I have been rereading Building The Maine Guide Canoe By Jerry Stelmok (this is a direct link to the online book from Google.com). This was one of the first books on building wood canvas canoes….it was followed by The Wood and Canvas Canoe: A Complete Guide To Its History, Construction, Restoration, And Maintenance that was written by Jerry Stelmok and Rollin Thurlow.
Building The Maine Guide Canoe had a foreword by Clint Tuttle, a canoe builder and instructor of wooden boatbuilding. Clint shared his thoughts on wood canvas canoes, which included the following:
A canoe must fill many unusual requirements: it must be light and portable, yet strong and seaworthy, and it must embody practical qualities for paddle, pole, and sail. It must reject every superfluity of design and construction, yet satisfy the tastes of its owner and safely carry heavy dunnage through unpredictable conditions. These demands will be met by a builder both meticulous and clever – one who, through resourcefulness and dedicated craftsmanship, can build a canoe that will be an everlasting source of joy. It will provide pleasures that continue throughout the four seasons: loving labors that extend from spring refit through a summer and autumn of hard work and play, and on through the winter layup period of redesigning, building, and improving the canoe and its auxiliary gear.
I hope the author’s text….will impart….a proper understanding of of the creation of simple, graceful canoes. It is sad that the practical knowledge and technical skill necessary to build them has remained virtually uncommunicated. One can only hope that revealing a part of this information will result in a clearer understanding of the special bond between the traditionalist canoeist and the wood-canvas canoe. For indeed, a canoe reflects the spirit of its builder and user that develops a character more akin to a living thing than to a mere object of possession….
Check out the preface in Building The Maine Guide Canoe By Jerry Stelmok (this link will take you to an online version of the book)….Jerry weaves an interesting ‘tale’ of the Cosmic Planetwright and how the wood canvas canoe came to be….and was ‘lost’, especially with the manufacturing of aluminum and sythetic canoes….even if for only a while. This has to be read to be fully understood….merely quoting from the preface wouldn’t do it justice. I truly love Jerry’s bend on wood canvas canoes.
The Wood and Canvas Canoe: A Complete Guide To Its History, Construction, Restoration, And Maintenance by Jerry Stelmok and Rollin Thurlow picks up on this theme. This book is described in a review from The Essential Wood Canoe Enthusiasts Library, which also makes up part of A Canoe Reading List, found elsewhere on this blog:
The essential reference for anyone interested in wood canoes. Mainly a building guide for new canoes, also covers restoration, history, and capsule summeries of selected manufacturers. Includes plans for Rollin’s Cheemaun, Atkinson Traveler and Whisper canoes.
The Wood and Canvas Canoe: A Complete Guide To Its History, Construction, Restoration, And Maintenance by Jerry Stelmok and Rollin Thurlow is part history, part manual for construction, restoration and maintenance of this classic and lovely type of canoe. The book does contain complete plans for building various models of canoes….but more than anything the fine drawings, photos and writing make it the last word on the subject of wood canvas canoes.
The introduction starts off with the following:
Time spent in a wooden canoe of fine lines and able handling qualities is intoxicating. Restoring vintage canoes or building such craft from scratch can be consuming. It will ruin a man or a woman for any other work. This is not to dismiss all canoe builders as rapscallions, curmudgeons, or reprobates. But in the majority of cases there are the symptoms of an addiction, or at least a suspension of common sense where canoes are concerned. We are kin to the hard-bitten trout fisherman who stands out in the wind and rain breaking ice from the guides of his fly rod for a chance at an early season rainbow, or the railbird unable to resist the summons of the bugle, knowing it will be followed by the starting gun which will launch the thoroughbreds from the gates. We all know better, yet we simply can’t help ourselves. Why else would we devote our most productive years attempting to revive an industry that has not known real prosperity since before the Great Depression? Today, at long last, wooden canoes and their construction are enjoying a quiet renaissance, and this only encourages us, adding fuel to our dreams.
As the introduction concludes, the authors hope to impart a small portion of the essence of these wonderful craft that goes beyond cedar and canvas, tacks and bolts – the enchantment of boats so well adapted to the moods of our waterways, they seem a part of them.
These two books are important additions to any paddler’s library….especially if you love wood canvas canoes. Check them out.
Paddles up until later then.
