree into 5 foot sections, and quarter the logs to make them manageable. We will need a few pieces a foot or two longer than our desired canoe length, these will be our inwhales and outwhales, becoming the gunwhales
Spruce trees are the next source of our materials. We will need spruce roots, and spruce gum for our birch bark canoe. A damp forest is ey for finding easily removeable roots. The damp earth will be loose, and the roots will be much easier to remove. Use your nose to find a suitable forest. You can smell the moisture. Don’t take more than 8 roots per tree, that way we don’t kill the tree. We need roots about the diameter of our thumb. Collect spruce gum from the outside of the trees bark, the gum is the trees blood, it spews when a tree is hurt.
We need some fat from a bear for our sealing mixture. The bear fat helps the spruce gum mixture from cracking during cold weather. Ask friends that hunt bear to save you some bear fat, instead of going out just to harvest fat from a bear.
Once we have our materials, we are ready to use simple processes to turn these materials from the land into our birch bark canoe.
Processing
Cedar
To process our cedar material we must split our logs into thin pieces. Cedar will be used for the gunwhales, the ribs, the sheathing, the frame template, and the end pieces. To prepare the cedar to a workable level, split the cedar down to pieces no thicker than 2 inches.
We will split the wood by first gently tapping our axe head between the growth rings of the wood. Then gently tap the axe head and listen for the crackling of the splitting wood, once the crackling is over, tap the axe head again. Do this until the axe head is half way through.
Once the axe head has made it’s way down half way, we can use the axe head as a fulcrum. Gently squeeze together the tops of the pieces you are splitting, and the log will continue to split. again, listen for the crackling, and let the wood guide the process.
Don’t be forceful, let the wood split itself, this way we will have a consistent split, meaning our pieces will have a consistent thickness. Through this patient process, we will avoid the need to do a lot of finishing processes.
Spruce Roots
Spruce roots will be used to tie our canoe together. From the birch bark, to the cedar gunwhales, they will all need to be stitched together using spruce roots. Before we can begin stitching our canoe together, we must removes the outer layer of the roots. To do this, we use the back of a knife, and holding tighn tly to the roots, we scrape off the outer layer, revealing a light brown and smooth innner root.
Our next step is to split the spruce roots in half. In examining the roots, you can find it’s think and dark grain line, use this line as a guide. Use a knife to begin the split at one end, then use your hands to split the rest. Pull the roots apart with your thumbs as you use your index fingers as guides making your way down the root. If the root begins to split more on one side, leave it be as you pull the opposite side apart, this will help you get back on track.
Birch Bark
Processing of the birch bark is very minimal, but happens incrementily throughout the building process. Lay the birch bark out on the canoe building platform inside facing up. Place large rocks on top to weigh the birch bark down, cedar logs will also help. The birch bark will flatten out, preparing it to be bent into a canoe.
Building Process
Once the weight is removed the birch bark will begin to naturally curl up. The birch bark beings to take the shape of the canoe. This presents the beginning of the canoe building process.
Here we see the importance of choosing birch bark with minimal deep lines.
The thickness of the leather bark can be seen in this photo. Leather bark ensures a large strong canoe.
Installing the “Bonhommes”
The “bonhommes” are birch saplings cut down to about 4 feet long. They are inserted in holes that have been drilled out around the platform, in the shape of the canoe. They serve to hold the birch bark curled, allowing the bark to familliarize itself with the shape of the canoe, and helps make the building process easier.
Once the bonhommes are installed, a string is pulled to another bonhomme across from it, and the string is attached in a manner as to keep the birch bark curl.
The canoe begins to take shape, as the bonhommes and the string hold the birch bark in an elegant curl. The outwhale, inwhale and canoe template are all held in place through the bonhommes.
Rocks weigh down the bottom of the canoe with a plywood template underneath to hold the canoes shape as it is manipulated during the build process.
Using a marker, and your thumb for measurement, dots are draw on the birch bark to indicate where holes should be made. These holes will allow the birch bark to be stitched together with spruce roots. Use the knuckle of your thumb to the tip oof your thumb as a spacing measurement.
Goring allows for the canoe to have a slight angle on the front and back of the canoe. To gore, take a knife and cut a slit at a 45 degree angle to the birch bark, making your way down to the plywod template.
Now that the holes have been marked out, we use a screwdriver to slowly poke a hole through the birch bark. These will serve as stitching points. Be careful when pushing the screwdriver through the birch bark, hold pressure from behind, against the screwdriver, to concentrate that pressure to the one spot.
Once the holes have been punched. We can begin to stitch our birch bark together, using the split roots we processed earlier.
When stitching the canoe together, ensure a root is stitching between the roots and the birch bark, this prevents the birch bark from splitting down it’s grain.
Here the stitching pattern is visible from the inside. The stitching is done using a diagonal stitching pattern.
A skirt that surrounds the canoe can now be designed. To do this, abstracted ideas regarding animals, or concepts can be explored.
For our canoe, we decided to abstract the call of a bird. Looking at the soundwaves of the call, we found a pattern and explored it in our skirt.
Here an indea of petroglyphs is explored using the outside of birch bark and scratching animals into it.
Here Tyler begins to thin down a piece of split cedar using a hand plane. Ribs are made by thinning down the pieces of cedar we processed earlier..
The cedar ribs represent the ribs in the chest of us humans. It has the same function in the canoe as it does in humans, preventing inward collapse.
From this photo, the desired thickness for a rib can be seen. A cedar rib needs to be thin enough to bend, but thick enough to be strong.
From this photo, the desired thickness for a rib can be seen. A cedar rib needs to be thin enough to bend, but thick enough to be strong.
A detail shot from above. The layers of the walls of the canoe are shown. The inwhale and the outwhale are tied together and hold the bark in place.
The front piece is also made of cedar. To make one, slits are made with the grain on a 1-2 inch thick piece, to allow it to be bent into a ‘L’ shape.
Marcel Labelle helps his son Marc Labelle tie the “hockey stick” into it’s final ‘L’ shape. The hockey stick is tied using the inner bark of cedar.
The hockey stick finds it’s new home at each end of the canoe, offering strength at each end.
Once the ribs have been made, and the inwhales and outwhales have been stitched, it’s time to install the ribs and the inner sheathing.
To make the sheathing, or the skin of the canoe, we thin down cedar pieces we processed earlier, until they are as thin as shown in the photo above. Pay vcareful attention to not thinning the strips too much, so as to make them weak.
The cedar ribs are soaked in hot water, allowing them to be bent in a form. The ribs are then thinned out at it’s tips to allow them to be tucked under the inwhale.
The cedar sheathing is installed by tucking the cedar strips under the ribs then holding them down by installing the next rib on top of the sheatthing.
The canoe is nearing completion. However, some pieces still must be added. A top gunwhale is installed to cover the ends of the birch bark, the root connections, and to provide a better surface to handle the canoe. Long cedar strips are used for the top gunwhale.
The canoes beautilful tectonics can be seen from every perspective. All of these connections have been made using minimaly processed materials, and measurements using the body. It is incredible how these beautiful connections came to fruition.
Marcel Labelle laughs with us as he tells us one of his many funny stories.
Our canoe is now ready to be sealed. To seal a canoe, a special mixture must be brewed. Spruce gum, cedar ash, and bear fat are mixed together to make a great sealent for our canoe.
Spruce gun is melted downt to a liquid, strained, then cedar ash and bear fat are mixed in. The cedar ash helps the mixture solidify, while the bear fat gives the sealing mixture strength and resilience in the colder months.
A great group of friends ensures a successful build process. If the canoe building process has taught me anyting, it’s to loosen up and enjoy the process.
Once the mixture is created, the canoe is flipped over, and the mixture is then applied on all seams of the canoe.
What is most important when applying the sealing mixture, is to ensure you make your finger very wet using your saliva, this will prevent the mixture from sticking to your finger.
Evenly spread the mixture over the seams, ensuring a proper seal between the roots and the birch bark. We can always reapply more wheneber it is needed. Do not be wasteful.
Conclusion
Inside view of the canoe showing the beautiful contrast of the materials.
Exterior view of the finished birch bark
The end of the canoe building process is bitter sweet. A beautiful canoe representing weeks of hard work presents itself before you. Ready to be returned to nature in a new way. Materials that grew through water, now hold life on water. The patience learned through the canoe building process, will now be built upon through the experience of paddling the canoe.
A special thank you to Marc and Marcel Labelle for teaching us about their culture, and as a result, about ourselves.