I was looking for a filmatization of Jack Kerouac's On The Road, which I've just started reading. But oddly, there doesn't seem to be any! (A bit strange, revered as it is.) Instead I found an old and clearly beloved TV show, On The Road with Charles Kuralt. Here is a couple of kool segments.
I don't understand how you can build a canoe, much less a really good one, from birch bark and without glue or nails. [Ah, sowing and pitch. Here's a vid, and bit more here.] It's amazing what some people can do with wood. It's a particularly difficult material because unless you "cheat" and glaze it, it will expand and contract with humidity, and all the joints has to be carefully constructed to take care of that! (I was educated a little by a friend who built me an amazing tilting drawing table with inlaid wood in the nineties.)
(I was educated a little by a friend who built me an amazing tilting drawing table with inlaid wood in the nineties.)
ReplyDeleteWouldn't that be wasted on you? You should have given it away to someone with talent.
This is great EO. I have sent these videos to a good friend that restores old (1950s) boats. I know he'll enjoy this.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
The Indians used to burn and hollow out the inside of a tree to make canoes. One piece of wood; no joints.
ReplyDeleteYes, we tried to make one of these at school in a two-day Indian festival. Like one might predict, it only got about 18% done! Pretty silly project to start.
ReplyDeleteWould be right up the alley of most boys...what w/the fire and everything! Maybe that's why they did it. Too bad you guys didn't just build a campfire and learn to do smoke signals! lol! :-D
ReplyDeletecaptcha: "tripb"
Oh yeah...or get 'er done this way! Get some o' that pent-up testosterone out! lol! :-D
ReplyDeleteHere's a burning out method w/some info. about the process.
ReplyDeleteYes, the hacking method was what we used. But we were kids, not brawny men, so it would have taken all summer.
ReplyDeleteYeah. And...what to do; most Indian tasks were labor-intensive: hunting down buffalo; tanning hides for making moccasins and other clothing; spearing fish for dinner...
ReplyDeleteAnd...planting corn wouldn't have been very quick feedback, either! lol!
Perhaps having made teepees would have been FUN...providing that there were some long, thin trees that could have been cut down! I bet most boys would have enjoyed that! :-D
Yes, the hacking method was what we used. But we were kids, not brawny men, so it would have taken all summer.
ReplyDeletePlus, as Danes you would have been too lazy to finish the job.