Old Town - Maine Cedar Planking

[smallboatshop]

Every once in a while we see a build record that has "Maine Cedar" listed as planking. Why would a customer request Maine or white cedar instead of western cedar? Or was this perhaps a way for Old Town to use up white cedar too thin for ribs?? Thoughts?

Dan

 

[Dan Miller]

In the early days, Maine cedar was fairly typical for Old Town to use as planking - how old is the canoe in question?

 

[Benson Gray]

I don't believe that these examples of canoes using Maine cedar for planking were from customer requests. Most of them occur during the Second World War so my guess is that the factory was having trouble getting enough red cedar shipped in from the West so was forced to use the locally available white cedar instead. They purchased much of their wood with the bark still on it and did their own milling so it is not likely that any of their cedar was too thin for ribs. I could be wrong though,

Benson