: Greg,
: In the 6th picture down the left column there appears to be planking on the
: outside of the ribs. If the lines are actually stringers they must be
: awful thin.
Traditional way to build a birch bark canoe is to mount the bark "skin" ot the gunwales, add ribs on the inside, which are fitted from gunwale to gunwale and pushed towrds the ends of the boat to tighten them. Then, to tighten things further, thin planks are inserted between the ribs and the "skin". Cedar, because it could be easily split (like the cedar shakes or roof shingles) with a strong knife or a froe and mallet, was a good choice for the planking.

When large birch trees became harder to find, canvas was substituted for the bark and the wood and canvas canoe was born. Later on, canoe builders used molds and assembled the ribs and slats, which could be cut to uniform sizes. Then the canvas skin was strethed over everything. With the mold you got a more uniform product.

PGJ