Very interesting reading...thanks for posting the history of the "Crooked knife".....Hopefully, I am going to be taking a trip to northern Maine this spring, to meet a gentleman that also builds birchbark canoes in the traditional method.
you may want to visit a site that shows some of his work and how he does it.
Trying in your search menu, type in "MoreAirphotos" when you get the link ,open it and it is a professional photographers Home page about his work. but there is a section on the left that says "Birchbark Canoes" if you click on that you will be taken to photos of this gentlemans way of building his canoes and examples of what he builds and sells....Interesting looking for the curious mind!
"Life is not determined by how many strokes of the paddle it takes to get there, but rather in the JOY of the journey." (Blue Viking)