Yesterday morning I went to assist a native canoe carver/builder friend with a strip travel canoe and as we were adding our first strip of the day he mentioned that we were missing a canoe steaming by another carver about a mile away. I asked if it would be appropriate for us to go check it out and we were on our way. What a privilege.

Enjoy the slideshow and especially take note of the red hot engine parts that took the place of hot rocks for creating the steam. Roughly every twenty minutes the hot parts were switched out to maintain a constant steam. The canoe is a 22 ft. shovelnose that started at 22 inches wide and was spread to 34 inches which added about 2 inches to the rocker. Roughly a twelve hour process.

Cut and paste for a photobucket slideshow.

http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g16/reglakephotos/Canoe%20Building/?action=view&current=5a8fa94e.pbw

I have had a fascination with dugouts since I saw my first one in 1981 in Costa Rica. Since then I have done some dugout trips in Venezuela and Ecuador and have seen a few under construction. This steaming was a real treat for me.