This Flotsam video suggested by Off Center Harbor member Paul Slowick. Thanks Paul.
We’ve read about how pre-industrial age builders chopped dugout canoes from big pine logs, but in this video, you can now see it happen thanks to the Guild of Northern Master Craftsmen. Afterward, to make a better boat out of it, you’ll also see how the basic dugout is heated and softenedwith steam so its sides can be pulled apart. The ax and the adze steal this show; you don’t see a single power tool.
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Pekka Kivalo says:
Very interesting, there are sequels to the video. Nothmen are from Latvia not from Finland but the traditions around th Baltic sea are pretty similar.
I assume the wood is aspen. Pine was used for dug-outs but it does not get as pliable as aspen when heated and cannot be expanded to a boat shape as easily. The Finnish word for dug-out boat “haapio” also derives from the word for aspen “haapa”. Often the freeboard was increased by adding planks.
There is a film from 1936 on dugout building in Finland (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kW7BdhOZZ_c). Text in Finnish but the film is self explaining.
Pekka Kivalo says:
Very interesting, there are sequels to the video on expanding the log to a boat shape.
Nothmen are from Latvia not from Finland (as I am) but the traditions around th Baltic sea are pretty similar.
I assume the wood is aspen. Pine was used for dug-outs but it is does not get as pliable as aspen when heated (“aspen gets as pliable as leather whe hot” replied one dug-out builder interwieved by the Finnish antiquities board in the 50’s). The Finnish word for dug-out boat “haapio” derives from the word for aspen “haapa”. Often the freeboard was increa planks were added
Michael Mittleman says:
The wonder of the video is the amazing edges of the various tools. Hand axes as scrapers, planes and chisels?!?! Extraordinary.
Florian Meier says:
Thank you very much for the information!
Florian Meier says:
Beautiful video!
What are the dowels for? Some of them are for securing the frames, but not all of them. So what is the purpose of them?
Also what type of wood was used and where is the location?
Thanks!
Maynard Bray says:
The dowels not used as frame fastenings are thickness gauges, each one cut to whatever length the desired hull thickness is at that point.
I believe the work was done in Finland and that the wood is local pine.