Dendrochronology

Benson Gray

Benson Gray

Canoe History Enthusiast
Staff member
Does anyone have any experience with dendrochronology? The first link below has more details if you are not familiar with dating wood from tree rings. This might be a way to help date some of the very early canoes. It can be done with musical instruments as described at https://violin-dendrochronology.com/ so a huge amount of wood is not always required. The second link describes the use with old barns but they generally have much larger sizes of wood to work with. The last link indicates that the cost can be "about $2,000 per analysis" so it is not inexpensive. Thoughts?

Benson


en.wikipedia.org

Dendrochronology - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Eastern Barn Consultants

Eastern Barn Consultants is a cultural resources company that specializes in documentation, interpretation and construction dates of eastern North American eighteenth and nineteenth century barns.
easternbarns.com easternbarns.com

turnto10.com

How dendrochronology reveals the truth about historic homes

Every year, more tourists come to New England, and Rhode Island in particular, for its rich, long history. Getting that history right involves a science called "dendrochronology", microscopically studying the wood in historic structures to better determine when they were built. Caption: NBC 10's...
turnto10.com turnto10.com
 
Last edited:
Interesting links Benson. Deserving of further study. The Eastern Barn Consultants are sort of in my back yard... and, I have an old Pennsylvania German bank barn where I do my canoe work/fun! Thanks for posting this.
 
My folks had a dendrochronologic study on their circa 1750s house. The core was about 1/4" in diameter and 6" or so long. They had several cores done, but only one or two were conclusive (and helped confirm the date the house was built. The core is taken on a timber with a waney edge towards the pith - the waney edge is required to know when the tree was harvested (e.g. no growth rings were removed in squaring the timber). The method also requires regional reference trees with which to establish a connection. The reference tree is harvested at a known date, so that the age of the tree is known and the rings from a core can be cross-matched.

I took a quick look at the violin aging page, but it isn't clear how the establish the reference to know when the wood was harvested. Being radially split, at least the growth rings can be easily analyzed.

I suspect there are not enough bits in a canoe to offer up a decent size sample, and there may not be any references available.
 
Well, this rabbit hole has turned out to be deeper than most. The article at the first link below describes the use of digital photographs to date a violin. The second and third list organizations that work in this space. Now we just need a very old canoe with unusually wide planking and a few thousand dollars to see if this will work.

Benson


Dendrochronology – Studying Tree Rings to Learn about an Antique Violin | Historic Jamestowne

Visit the real thing at Historic Jamestowne, explore the actual location and active archaeological dig, Jamestown Rediscovery, home of the first successful English settlement.
historicjamestowne.org historicjamestowne.org

Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory - Dendrochronology

Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory - Dendrochronology of Historic Building and Archaeological timbers
www.dendrochronology.com

www.dendrotech.net

Tree Consulting | Cross Timbers Dendro | United States

Providing clients a better understanding of their trees. Curious about what trees you have and how old they are? Consulting services include tree-ring dating, species composition, and other forest measurements.
www.dendrotech.net www.dendrotech.net
 
Last edited:
Not that I have a spare "few thousand dollars", but what is considered unusually wide planking? This 18' Whistle Wing has 6" sheer planks.
IMG_1685.jpeg
IMG_0738.jpeg
 
patrick corry said:
what is considered unusually wide planking? This 18' Whistle Wing has 6" sheer planks.
Click to expand...

This is a good thought and six inch planking could be enough but quarter sawn would show more of the annual grain pattern. It might also be nice to start with an older canoe.

Benson
 
Last edited:
One of the struggles with this technique is getting good dated reference sources. There are a few old canoes with likely dates that may be able to help. The link below describes one that was probably made in 1901. It has a roughly five inch plank that is quarter sawn as shown in the picture below. It is slightly curved which isn't ideal but might be a good start. Does anyone else want to share a similar picture and details? Thanks,

Benson


Benson Gray

Thread 'A canoe from the Indian Old Town Canoe Company'

The pictures here show an Indian Old Town canoe with serial number 201. There are no build records that go back this far but it is probably circa 1901 when this company started advertising. This was the first form of the organization that eventually became the Old Town Canoe Company on January 23rd, 1903 as described at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?10647 previously. The name plate is a non-ferrous metal which may have been plated originally. It appears to be a GG model based on the current 35.5 inch width and 18 foot length. The center thwart is missing and was held on...


IMG_6013.JPG
 
why not trying to ask the question on AI ? in France sending picture is not avaible now ... the new toy of the world and it's free ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Alex Guthro
Northern Lakes Chapter Humber River & Sunnyside Shore paddle
Replies
0
Views
693
Alex Guthro
Alex Guthro
Benson Gray
Did Edwin M. White ever build birchbark canoes?
Replies
6
Views
1K
Benson Gray
Benson Gray
Greg Nolan
A LITTLE RED CANOE
Replies
2
Views
449
Glenn MacGrady
Glenn MacGrady
Benson Gray
Dugout canoe at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine
Replies
5
Views
769
Nick Dennis
Nick Dennis
Dan Miller
When did B.N. Morris Begin Building Canoes?
2
Replies
24
Views
6K
Scott Rowe
Scott Rowe
Back
Top