Kicksleds! Too much to do, so why not another project

The kicksled or spark is a small sled consisting of a chair mounted on a pair of flexible metal runners which extend backward to about twice the chair's length. The sled is propelled by kicking ("sparke" or "sparka" in the Scandinavian languages) the ground by foot.

Lots of fun, our first one got lots of use.  Still around, but to on the small side its time to get back to more time outside in the winter and so we need to start building a larger version. 

So many designs exist, we need a blend of traditional and durability and easy gliding

Plus they would make a great seat for ice fishing

Vintage unit, they go back a long way in Scandinavian countries

uhmw plastic runners will lower friction for better sliding

made out of purpleheart

lots of bent wood and nylon seat

folding units

Powered!?

Low effort!

Honda powered

well if its worth doing, its worth overdoing

Nice traditional configuration

Over the next few weeks we'll be working out a design to produce and standardize, stay tuned....

Form Progress update

After a hectic spring and summer, new projects are all put on hold and efforts will be directed at the form until its ready for stems, gunwales and ribs to be bent on. This week the gunwale backers are bent, with extra curve for springback, to help them take the heavy bend from midships to the stem tip. 

Bending foms, with extra curve. 

18' stock, bent to take the bends for the 16' boat. Ash for the backers, to take the spruce rails.

High tech aluminum downspout for a tube. 

The most reliable of steam generators

Steam rising

On its way to 210 degrees

Soaking in the pool for a day or two..

Nothing more useful than a B&D Workmate

Have to start milling ribs and planks and rails. Thwarts and seats and decks will be started next week, determined to have a boat off this fall and ready for spring ice out. 

Great Saturday spent gathering materials

Out around Tillsonburg we had the good fortune to meet a Sawyer with a tremendous amount of wood, including Cherry, Butternut, Maple, Chestnut, Elm, Tulip, Walnut, Basswood and more. With his own kiln, and an incredible knowledge both for wood and how to cut and process it, we picked up maple for decks, thwarts and seats. Although Chestnut may be more plentiful than is known, we got some and will return for more for stunning paddles, and maybe the odd Cruiser to be outfitted with decks seats and thwarts made of this wonderful looking wood. 

Stacks of walnut waiting for the kiln

Treasure shed...

Piles of quality stock

Many species and dimensions

More stock

Wormy figured maple, will make great paddles

Crotch cherry, walnut below for knife scales

Pile of chestnut on top

Lots of live edge

Up to have a look

We're really excited to have found chestnut, its a relatively rare tree for this area, and was used for canoe parts like decks, thwarts and seats by the earliest canvas canoe builders on the east coast, such as E.H. Gerrish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_chestnut      

The American chestnut, Castanea dentata, is a large, monoecious deciduous tree of the beech family native to eastern North America. Before the species was devastated by the chestnut blight, a fungal disease, it was one of the most important forest trees throughout its range. There are now very few mature specimens of the tree within its historical range, although many small shoots of the former live trees remain. However, there are hundreds of large (2 to 5 ft diameter) trees outside its historical range, some in areas where less virulent strains of the pathogen are more common, such as the 600 to 800 large trees in northern lower Michigan.^[1][2]

  Castanea dentata is a rapidly growing deciduous hardwood tree, historically reaching up to 30 metres (98 ft) in height, and 3 metres (9.8 ft) in diameter. It ranged from Maine and southern Ontario to Mississippi, and from the Atlantic coast to the Appalachian Mountainsand the Ohio Valley. It has several related chestnut species, such as the European sweet chestnut, Chinese chestnut, and Japanese chestnut, which are distinguishable from the American species by a few morphological traits, such as leaf shape, petiole length and nut size. C. dentata was once one of the most common trees in the northeastern US. In Pennsylvania alone, it is estimated to have comprised 25-30% of all hardwoods. The tree's huge population was due to a combination of rapid growth and a large annual seed crop in comparison to oaks which do not reliably produce sizable numbers of acorns every year. Nut production begins when C. dentata is 7–8 years old. The tree's survival strategy proved so successful that it may have ultimately become vulnerable to disease because of a near-monoculture in some locations. This natural event stands in comparison to other epidemics, such as Dutch Elm Disease and Emerald Ash Borer, caused by humans overplanting particular species of trees.

The American chestnut is a prolific bearer of nuts, usually with three nuts enclosed in each spiny, green burr, and lined in tan velvet. The nuts develop through late summer, with the burrs opening and falling to the ground near the first fall frost.

The American chestnut was a very important tree for wildlife, providing much of the fall mast for species such as white-tailed deer and wild turkey and, formerly, the passenger pigeon. Black bears were also known to eat the nuts to fatten up for the winter. The American chestnut also contains more nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium in its leaves when compared to other trees that share its habitat. This means they return more nutrient to the soil which helps with the growth of other plants, animals, and microorganisms

The January 1888 issue of Orchard and Garden mentions the American chestnut as being "superior in quality to any found in Europe."^[28]The nuts were once an important economic resource in the US, being sold on the streets of towns and cities, as they sometimes still are during the Christmas season (usually "roasting on an open fire" so their smell is readily identifiable many blocks away). Chestnuts are edible raw or roasted, though typically preferred roasted. Nuts of the European sweet chestnut are now sold instead in many stores. One must peel the brown skin to access the yellowish-white edible portion. The unrelated horse-chestnut's seeds are poisonous without extensive preparation.

The wood is straight-grained, strong, and easy to saw and split, and it lacks the radial end grain found on most other hardwoods. The tree was particularly valuable commercially since it grew at a faster rate than oaks. Being rich in tannins, the wood was highly resistant to decay and therefore used for a variety of purposes, including furniture, split-rail fences, shingles, home construction, flooring, piers, plywood, paper pulp, and telephone poles. Tannins were also extracted from the bark for tanning leather. Although larger trees are no longer available for milling, much chestnut wood has been reclaimed from historic barns to be refashioned into furniture and other items. "Wormy" chestnut refers to a defective grade of wood that has insect damage, having been sawn from long-dead, blight-killed trees. This "wormy" wood has since become fashionable for its rustic character.

The American chestnut is a prolific bearer of nuts, usually with three nuts enclosed in each spiny, green burr, and lined in tan velvet. The nuts develop through late summer, with the burrs opening and falling to the ground near the first fall frost.

The American chestnut was a very important tree for wildlife, providing much of the fall mast for species such as white-tailed deer and wild turkey and, formerly, the passenger pigeon. Black bears were also known to eat the nuts to fatten up for the winter. The American chestnut also contains more nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium in its leaves when compared to other trees that share its habitat. This means they return more nutrient to the soil which helps with the growth of other plants, animals, and microorganisms.

Yet another 'glass canoe renovation

Some glass canoes were taken from more traditional shapes, and can display nice sheerlines, and even tumblehome. Trimmed in wood, they dont look bad but cant be left outside uncovered without rot setting in. Another nice 16 footer came in, with a beam of 32" and a depth of 11.5", very close to a Chestnut Pal or similar.   As always, retrieval is the most fun part, and Muskoka actually felt like winter with a layer of snow. 

Nice classic shape

Some nice 5/4 air dried white oak, some of which will become new ribs for the sailing canoe restoration that will be up next. 

Wood is rotted off

16 footer

Rob tying it down for the trip home down the highway.