Anyone built a dugout Canoe before?

I've been asked by a client to build a Dugout, outrigger canoe, does anybody have any tips or ideas for me?

No tips - but good luck! Thats a big project :)

Is it for actual use in water, or display? (or to be a planter?)

How large is this suposed to be?

Are you able to burn the material out where you live? (like the natives did?)
What sort of wood are you using?

On 2006-04-27 06:57, Gigantalope wrote:
Is it for actual use in water, or display? (or to be a planter?)

How large is this suposed to be?

Are you able to burn the material out where you live? (like the natives did?)
What sort of wood are you using?

It's fairly small, about 7 feet, with the wood i was going to see what may be available from the sawmill, but it is for display so i shouldn't really need an exotic hardwood or anything fancy.
I'm sure i could burn it out, how does that work?
thanks

cheeky,
that's brilliant!
once started, please please please, document this process w/ photos (or let me swing by & take a few pics)!
aloha,
tiki chris

You can use an adze to dig out the inside of the log, if you want to go more traditional and more work

Because it's used for display, you can use bens method.
Here's a thread with images of his canoe (AWESOME ben!!!!):
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=11715&forum=7&hilite=making%20canoe

Here's the post where he tells how he did it:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=7079&forum=7&vpost=68977&hilite=canoe

I've wanted to do one for some time now. Be sure to post it when you're all done, I'd love to see it!

POLYNESIAC - putting the 'F' back in ART

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2006-04-27 08:32 ]

On 2006-04-27 07:16, cheekytiki wrote:
I'm sure i could burn it out, how does that work?

Basically you start a small charcoal or wood fire to burn away the wood you don't want and scrape away the burnt wood. You move the fire down the log as you burn the wood, then scrape away the burnt wood as it's exposed, then shift again & scrape again, shift & scrape, shift & scrape... When you get to the other end of the log you begin moving the fire back up the log to the areas that've already been scraped. This method was used before the advent of modern metal tools.

Some links on Burning dugouts:

American Indian canoes
The Nez Perce method

Here's some links on making dugouts:

From Mother Earth News
Images of a Papuan dugout being made

Chainsaw - anyone?

Well did you make your canoe yet???
First you shape the outside of the log to get your bow and stern shaped.
Then shape the bottom and then the top.
Now what you are going to do is cut out a square piece from the middle of the boat.
Lay it on its side and lay your saw on the top side to figgure where you have to cut'You want the boddom to be 2" thick and you want to cut throuhg 1 side all the way through to the Inside of the other side, If it is 20" across, you put a clamp on 20" of saw bar and chain so it won't go deeper. you want your cut to leave the bottom of the canoe flat and 2" thick for the whole length of the cut or canoe bottom. With the canow still on its side and at the line you have marked 2" paralell to the bottom of the canoe yo Plunge your saw the depth of that 20" and keeping the saw at right angles to the side of the canoe make that cut from front to back stopping before the canoe begins to tapir to a point.
Now you have cut the bottom slice of the rectangle you will remove from the canoe in a few minutes.Stand the canoe up so it is in Normalfloating situation. The cut you made should be on the bottom.
Now just cut a 2" right side wall and the same for the left. Now go for the bow end and cut across ther where you stopped the bottom cut.
Now the same for the stern and when you turn the canoe upside down the perfect rectangle should just fall out whan you lift up the canoe.
The canoe will have a box shaped hole dug into it. You will have to cut a piece off the rectangle to wedge and glue into the first cut you made on the bottom of the canoe because you left itwith a slice through one side wall at the bottom.
Next, finish shaping the bow and stern and get the grinder out for sanding and then add whatever detail you would like on your canoe. The piece that came out of the middle of the cnoe can be used for small tikis, or pontoons and opoles or a park bench for all I care. Basically your canoe is done and it has only taken 8 hours and the people are already asking you if it will float and are you going fishing in it and all that crap.If you are lucky you won't have to make another one.

Thanks Ben,I didn't see the other thread even though I did a search on "Canoe"
Right all I need to do now is go get the log!

Anyone built a dugout Canoe before?

No. But, the way the world is nowdays, I think we all should think about buiding one.

Woofle Ball this year??

last year I made some planters using the Charcoal Burn idea. (my in my plan this was going to be a self carving bowl, large enough to hold big house plants) However the burn required much more attention than I expected. It also caused several of them to crack from the uneven heat, and the smouldering made several folks in my local area sort of unhappy.

Hope this helps