BWCA Books Boundary Waters Group Forum: Boat Builders and Repair
Chat Rooms (0 Chatting)  |  Search  |   Login/Join
* For the benefit of the community, commercial posting is not allowed.
 Forum Sponsor

Author

Text

Red Beard
distinguished member (322)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
10/23/2008 09:25PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
What Books would people recommend for a beginner, thanks.
 
      Print Top Bottom Previous Next
amhacker22@hotmail.com
distinguished member(1205)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
10/24/2008 06:00AM  
I went on a little bit of a spending spree for books a few months ago when I first started thinking about this, so I've got a bunch of them. Canoecraft by Ted Moores is great, and is frequently referred to as kind of the gold standard. Another one that I think might be better is "Illustrated Guide to Woodstrip Canoe Building" by Susan Van Leuven. It's got a ton of pictures, and is very well written in terms of conveying what she is doing at any particular stage and why. I found that other books did not really make sense to me until I actually started doing something on my own and then referred back. Her book gives you a good conceptual understanding of each step right off the bat, partially due to the writing, and partially due to the many pictures she included. If I had to pick one I would get hers, but in a perfect world I'd get both.

-Nick
 
Cedarboy
distinguished member(3437)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
10/24/2008 06:47AM  
See my comment in the "essential tools" thread. The NWC building notes is the original MN Canoe Association builders book. Thousands of boats have been built using this book over the years here in MN(of course it has been updated and revised over the years).
CB


 
10/24/2008 08:49AM  
I'm with CB -- The MN Canoe Association Builder's Book. Learn how to build the Minnesota way. :) I have many books. Many were excellent in their day like Canoecraft, Gilpatrick's book, Hazen's book, and others; but are now dated because of new materials and techniques. I have heard about the Van Leuven book, but haven't seen it. So for stripper building I recommend the MN Canoe Association Builder's Book.

Now, if you're going to build a wee lassie, then I'd recommend Mac McCarthy's book (Featherlight Boat Building?). Another book I own that uses the stitch and glue technique of building is The Canoe Shop. The technique is generally used for kayak building, but in this book is applied to canoes. It doesn't have appeal to me for a lot of reasons, but I do find it interesting. This is the book to get if you want a canoe built using this method.

Another method and book (I know nothing about) concerns building your own kevlar canoe. That book is by James Moran and I think it's called something like "Build your own Kevlar Canoe"

So, like anything else, the right book depends on what you want to build and how.
 
      Print Top Bottom Previous Next