For the past couple of weeks, I have been busy building a small wooden canoe. The prototype is J. Henry Rushton’s 10’6″ Wee Lassie. Every part of this boat is salvaged wood, the actual planking is from a pallet discarded by the furniture store down the street. Fourteen pieces of spruce, 1″x 4″x 6′, rough plain sawn lumber that with a bit of planing and ripping became close-grained quarter-sawn strips. Evan and I have become quite good at making up scarf joints with matching grain.
fitting the stem
the molds with ribbands 
four strips and a lot of clamps, beginning to look like a boat 
fitting the next strip while glue sets up on the last one. mold #1 nearest the stem, requires the strips to twist inward while making an inverse bend.
One of the many reasons this project is taking so long.
michaellangforddotorg 
I can’t wait to see more! My first canoe was based on the Wee Lassie. I widened it up and rounded the bottom a bit and caller her the Fat Lassie. Good luck!
If we’re lucky, it’ll weigh in same as Chippy, a bit under 12 pounds. There are some beautiful small streams here in the Ozarks.
There are indeed. Where I learned to love canoeing.
seems to me, once you can see the shape of the boat, most the work is done. It adds enthusiasm and you start to work faster. The design choices and methods don’t have many options after that. Gotta get through the various tediums of finishing before enthusiasm wanes, yaknow?
Getting on the water is the goal, everything else is preparation.
I agree, a great part of the work is in the design, then you just have to exercise the patience and skill to see it through. This one is only partly about the boat and it’s particular shape, and more about (seriously) starting a revolution. I want people to build these small, light crate and explore upstream. Downstream canoe and kayak runs ultimately consume a lot of gasoline, and I’m fed up with that as an “environmental” ethic.
well im sold