A finished canoe was brought to the school wood shop in February for students to see the natural beauty of the finished wood and canvas product. Since early March, Bird has been sharing his canoe building expertise and materials in the wood shop at Quinte with students in Randy Votary’s construction classes. They are learning the technology and skills required to steam, bend and fasten cedar planks and ribs to a 15-foot long canoe form. The form took about a month for Bird to build and weighs approximately 250 pounds. He has built eight canoes to date, including a birch bark canoe made last year.

Students have employed various woodworking hand tools, native hand tools and tools invented by Bird, to bend, shape, plane and attach the 5/32" thick planks to the 5/16" thick ribs. Students were impressed at the flexibility of the ribs after they were placed in hot water in a long steel tube with a heater for 30 - 40 minutes. The boards easily bent into a variety of shapes to fit the canoe mold shape.

The canoe design is modeled after the world famous Peterborough Canoe and is constructed from select white cedar ribs and planks, ash gunwales, and bird’s eye maple thwarts sawn from locally cut logs from a sustainable forest in Hastings County. The ribs and planks are fastened with 3,000 brass nails which must be driven in specific locations and clinched on the inside of the ribs. The exterior of the canoe will be covered with canvas and coated with environmentally friendly acrylic paint. The mold will remain in the school for future canoe construction activities.

Brad Hendrick, Zone Chair Manager for Ducks Unlimited for the Quinte Region, is pleased to accept the donation of the completed canoe as an auction item for the upcoming 25th Anniversary of Ducks Unlimited, to be held at the Fish and Game Club on Saturday April 5, 2008.

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For more information, contact:

Randy Votary, Head of Technology, Quinte Secondary School, 613-962-9295