OT: The Northmen build a dugout canoe

[lugnut]

Norman, those were thickness gages, cut to the length of the thickness they wanted the wood to be. So when they hit them on the inside they knew it the thickness they wanted. or something like that.

[softtail]

Norman, those were thickness gauges, cut to the length of the thickness they wanted the wood to be. So when they hit them on the inside the knew it the thickness they wanted. or something like that.

Exactly. An old dugout got eroded out of a riverbank here, and they were able to roughly date it by the depth dowel construction method... can't recall what era it coincided with.

[danlb]

The only part I found odd was the beginning. They took all that time to remove the bark from the whole surface, and then to smooth the wood from the whole surface.

Why did they bother to do that when they were going to remove the top 30% with axes?

Dan

[lugnut]

I can tell that Dan has never made a dugout canoe before.

[softtail]

The only part I found odd was the beginning. They took all that time to remove the bark from the whole surface, and then to smooth the wood from the whole surface.

Why did they bother to do that when they were going to remove the top 30% with axes?

Dan

To keep warm.

[danlb]

I can tell that Dan has never made a dugout canoe before.

Absolutely true. Please enlighten me. What is the purpose of smoothing all 360 degrees when they are going to (relatively) crudely remove a large portion of one side?

[A.K. Boomer]

I think the answer is simply the fact that it's far easier to strip than to chop through,,,

your looking at all the extra work to strip it, think of all the extra work to not strip it and chop through it,

barks a protector and pretty resilient --- that is until you get underneath it and strip it length wise,

stripping the bark was actually an effective shortcut,,, but pretty lit right now - could be way off dunno...

[wtrueman]

Out here on the west coast of Canada. There have been quite a lot of carved dug outs from old growth red cedar with a starting diameter of five-six feet by maybe sixty feet long. They would fell the tree up on the hill, mountain side near the ocean. A bunch of natives then would start to size it on the place it fell. Occasionally, loggers still find the odd one that could not be brought down the hill due to terrain or it having cracked. The point raised about using fire, at least here, was to heat rocks as hot as possible, put them inside the dug out and slowly remove to the desired shape and size. The natives from the Queen Charlottes would come down the continent on raiding parties, taking slaves and women. This also happened down into Washington State and maybe further south.

[lugnut]

I'm going to guess that by removing all the bark first was to be able to inspect the wood and possibly select the up and down side. Also checking for any flaws in the wood.
But then just like Dan, I've never made a dugout either. Heck you couldn't get me in one of those things, I can't swim.

[elf]

Heck you couldn't get me in one of those things, I can't swim.

That's why you use the boat

[danlb]

That's why you use the boat

It took a little thought to come up with a machining analogy to using a canoe because you can't swim. Here it is.

I can't lift a 5 ton block, so I use a crane. I can't swim so I use a canoe. If the crane fails all I have to do is watch it fall from a safe distance. If the boat tips over, all I have to do is ______ . *


Dan
* Hint: 4 letters, begins with S.