This channel is dedicated to sharing my passion for the outdoors ! My videos are mostly about my adventures and experiments on bushcraft techniques such as fire lighting, shelters, foraging wild foods, fishing, observing wildlife, winter camping, canoe camping, etc. I am passionate about constructing and crafting with bark and traditional skills such as bark canoe construction and baskets. Learn, Explore, Share.
Cette chaine est dédié au partage de ma passion pour le plein air ! Mes vidéos traitent principalement de mes aventures et expérimentations sur des techniques de ''bushcraft''ou de ''survie en forêt'' tel que les techniques d'allumage du feu, les abris, la récolte de plantes comestibles, la pêche, l'observation de la faune, le camping d'hiver, le canot camping, etc. Je suis passionné des techniques traditionnelles et la confection d'item en écorce tels les canots d'écorce et les paniers en écorce. Apprend, Explore, Partage.
This can be possible what i hear middle of the night (right now) im so confused but the sound in my yard wasnt like this sound, it was way scarier and demonic and deeper
I've been corresponding with your friend François, which has been great help answering my questions, just like you have done for me, and this is the style of lashing he must of been talking about when he was saying that you don't need to insert the root end in between the inwale/outwale.
That would be correct. This is how Francois has shown me ... and how i believe he does them. Works very well. That is awesome, Francois is a great guy, definitely a true mentor in every sense of the word. Being i'm in Alberta, I miss chatting with him and spending time with him ! Cheers, Steve
@@NomadicWoodsman I tried it out today, but found it hard working from the inside of the Canoe towards the outside .. Can't see what I'm doing. I'm going to try using a nail knot to lock my roots, and see how that works. Yes François has been very helpful and so have you Steve. Thanks
Hadn't seen this video Steve .. Did you ever try rubbing a candle on the roots ... I just tried that for practice and it worked quite well. This is my next step sewing in the side panels.
@@NomadicWoodsman Yes exactly Steve .. You just rub a bit on, which seems to help when the root start drying up. I had read this somewhere in my research. Another little tip that helped me with pushing the root tip through the same hole twice, was to leave my awl tip visible, then kind of push the root tip against the awl tip while backing it out of the hole and the root would fallow the awl. Hope this helps my friend.
Merci pour ce partage, quel travail ! Pourriez-vous préciser pourquoi on ne peut pas faire de dessin avec l'écorce d'été svp ? Quelles sont les différences entre les 2 ? Merci et bravo.
L'ecorce d'ete n'a pas cette couche mince rougeatre qu'on peut gratter pour donner les 2 differentes couleurs. Desoler pour le manque d'accent mon clavier est anglophone. L'ecorce d'ete a une couleur plus jaunatre et celle d'hiver est comme plus rougeatre. Vous pouvez regarder ma derniere video ou je gratte l'ecorce sur le canot. Voyez le morceau d'ecorce d'ete en dessous de celui d'hiver. C'est difficile a expliquer ! En esperant que cela repondre, bonne journee, Steve
The binding material is spruce roots, I have a full video called "spruce roots" on that subject, search youtube : Nomadic woodsman spruce roots. You must harvest them from the soil, clean them, boil them, strip them of bark, and split them. Use them as binding while they are wet. The tree branch is a simple willow straight branch with no knots. Used boiling water to help bend without breaking. Hope that helps ! Steve
@@OpalDragon24 Spring and summer, it is easier to peel when the weather is warm (more than 20C and the sap is flowing between bark and wood). If earlier spring while leaves are coming out, we call it winter bark. And you can scrape off those designs on it, geese and stars, etc. if you collect in warmer weather it is easier to peel but you won't be able to scrape off the designs on it. Will still make a beauty basket though !
This canoe building is not for impatient people! I enjoyed the "why" of the grouse and laughed at the "eat" part. Beautiful work. Thanks for the video.
Great work... and well done on explaining and sharing how to do it... I will try this think it's just something hands on to learn it by doing it... thanks for sharing there eh!
Thanks for all the information... it's late April. I'm in New Brunswick I'm a mikma my generation has lost all knowledge of this art... now that I'm getting older for some reason, I'm craving to learn this... going to get some winter birch bark soon. How long, and how can I store it? Also is it like cedar bark if I cut the tree down and leave it for some time on the ground, maybe cover it with a tarp before peeling to hold moisture may peel easier? Thanks for sharing there eh! going to watch all ur vids on this
I have only peeled trees that I had freshly cut or that I climbed in and peeled the live tree, so I do not know if cutting it in advance would make it easier to peel, I prefer peeling it fresh / live as much as possible. Once you peeled it, and rolled it (must be rolled while still wet or fresh harvested). You can leave your bark roll stored in a shed or a garage out of the elements (sun UV rays and rain) and you can store it pretty much indefinetly. No problem leaving it a year or two while you prepare your other building materials such as roots, lumber, etc. It is alot of work getting the winter bark as it is really glued on to the wood, but if you want to scrape off designs like my last video, you need that. Much easier to harvest summer bark in late june or july though ! But no artistic designs to be scraped off that one. good luck, Steve
Depends where you are ... the best is if you know someone who has private land and you can go harvest bark. Or if you know areas where people are planning to cut birch down for firewood and you can go harvest some bark before they cut them down for firewood. If you are going on public lands, make sure you are allowed to harvest bark or firewood and get the appropriate licenses from the forestry department and make sur you are in the right area (they usually have maps where you are allowed to go and maps where you are not allowed to go). Hopefully that helps, it may be challenging if you are in a urban setting and no one will allow you to cut anything ... Sometimes I have to walk many kilometres and cut trees deep in the boreal forests where almost no one goes, and then I need to haul it out on my back once it's rolled.... lots of work ! cheers and good luck and stay safe, Steve
@@NomadicWoodsman Thanks I see, not a ton of birch here in Washington State. thinking about heading up to BC. Other problem is figuring out if western red cedar would work for sheathing and ribs, and if our local spruce root works as well. At this point it kind of seems like the best bet is finding a few weeks to go up to quebec or the northeast states.
Love it Steve .. You've got the swing with your drawings. All the objects you etched look great. Canoe looks really nice, that would be the one you sold ? It would be hard for me to part with something you've put so much passion and work into.
Thank you so much 😀 yes it's always toring to let a beauty canoe like this go. Although this is how i can make room and learn how to make more of them ! Cheers ! Steve
@@NomadicWoodsman Your welcome .. Yes we all need more room ! Got my tamarack thwarts and cedar gunwales all fitted and assembled yesterday. What a job ..
I was always taught that it was a made by the Abernathy Indian that they were tour guides and Southern Canada over in the East Coast and New York That was I was always brought up that that is who made the first Birch nut birchwood canoes Maybe I'm wrong but that's I used to have information that tells about it the last name of the couple of the members that tribe was Sabattus
I have a fox that is buddies with my cat. It is weird. I thought he was going to eat my cat but I guess they don’t. I have seen them nose to nose like six times now!
Yes probably 1/8 to 1/4 inch or so. It just needs to be the right size so you can pass the root through it 2 or 3 times. So make a smaller hole and see if you can pass your root that many times, if not, go a little bit bigger. You don't want a huge hole that will jeopardize the solidity of the thwart, just big enough to do your lashing with the root.
@@NomadicWoodsman Thanks .. That's great. Speaking of thwarts, I'm in the process of making my first mortises into the gunwales and shaving down the thwarts ends to fit, and I have to say this has been the most intimidating part of all the different type of work for me until now.
So Steve this method of lashing you don't insert the root tip in between the inner/outer gunwales, so its just a different way of doing it ? Never seen it done this way, but its nice & neat.
It's just a different way of tucking in the end. You could also insert it between the inner and outer gunwales but I just learnt it and do it this way. Both would work very well. Important thing is that it's nice and tug and tight. this way if the pressure of the ribs wants to separate the inner and outer gunwale, the root lashings will keep everything in place. Here is a video on spruce root gathering and processing : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rq7pOWD9ZY0.html
@@NomadicWoodsman OK thanks ... Good to know. The spruce roots I have already collected and processed last year, and now there soaking in a batch of root bark like you suggested to Brown them up. I've watched everything you've put out on BB Canoes. Thanks again.
@@charlesleblanc6638 Awesome ! Don't let them too long maybe 1 or 2 days. And then hang them and dry them good if you are going to store them. One time, I had boiled roots and then split them all. I did a big error and that was leaving them in a plastic bin(no lid) in a basement. They all rotted and turned black within two days. About 12 hours of work all for nothing. Now I know better ! Make sure they dry good in an open area before storing. thanks for all your support ! cheers, Steve
@@NomadicWoodsman I know what you mean about hanging them for storage. But I have some now that have been soaking for a few weeks and are still OK .. Maybe the mixture and being outside doesn't effect them the same way. I wondered if they could weaken if left in the water or this solution to long. Thank you for all the great advice.
It's okay to show us how to do baskets but you never said what you used for the rim and your technigue for bending them. A little naritive might have helped us. I apoligize for the spelling, English was not my strongest point. Us natives use saskatoon branches for the rim, When fresh easy to bent. I use heat from stove or camp fire to bend my birch. Will have to give the water thing a try. Never told us what you used to sew basket with and how to prepare. It is beautiful work , love the designs on basket.
hi thank you for the comment. The rim here is a split piece of white spruce. It also works well with eastern cedar. The idea is to shave it down and keep it along the grain of the wood... The lashing used are split spruce roots, I have multiple other videos on collecting, boiling and preparing spruce roots. The process for my roots is the same for a basket or a canoe. I would encourage you to check out those videos. I had also done some videos on the spruce bark canoe rib splitting with spruce and also with eastern cedar splitting some thin planks. I use these planks for basket rims. Saskatoon branches and willow works very well for sure. I use some boiling water to make the wood more flexible. It is the same method as when bending ribs for a birchbark canoe, you soak your wood for a few days, then steam it or pour boiling water on it, and then slowling bend it to required shape. Then fix it in place with a clamp or root lashing. Hope this helps ! thanks again for checking out my video, respectfully, Steve
we have a family of red fox behind our house! Not only is there male and female, but also FOUR healthy kits!! adorable to watch early in the morning! they will run up our front yard and then lay down and roll to the bottom. I love them.
Probablement ! Il faudrait trouver une "talle" ! Je ne sais pas s'il existe une carte de distribution ... recherche sur internet "distribution map medeola viginiana" ou dans des livres sur la flore.
OMG.. I had a feeling. Heard this sound real close walking to my car tonight. Couldn't figure out what it could be and couldn't see it but thought maybe a fox..
Footage is nice and clear Steve .. Like that idea of continuing with the root. Sometimes I see root lashings that are like a dark brown which I really like, have you ever herd or read somewhere how you might dye them dark ? This is the Canoe you sold already correct. Turn out real nice.
Yes this one is sold I will finalize a couple things on it and deliver it shortly. The easiest way I've seen to dye them dark brown, is, leave them in the water that you boiled them in. When you boil them to remove the bark on them. You keep some of that water cooled and leave them soaking in that 2 days or so, they will be a darker brown colour and very natural looking. My first canoe I had a mix of darker brown and more white coloured roots as I had accidentally left them in the water and they quickly dyed. Looks awesome though. Make sure you wash them and get rid of as much dirt as possible before boiling them, if you leave too much dirt, then they will dye almost black.
Make sure you remove the bark before they cool down though. If you leave them soaking after boiling and the water cools, the bark on the roots will stick back on the root. I would clean, boil, strip bark off root, split some and leave them soaking in the cooled down water used to boil overnight, or until you like the darker colour, then split them, roll them. Dry them out. Store them dried in rolls until needed.
@@NomadicWoodsman Thanks .. Good idea. I had done something similar to this using alder bark, and did get them a little bit darker. My roots are all prepped up and ready to go, but it would be worth getting some more and trying that, leaving them in that root bark juice. I was going to try coffee to see how that would work. I've dyed sinew/hide glue to make bows with coffee which got it real dark brown.
Merci Suzanne ! Est-ce que tu a deja vu cette forme de panier ailleurs ? Je veux en faire un autre plus gros et essayer d'y bouillir de l'eau dedans ... je suis curieux de voir si ca fonctionne pas pire !
