After canoeing around for a couple seasons, I’ve gotten pretty good at piloting my little boat with a standard canoe paddle. However, the designer of my single-man canoe highly recommends a double-ended canoe paddle. I decided I might as well give this a try. I tried a kayak paddle once or twice. It never quite…

Installing the trim on my canoe was probably the most rewarding part of the process. This is where I could really customize things and make it my own design. All the trim is cherry, sourced from a local purveyor of fine hardwoods. I almost was able to source the cherry from the backyard of my…

At this point in the process, a lot of people watching my work said, “Oh, cool, it looks like you’re almost done!” Well, yes, it looks like that. I mean, it looks like a canoe, for sure. But there was still a ton of work to do. Sanding was a big job, but working with…

When we left off I was nearing the end of stripping my canoe. I only had a few pieces left, but of course the details always take the most time. Day Eight: The Final Strips Working from the keel line out now, the strips went in very easily. By design, I didn’t have to bend…

Pauline Gourlay died on October 14, 2020 in Dearborn, Michigan at the age of 100. She was born Pelagia Bogush in Detroit on November 8, 1919 to John Bogush and Paraskievia Labaz Bogush. She was the fifth of six children, and she died as the last remaining sibling. In a family that immigrated to the…

Day Three To be honest I’ve lost track of the days, but think of them as phases and a gauge of how long things took. The inner stems dried and cured overnight, then I installed them (form and all) onto the strongback. I used a saber saw and an angle grinder to shape the stems…

After finishing the launch of my podcast and my book, I felt like I could relax for a bit. It was almost a month before school starts, and I was feeling pretty good. Then a voice in my head said, “Hey! You have free time! Let’s do stuff!” So I thought about what I might…