Yes, the best book for building a canoe is a canoe book

BTW This is old tech revisited, the Victorians were pretty good at building boats out of paper. They even made railway carriage wheels out of it (Pullman).

If the subject interests you, then take a look here http://www.cupery.net/

They didn’t build a boat out of paper.

The built a fibre glass boat. With a paper lining.

There’s often few people at the Beale Park Boatshow doing similar if its on next summer. You can use just about anytning as the skin, then the cellulose varnish shrinks it tight. They had some insanely light canoes, 14ft but you could pick them up with a finger.

They didn’t build a boat out of paper.

The built a fibre glass boat. With a paper lining.

Nope, this was being done a good hundred years before fibergass.

Nope, this is a good hundred years before fiberglass.

I think Josh Vegas is pointing out that the canoe in the video is made out of fiberglass with a paper core?

Slightly different but the Russian made a few warships out of concrete.

That is indeed my point sonewhatslightlydazed its just youtube fodder that video.

World class accident there are some pretty small concrete sailing yachts aswell.

WorldClassAccident

Slightly different but the Russian made a few warships out of concrete.

We made a few concrete ships too in WW1. The hulk of one was still afloat in the harbour in Scalpay last time I was over (2017)

Apparently they get stronger the longer they are in the water.

As for that canoe not being paper, I saw the fibreglass as abrasion resistance, not structural, especially at the thickness used.

That canoe type was originally built with bark, and the paper would be a similarly flexible material.

Here’s a pic from before fibreglass.

Ferrocement was a common way to preserve old wooden sailing ships. Find some old wooden hulk that’s begun to leak, bend some rebar and mesh around it and trowel on the cement like render. Lots of sailing barges and bluewater cruisers ended up that way. It works well until the cement cracks, saltwater gets in and rusts the mesh out so it loses all it’s strength.

That is indeed my point sonewhatslightlydazed its just youtube fodder that video.

Ahh, I was a victim of the forum glitch that doesn’t show youtube vids unless you’re logged in.

thisisnotaspoon
It works well until the cement cracks, saltwater gets in and rusts the mesh out so it loses all it’s strength.

That’s purely because of incompetent application or wrong materials. A properly built ferrocement boat doesn’t do any of that.

https://onlineshop.oxfam.org.uk/shop/books/fiction/deliverance-hd_200164231?pscid=ps_ggl_shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwMG83MyR7QIVZevjBx3dsAgBEAQYBiABEgIO3fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Read it first and see if you still want to build one

Ahh, I was a victim of the forum glitch that doesn’t show youtube vids unless you’re logged in.

Takes an already built canoe, covers it in plastic sheeting. glues some pages of a canoe building book onto the plastic sheeting sticks lots more neswpaper on it. coats it in fibreglass lift it off the original. The only slight surprise is they didn’t call it

“you’ll never believe what i built this paper out of”

I’m being really unkind ofcourse, he still made a canoe and did something interesting. I’m mainly just grumpy that i have to work on my dissertation rather than play in my workshop.

Not too interested in building this but the day I find the time (roughly 400 hours) and have the spare workshop space to build a western red cedar strip built canoe I’ll know I have my work/life balance sorted – or I’m retired.

@joshvegas What he did was really no different from the way the original paper boats were built.

They used a buck which is basically a mould in the shape of a boat hull. An existing boat makes for a pretty good buck.

Thought that was uncommonly grumpy for you.

Shame you can’t build a dissertation the same way. “Oh, here’s an old dissertation, I’ll just paper over it.” 🙂

3d Print one out of Titanium?

“Oh, here’s an old dissertation, I’ll just paper over it.”

“Oh? Why apples fall from trees has bin dun? Oops.”

I built a fibreglass kayak with my stepdad when I was about 14. He’s a boat builder, which probably helped (plus the fact that it was his mould). No books were involved 😉

You lot are a hard crowd to impress, so how about making a canoe out of mushrooms?

https://hackaday.com/2020/11/20/mushroom-canoe-one-ups-climate-change/

or packing wrap and a few branches?

https://hackaday.com/2020/09/14/its-a-boat-its-a-duck-its-a-diy-plastic-wrap-kayak/

The English word Book has its etymological roots in the German word for Bark (of a tree, not a dog).
No pun intended.

@TroutWrestler I didn’t know that. Ta.

So it’s actually a bark canoe. 🙂