Florin Canoe Company

Everett Oakes

Curious about Wooden Canoes
Hi all,

I'm wondering if anyone on this forum has any info on the Florin Canoe Company from Carson City, Michigan? The only place I've ever heard the name before was from Scott Barkdoll at Skywoods Canoe. He restored a boat built by them, a roughly 17' wineglass transom, in the '90s and built a form off of it as well of which I believe he only made one new boat from. I've talked with Scott about it and that's about all he knows and says it was the only boat he'd ever seen from them. The internet is drawing a complete blank on them as well, aside from what he has here on his website: http://www.skywoodscanoes.com/New_Site/New_Canoes.html

It seems that they didn't build very many and were perhaps more of a general woodworking shop that one offed a few canoes over the years. I just wanted to check these forums though as a last ditch effort to see if anyone else knew anything about them. Thanks!

-Everett
 
I've been searching various sources for information about old canoe builders for many years and haven't come across anything else about them. Let us know if you find more.

Benson
 
I will certainly post here if I can dig out anymore details! Its looking like I might be getting Scott's Florin mold so I was trying to dig up as much as I could about them. Hoping that starting this discussion here might draw out some more folks who'd heard of them.
 
You may want to check the various R. L. Polk & Company's Michigan Gazetteers for references to Florin. Business directories like these were published for many years and have been a big help for my research of canoe builders. (See http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/7166/ for more details about a similar research project of mine using the Maine Register.) I checked the ones from 1922 and 1908 but found no references to Florin as a builder of boats or canoes. The one from 1908 contains large advertisements for some Detroit boat and canoe builders on page 1923 as shown below. The full version is available at https://books.google.com/books?id=absfAQAAMAAJ and https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008523733 on the web. Good luck,

Benson


Michigan-canoes.jpg
 
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The Florin originally had a decal. I saw it , but don't remember the location. Unfortunately, it was stripped when the canoe was stripped. It is an absolutely gorgeous wineglass--- if I remember correctly.
 
Yes, Al Hemmingson found this boat somewhere in Michigan quite some time ago. (time flies when you're having fun) . Al and Scot (worked???? ) together for a time when Scot was in Honor , MI.. Al, who has gone on to his reward, had the boat stripped. I have never seen nor heard of another Florin. Carson city , Mi , where the boat was supposedly built, is in the same county as Lansing, I believe. One of the Michigan chapter members might be interested enough to try and find some info on the company.
Gil
 
This is an older thread that I found through google, but please let me know if you find anything further about Florin Canoe or plans. Ironically, I just completed my first boat, a 15' wood skiff, earlier this year and it would be very interesting if there was another boat builder in the family or plans for a future project.

Scott Florin
sflorin@florinlegal.com
Tampa, Florida
 
Some further research indicates that the Florin Manufacturing company was established in Carson City, Michigan to build washing machines as described below from http://www.montaguemuseum.org/wp-co...929/1928/The-Montague-Observer-04-19-1928.pdf in 1928. The University of Michigan has a "Leaflet advertising the Florin washing machine circa 1905" as listed at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bhlead/umich-bhl-7131?view=text but I've not found any connection to canoes. Congratulations on your boat,

Benson



Florin.jpg
 
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