The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 10

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 10

Another pioneer tool that became useful to the Indian canoe builder was

the "shaving horse." A sort of bench and vise, it was used by Indians

in a variety of forms, all based on the same principle of construction.

Usually a seven-foot-long bench made of a large log flattened on top

was supported by two or four legs, one pair being high enough to

raise that end of the bench several feet off the ground to provide a

seat for the operator. To the top of the bench was secured a shorter,

wedge-shaped piece flattened top and bottom, with one end beveled and

fastened to the bench and the other held about 12 inches above it by a

support tenoned into the bench about thirty inches from the high end.

Through the bench and the shorter piece were cut slots, about four feet

from the high end of the bench and aligned to receive an arm pivoted on

the bench and extending from the ground to above the upper slot. The

arm was shaped to overhang the slot on the front, toward the operator's

end of the bench, and on each side. The lower portion of the arm was

squared to fit the slot, and a crosspiece was secured to, or through,

its lower end.

 

[Illustration: Figure 18

 

SHAVING HORSE.]

 

The worker sat astraddle the high end of the bench, facing the low end,

with his feet on the crosspiece of the pivoted arm. Placing a piece of

wood on top of the wedge-shaped piece, close to the head of the pivoted

arm, he pushed forward on the crosspiece with his feet, thus forcing

the head down hard upon the wood, so that it was held as in a vise. The

wood could then be shaved down to a required shape with a drawknife or

crooked knife without the necessity of holding the work. A long piece

was canted on top of the bench so that the finished part would pass by

the body of the worker, and, if it were necessary to shape the full

length, it could be reversed.

 

Nails and tacks eventually came into use, though they were never used

in all phases of the construction of a particular canoe. In the last

days of bark canoe construction, the bark was tacked to the gunwales

and, in areas where a gunwale cap was customarily employed, the cap was

often nailed to the top of the gunwales.

 

The "bucksaw" also came into the hands of the Indians, but the frame of

this saw was too awkward to carry, so the Indian usually bought only

the blade. With a couple of nails and a bent sapling he could make a

very good frame in the woods, when the saw was required. The ends of

the sapling were slotted to take the ends of the blade and then drilled

crosswise to the slot, so a nail could be inserted to hold the ends of

blade and sapling together. With the end of the nail bent over, the

frame was locked together and the tension was given to the blade by the

bent sapling handle.

 

[Illustration: Figure 19

 

Bucksaw]

 

The "crooked knife" was the most important and popular steel tool found

among the Indians building bark canoes. It was made from a flat steel

file with one side worked down to a cutting-edge. The back of the

blade thus formed was usually a little less than an eighth of an inch

thick. The cutting edge was bevel-form, like that of a drawknife or

chisel, with the back face quite flat. The tang of the file was fitted

into a handle made of a crotched stick, to one arm of which the tang

was attached, while the other projected at a slightly obtuse angle

away from the back of the blade. The tang was usually held in place

by being bent at its end into a slight hook and let into the handle,

where it was secured with sinew lashing; wire later came into use for

this lashing. The knife, held with the cutting edge toward the user,

was grasped fingers-up with the thumb of the holding hand laid along

the part of the handle projecting away from the user. This steadied the

knife in cutting. Unlike a jackknife, the crooked knife was not used

to whittle but to cut toward the user, and was, in effect, a one-hand

drawknife. This form of knife is so satisfactory that it is to this day

employed instead of a drawknife by many boat-builders in New Brunswick

and Quebec. A variation in the crooked knife has the tip of the blade

turned upward, on the flat, so that it can be used in hollowing out

a wooden bowl or dish. The blades of crooked knives seen are usually

about five-eighths inch wide and perhaps five or six inches long. Some

are only slightly beveled along the cutting edge; others show this

feature very markedly.

 

Awls, as well as chisels and other stone or bone blades, often had

handles on their sides to allow them to be held safely when hit with

a hammer. Some of the stone blades and chisels thus took the form of

adzes and could be used like them, but only, of course, to cut charred

or very soft wood. The sharpening of stone tools followed the same

methods used in their original manufacture and was a slow undertaking.

 

To some Indians an efficient wood-cutting chisel was available in the

teeth of the beaver. Each tooth was nearly a quarter inch wide, so

two teeth would give a cut of nearly half an inch. The usual practice

appears to have been to employ the skull as a handle, though some

beaver tooth chisels had wooden handles. As used in making tenons in

the gunwales, two holes, of a diameter equal to the desired width, were

first drilled close enough together to make the length of the desired

tenon, after which the intervening wood, especially if it was white

cedar or black spruce, could be readily split out by means of either a

beaver tooth or narrow stone chisel.

 

The maul was merely some form of wooden club; the most common type

was made by cutting away part of the length of a small balk to form a

handle, the remainder being left to form the head. The swelling of the

trunk of a small tree at the ground, where the roots form, was also

utilized to give weight and bulk to the head of a maul. It could be

hardened by scorching the head in a fire. Another method of pounding

and driving was to employ a stone held in one hand or both. Stone

hammers were rarely employed, since the maul or a stone held in the

hand would serve the purpose.

 

The birch tree that was to supply the bark was usually selected far in

advance of the time of construction. By exploring the birch groves,

the builder located a number of trees from which a suitable quantity

of bark of the desired quality could be obtained. Samples of the bark

of each tree were stripped from the trunk and carefully inspected and

tested. If they separated into layers when bent back and forth, the

bark was poor. If the "eyes" inside the bark were lumpy, the bark in

their vicinity would split too easily; this was also true if they were

too close together, but if the eyes on the inside of the bark appeared

hollow there was no objection. Bark that was dead white, or the outer

surface of which was marked by small strips partly peeled away from the

layer below, would be rejected as poor in quality.

 

Preferably, bark was stripped from the selected trees during a

prolonged thaw in winter, particularly one accompanied by rain, or as

soon as the sap in the trees had begun to flow in early spring. If this

was not possible, "winter" bark, as described on page 14, was used as

long as it was obtainable. Only dire necessity forced the Indian to use

bark of a poor quality. Fall peeling, after the first frosts, was also

practiced in some areas. The work on the tree was done from stages made

of small trees whose branches could be used in climbing, or from rough

ladders constructed of short rungs lashed to two poles. When steel axes

and hatchets were available the tree could be felled, provided care was

taken to have it fall on poles laid on the ground to prevent damage

to the bark in the fall and to keep the trunk high enough to allow it

to be peeled. Felling permitted use of hot water to heat the bark,

and thus made peeling possible in colder weather than would permit

stripping a standing tree. Felling by burning, however, sometimes

resulted in an uncontrolled fall in which the bark could be damaged.

 

Whether stone or steel knives were used, the bark was cut in the same

manner, with the blade held at an angle to make a slashing cut; holding

a sharp knife upright, so as to cut square to the surface of the bark,

makes the tool stick and jump, and a ragged cut results. A stone or

steel axe blade could also very readily be used in cutting bark; with

such tools, it was customary to tap the head with a maul to make the

cut. It was necessary to make only the longitudinal cut on the trunk of

the birch tree, as the bark would split around the tree with the grain

at the ends of this cut. Spruce and other barks, however, required both

vertical and horizontal cuts.

 

Once the vertical cut was made to the desired length, one edge of the

bark was carefully pried away from the wood with the blade of a knife.

Then the removal of the bark could proceed more rapidly. Instead of

starting the bark with a knife blade, some Indians used a small stick,

one end of which was slightly bent and made into a chisel shape about

three-quarters of an inch wide. This was used to pry the bark away, not

only along the edge of the vertical cut, but throughout the operation

of peeling. Another tool, useful in obtaining "winter" bark, which was

difficult to strip from the tree, was a piece of dry, thick birch bark,

about a foot square, with one edge cut in a slight round and beveled to

a sharp edge. The beveled side was inserted beneath the bark and rocked

on its curved cutting edge, thus separating the bark from the wood with

less danger of splitting the bark. Spruce and other barks were removed

from the tree with the same tools.

 

After the bark had been removed from the tree, it was handled with

great care to avoid splitting it along the grain. Even in quite warm

weather, the bark was usually heated slightly with a bark torch to make

it flexible; sometimes hot water was applied if the inner rind was not

to be used for decoration. Then the sheets were rolled up tightly in

the direction of growth of the tree. This made a roll convenient for

transporting and also helped to prevent the bark from curling. If the

bark was not to be used immediately, it was carefully submerged in

water so that it would not dry out before it was fitted to the canoe.

Spruce and other resinous barks, which could not be stored, were used

as soon as possible after they were stripped from the tree, the rough

exterior surface being removed by scraping.

 

Roots for "sewing" were also gathered, split, and rolled up, then

placed in water so they would remain flexible. Sometimes they were

boiled as well, just before being used.

 

The spruce gum was gathered and tempered. Before metal kettles and

frying pans became available to the Indians, it was heated in a number

of ways. One method was to heat it in a wooden trough with hot stones.

As the spruce gum melted easily, great temperature was not required.

Stone and pottery containers were also used. Another method was to boil

water in a bark container and drop in the spruce gum, which melted and

floated on top of the water in such a consistency that it could be

skimmed off with a bark spoon or dipper. Chips and dirt were skimmed

off the hot gum with a strip of bark or a flat stick.

 

[Illustration: Figure 20

 

PEELING, ROLLING, AND TRANSPORTING bark for use in canoe construction.

(_Sketches by Adney._)]

 

Tempering, done after the gum was melted, consisted of adding animal

fat and a little finely powdered charcoal. The mixture was then tested

by dipping a strip of bark into it and then into cold water. The strip

was bent to see if it cracked the spruce gum; if it did, too much

tempering material had been added and more gum was required. If no

cracking occurred, the gum on the strip was held in the hand for a few

moments to see if it became tacky or could be rubbed off the strip; if

either occurred, more tempering was needed. The method of tempering

had many variations. One was to remelt the gum a number of times; this

darkened it and made it harder. Red ochre or vermillion were sometimes

added, often together with charcoal made from the willow. Instead of

spruce gum, in some areas, pine resin was used, tempered with tallow

and sometimes charcoal. The Indians in the East sometimes used remelted

spruce gum to which a little tallow had been added, making a light

brown or almost transparent mixture. Most tribal groups used gum that

was black, or nearly so.

 

For repair work, when melted spruce gum could not be procured in the

usual manner, hard globules and flakes of gum scraped from a fallen

spruce tree were used. These could not be easily melted, so they were first chewed thoroughly until soft; then the gum was spread over a seam. This type of gum would not stick well unless it were smoothed with a glowing stick, and hence was used only in emergencies.