dug out canoe

[jturner]

Will cottonwood work for a dugout canoe? I have a huge one in our drainage ditch that keeps pluggin things up but i dont have alot of use for it once i cut it down. And ive always wanted a dugout

[square shooter]

From Square Shooter. Sure hope you try a small one, from a branch, maybe 3' or so long.
I've never made one, but a model would give a lotta info to us all. Is there anything on
the 'net about em? The same oils that seal a bow wood seal a dugout, seems. I know
they made em real thin, like about 3/8". It must be a big diameter trunk you have. Think
what a 2 × 4 will do. Its soft wood. Seems a model of the same scale thickness wood not 
be quite the same scale strength, tho. 

[jturner]

Its bout 3.5 feet across at 20 feet tall it has to go the roots catch debri in the spring and plug up the ditch i want to cut it down with an axe. Reminds me of where the red fern grows.

[zeNBowyer]

Cottonwood  is  a  traditional  wood for  dugouts

[jturner]

Guess im gonna have to sharpen up my axe and figure out how to post pics. I just need some help on how to go about this. I want to burn it out and use hand tools. No chainsaw. How long should i make it? How do i keep track of my thickness without burnin through?

[jamie]

thats gonna be a big dugout at that width and a lot of work. great winter project. one way to determine thickness is to drill holes in various spots . as you reach these spots you stop burning. later the holes can be plugged with dowels or pitch and tinder. the primitive way of making these is to burn . the burning will help preserve the dugout because bacteria doesnt eat burned wood. you'll need a lot of clay also. the clay is used to prevent the fire from burning through the thin areas and also it helps with the initial burn. when you first start your fire on top of the log youll be making a ring of clay to contain the fire on top of the log. it takes a good bit of time to get the log to start burning out but once it starts it goes down a lot quicker. only other tool you need is a fire hardened stick to remove the charded wood as it burns. this exposes the fresh wood. hardest part i found was working the knots. they dont burn as fast so i use a stone adze to rough em out and they burn faster.

nordic tribes as well as many others chipped the dugouts out with steel adzes. faster but much more labor intensive. a grub axe with a good edge will work as a substitute for the adze  if you dont want to invest a couple hundred on a good steel adze. once you are close to depth you will use fire again, inside and out, to preserve the wood.

using an axe to fell that large a tree is dangerous so be careful. however the good thing about using the axe is youll get a good cone shape on the ends . unlike a flat chainsaw cut where youll have to shape the ends . im sure i forgot stuff so ask questions as they come up.  good luck man cant wait to see how you make out. please post pics of the project as it proceeds. peace

[jturner]

Thanks jamie i was waitin for you to jump in i heard you should float the log and mark the top to make it more stable. Should i do that or just not worry bout it

[jamie]

Never done that but if its feasible try it. Gonna be a big junk of wood to keep moving around

[jturner]

How well do you figure a sharpened deer leg bone will work to scrape it out? Ive been gatherin sinew so i have lots of them. I have an old boat trailer i haul logs on shouldnt be too bad to move plus i have all winter.

[jamie]

anything will work to scrape it out if you are burning. leg bone is gonna have to be hafted to something to lengthen it though and it doesnt have as much surface area as say a 2 inch sapling would so you'll be doing more work.

[youngbowyer33]

that would be so cool but i would use a chainsaw to start it and just cut it lots so it get a bit flat then take off little bits of wood then start burning and hacking at it with a hatchet.

[billy]

I saw on TV a while ago a bunch of guys making a dugout canoe.  To ensure the sides were of equal thickness, they would gently flick the wood in different areas with their finger and listen to the tone.  Thicker areas will give a lower pitched sound, while thinner areas would give a higher pitch.  The experienced wood workers were incredibly skilled at making canoes with walls that had even, consistent widths.  They would hollow the canoes out with adzes and they'd take smaller cuts as they got closer to the finished thickness.  Just a little tip for ya. 

[hawkbow]

I have a coleman 15 foot .. that way I can hunt while you are STILL  beating on your log... LOL.. just kidding brother.. good luck and please post pics.. Hawk

[square shooter]

Floating the unshaped log to find the heavy side will not give usable info, because the
hull will be shaped so different after digging out. Great care will have to be taken to not 
get any hull areas too thin. Wide and relatively flat will give a more stable craft, narrow,
an easier canoe to paddle thru the water. So some study into canoe hull shapes wouldn't
hurt.  What an exciting project! And the bow duck huntin that would be possible!

[jturner]

We are gettin our first snow now as soon as the ground is hard enough to drive on the fields im gettin started. This should keep me warm this winter. I am still not  sure how long to make it. I guess its time to learn to put pics on here when i get started. Can i dig up a bunch of clay store it in the basement and add water when i need it? Dont want to be diggin clay this winter. How much clay will i need? Im sure ill have more questions before i get goin and im open to suggestions. Like how to do the seats?