Canoe Pole Plans from Assembly 04

I was at the Assembly and participated in the poling school put on by one of our members. I believe his last name was Lewis, but I'm not sure. He had a nice little handout describing how to make your pole from a clear piece of spruce. He also kindly put me in touch with someone selling lovely brass pole shoes. I ordered one and want to make a pole but have managed to lose the handout. I could fake one, but his design was rather elegant. Can anyone put me in touch with him or does anyone happen to have one of those handouts that could be copied?? Thanks.

Dave Lewis- 385 Rankin Rd, Buxton Me. 04038, 207-929-4107

Scan it...

Andy... when you get the handout, make a scan of it and put it in a WCHA thread so others can save it and print it out later. Please include the name of the source for the shoes as well... Great Idea, Huh... Thanks, Joe

Thanks for the replies! I'll be in touch with Dave and see if I can post the plans. The source for the cast brass shoe is at home. I'll dig that up and post it ASAP.

OK, I went home for lunch and picked up the info. The shoes are made by Bruce Hooke of Providence RI. It turns out he has a website. The URL for the information on his setting pole shoes is: http://www.bghooke.com/canoepole.htm. I'll work on getting the sketches of the pole design to post later.

I contacted Dave Lewis and got his permission to post the pole info here. Here it is. You can download these PDF files and enlarge and print them.

canoe pole

i believe that there was an article in wcha making a canoe pole with a router by graham Warren hopefully it was not lost in the implosion i do have a copy that i would scan if wcha would ok it

Harv,

Please do! It pays to have as much info as possible.

Andy,

Another good source of information on canoe poles and poling is Garret Conover's book "Beyond the Paddle." Unfortunately, it is out of print and so hard to find, but it has a chapter on poling that includes directions on making a pole. If you have a good library nearby you could probably get it through interlibrary loan.

That said, David Lewis' sheet of poling information is excellent.

One tip I will pass along from my own experience: make sure you keep the bottom end of the pole at least as large in diameter as the top end of the pole shoe. This is, of course, not strictly required for the pole to function well, but it does look better if the shoe does not extend beyond the edges of the pole.

Thank you for your order and thank you for spreading the word about my pole shoes.

One small correction: they are bronze not brass. I think brass would be too soft to last well.

Happy poling!

- Bruce Hooke

Last I checked, Rollin Thurlow still had some copies of the Garrett Conover book. It is indeed out of print, but he had some seconds. The copy I got was perfect except for some blemishes on the cover. Might be worth giving Rollin a call at Northwoods Canoe Company. A good book to have.

Thanks for the tip guys! I'll give Rolllin a call and see if I can have Santa bring me a copy.