Canoe #2 is in the books!

Thank you all for your answers and knowledge along the way, here is #2!

 

Pictures on the water are always better! lol

 

Nice. Curious though: what is "green ash?" Is that ash that was formed green, or is there a variety of ash called green ash? We have (had--before the emerald ash borer) black ash and white ash, and my grandfather talked of blue ash, but I've never heard of green ash. Sad, but my 15 year-old daughter doesn't even know what an ash tree looks like and asked me to show her one. I couldn't find one alive for her to see. That's what those imported bugs have done to southern Michigan. Is there still ash in your area?

 

Green Ash is a variety of ash.

We have very few ash trees left alive. The Forest Preserve District treated ash trees that were near trails, parking lots, etc, and those aren't dead yet. Not sure how frequently they need to be treated, but it sounds like it's expensive. We do have many once densely forested areas that now harbor a few other varieties of trees, and a lot of standing dead ash trees. It's truly sad...

 

It is sad. Something good will come of it. In fact, the woodpecker populations are doing well here. Red headed wood peckers are very common now, while before the ash death I'd see one a year; now I commonly see three pair just driving my horse the two miles to work. My dad said the woodpeckers flourished in the 50's too when the Dutch elm disease came through and the elms died. He still talks sadly of loosing those trees. Sigh.

I'll look up green ash and see if I can find it. Kinda pointless to learn it now though. Thanks for telling me about it.

Stmcglynn, sorry to turn the topic from your amazing canoe to woodpeckers, of all things. I'm curious to know if you carved the carrying thwart. I'd like one on my canoe, but I'm not sure I could sustain enough controlled whittling to get it to come out right. (!) Did you make yours? Is it also ash, like your tag read the thwarts to be?

 

Bug,

https://www.tealpaddles.com/yokes
the other brand is Slipstream but they may be out of business.

Dan

 

Sorry for the delay, have been offline a while.

As mentioned, green ash is the species. Condon Lumber in New York had the pieces. There are borer trails through the pieces, but they are definitely still usable and there are portions of the boards clean enough to bend for the stems. I recon were working with some of the last full length ash gunwales these days.

For the yoke, Teal Paddles makes beautiful yokes, thwarts and paddles. What’s interesting though is their ash is much much darker. I called to chat about it, and it looks like it’s the soil composition that makes the difference here. Here is the yoke, compared to a different brands thwart, and the green ash outwale.

 

Could it be they have black ash insteada white ash? Honestly can't remember how much darker it was though.

We spent the weekend camping just northeast of Columbus, and I was able to show my daughter a young ash tree's leaves. First she'd ever seen. It was one that had been killed by the buggers and had suckered up from the base. At least she got to see them. Then my pack goat ate them. Sheesh. Well, first he'd ever tasted.