How many tools would YOU need to build a birch bark canoe?


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How many tools would YOU need to build a birch bark canoe?

This film shows how many tools one man needs. No boutique tools here. How do you like his wood bending jig?

About 58 minutes (1971). No commentary. Just sub-titles, but the sounds are recorded.

“This documentary shows how a canoe is built the old way. César Newashish, a 67-year-old Attikamek of the Manawan Reserve north of Montreal, uses only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots and gum. Building a canoe solely from the materials that the forest provides may become a lost art, even among the Native peoples whose traditional craft it is. The film is without commentary but text frames appear on the screen in Cree, French and English.”

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Guest Mahoganus

How many tools would YOU need to build a birch bark canoe?

This film shows how many tools one man needs. No boutique tools here. How do you like his wood bending jig?

About 58 minutes (1971). No commentary. Just sub-titles, but the sounds are recorded.

“This documentary shows how a canoe is built the old way. César Newashish, a 67-year-old Attikamek of the Manawan Reserve north of Montreal, uses only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots and gum. Building a canoe solely from the materials that the forest provides may become a lost art, even among the Native peoples whose traditional craft it is. The film is without commentary but text frames appear on the screen in Cree, French and English.”

Note to WTO Staff: If you think this post needs to go into a different forum, please feel free to move it there. Thanks.

Nice! I hope when Im 67 I can still run an Axe like that. I bet most kids cant even do it now. Pocket knife through mortise & tenons. Awesome flick thanks for sharing.

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I met with an Ojibawe man in Wisconsin years ago who made them with his family. He used the most basic of tools and the most modern one was a pocket knife. Probably from the 50's. His 95 year old Grandmother was the only one who could paddle them out on their first run to judge them finished. So, I guess my answer is fewer tools than one would think.

Been wanting to make one ever sense.

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