The Wide Board Canoe

Dan Miller

cranky canoeist
Staff member
[H=1]The Wide Board Canoe[/H]
[image]Peterborough 1921 Page6.gif|thumb|border|right|Page from 1921 Peterborough Canoe Company catalog showing details of wide board canoe construction.[/image]
Wide-board canoes are the earliest of the “carpentered canoes,” evolving directly from the dugout canoe, primarily in the Peterborough, Ontario region. Wide-board canoes are built over a solid construction form, and are built with steam-bent half-round hardwood ribs, and three or four planks per side. Planking is usually basswood or cedar. There are a number of variations of wide-board construction techniques, including “rib and batten”, where small battens are fitted between the ribs to cover the seams, and “flush batten”, where battens (wood or metal) are set into rabbets on the edges of the planking.

[H=2]Bibliography[/H]
Brown, Ken. The Invention of the Board Canoe: The Peterborough Stories from Their Sources. Canadian Canoe Museum, 2001.

Gardner, John. Building Classic Small Craft. International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 2nd edition, 2003.
 
I have a W.T. Bush canoe that fits this description. 16'1" long and three boards to a side. Tag says: W.T. BUSH MAN'F'R COLDWATER, CAN
I know nothing about them.
 
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