Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Has anyone built a cedar strip canoe?

My Dad built one years ago when he and my younger brother were active in Boy Scouts and doing a lot of canoe tripping. I've wanted to build one ever since and have the plans and instructions but just never found the time. That itch has recently surfaced again for me and I've been giving it more thought of late.

I have a friend who's built several. It's on my list, but likely will be a retirement project. I'm thinking about about a freighter as I already have a nice old town and plan to build a geodesic aerolight for trips with lots of portages.

Fairly light and makes for a beautiful boat.

That is cool!! I don’t have patience for that!

I have wanted to for a long time. One day a good buddy announced he’ll was going to make one, I never knew he was considering it. I have helped in my free time. Buy some books, pick a design you like then build a strong back and forms and get with it. 1/4 “ strips of cedar we cut from a locally felled cedar. Lots of time but not a lot of tools . Lots of sanding , applying epoxy and more sanding and applying fiberglass and more sanding. We just detached it from the forms and turned it right side up. 40 lbs tops . Still have build the seats and gunwales. Wish I could post pictures.

This is really worth a watch.

I don't think anyone can build a 22 lb wood canoe that a adult can fit in.
My Wenonah 17' 6" Escape ultra-light weighs 40 pounds.

They are a work of art. I couldn't use it, I would be afraid it would get scratched.

It stretches the definition of a wood canoe, but a geodesic airolite snowshoe 14 can get you a canoe that will float and adult and weigh next to nothing

I'd say that is stretching the definition of a wood canoe. It is very light but how tough is it. My graphite ultra-light can take hard hits from rocks that would destroy a wood or fiberglass canoe. I love the looks of a wood canoe but after owning one I found them to be to heavy and to fragile.

Built a number of them but always used marine plywood strips. Ungodly heavy and very tough right up until they fail. Then they suck and drying them out gets tough.

Did you hear the story about a guy who built a boat in his basement? When he finished it was to big to get out the door!

Very interesting boats!

Isn't that what Mark Harmon's character in NCIS does?

I've heard that one, most boats are not a high as doors are wide.

....... That's my take on it , also... Got my first canoe in May 1975.. A 15.5 ft. fiberglass that I still have. It's been refinished once in the mid 1990's and still shows scratches and wear but that's why I bought it...... I wanted to use and enjoy it.

That would be awesome Denny. I’ve always wanted to build one too.

Originally Posted by TED338
If you have fairly good woodworking skills and good plans, tons of fun. Attention to detail and precise cutting and setup of the frames will make for a fair hull. If you do not have a table saw and router table, buy the pre-machined strips (typically western red, white cedar very expensive). Fiberglassing is a sticky PIA but again, slow precise work and follow directions. And above ALL else, you must like sanding, and sanding and then some more sanding. Good luck, you will love the results, it is hard to hate a 22 lb canoe.

I don't think anyone can build a 22 lb wood canoe that a adult can fit in.
My Wenonah 17' 6" Escape ultra-light weighs 40 pounds.


For the doubters, it was a Mac McCarthy design Wee Lassie, 11"6" LOA. I made it with 3/16 cove and bead western red cedar,(all boards chosen for light weight), covered with 4 oz fiberglass cloth. If your good and use more modern fibers you could get it to 20 lbs, anyway worked good for me (155 lbs) for hiking to out of the way ponds for fishing. Remember that Nessmuk's canoe only weighted 10#6ozs and that was built with planks copper rivets and about 9' long.

Yes, I built one a few years ago - 12 footer, scaled down from a 16 footer. Don't scale one down, 12 foot was too small, Great for one person.

" I couldn't imagine portaging a oak canoe in the BWCA"

Yes, sir. Even though I was living in Georgia, I went up 8 times to the Boundary Waters to go camping. We would get our gear from an outfitter in Ely and then go up in to Canada to the Quetico. I have made many, many portages up there.
We always got the aluminum canoe with a keel and you have your work cut out for you, you better be young and in good shape, to put a 76 pound canoe on your shoulders and do a 1/2 mile portage. You will sleep well at night.

I love the Boundary Waters and the Quetico. Always went in September when it was nice and cool, no GD Yankee black flies, and few people on the lakes. Damn, that was fine, to be sitting by the camp fire at night, pulling on a fifth of Jack Daniels and listening to the loons.
Also heard wolves howling, that is the only time I have heard wolves howling.

One time we were up there, on a rock peninsula that stuck out into a lake, might have been Sara Lake, there was a rock cairn. This pile of rocks, like a slender pyramid, was 18 inches wide at the base and about 2 1/2 feet high.
It looked mysterious, it looked like a religious shrine. I thought it might have been made by the Chippewa.
When we got back to Ely I asked our outfitter about it. He said it was a grave!

Said there was a guy, kind of like me, who loved to go to the Quetico, he lived far away in Illinois or somewhere but had such a strong love for the Quetico. So, when he was dying, he told his son he wanted to be cremated and to have a grave in the Quetico.
So, next year when the ice melted the son took his father's ashes up there and put them on that rock and built the cairn around them.
Of course he didn't bother asking permission from the Canadian government he knew it would be denied. It was a bandit operation but the son did what his father asked him to.

The outfitter said that the cairn had been there for five years, with no problems so far.

Built one out of aspen and westeren red cedar a few years ago that ended up at 24 lbs., lighter ones can be made.