![]() The result can be a torn or fractured hull. With that force focused on a relatively small area, the hull can be at risk as it has to absorb the energy released when the gunwale gives way. The result is a cracked or crimped gunwale. Synthetic gunwales tend to focus this force at one point. Wood will bend on a broad radius under greater force than either aluminum or vinyl. Wood is not prone to “kinking” upon impact or sustained pressure. This tendency can protect a canoe hull from further damage as wood will spread and dissipate the distorting force over a wide area rather than concentrating it. Wood has “memory” and will flex under stress and then rebound when that stress is removed, doing its’ best to assume their original shape and form. Wood gunwales not only look classic but they do offer some performance advantages over their synthetic counterparts. Some may ask the question: Why then wood? WHY WOOD? Yet like a wood hull, wooden gunwales require additional care and TLC that aluminum or vinyl gunwales do not. Of these components, wood gunwales are the most imposing and striking, get the most notice and make the biggest impression. One might think the two simply wouldn’t complement each other but in practice they do so, very well. There’s something special about a hull of the most sophisticated modern materials trimmed out in one of our most traditional materials. Wood also lends the canoe a classic and classy refined look that synthetics such as aluminum and vinyl simply can’t match. The inherent give and take of wood makes the material the material of choice for things such as yokes and often seats. In these applications wood remains a strong player and justifiably so. Yet wood remains a viable and often preferred option for other parts of the canoe, from gunwales to yokes to seats and trusses. The lure and appeal of care-free modern materials offering increased durability has consigned wood hulls to a small part of the canoe market. Increasing numbers of users found they had neither the time nor the skills nor the inclination to put the necessary time in to maintaining their wood hulls. Wood requires considerably more time and diligent maintenance than most other materials. A lot of this had to do with cost of handcrafting wood hulls but a lot also came down to the necessity of maintaining wooden hulls. Wood has largely been displaced from use in canoe hulls by new synthetic materials (and some older ones such as aluminum). In many ways the bark canoe can still compete with modern counterparts. Consider that the attributes that typified the bark canoe are akin to those we seek in our contemporary canoes: light weight, versatility, durability, high capacity. ![]() In many ways, the North American bark canoe was far ahead of its time. At times every component of classic indigenous canoes came from the forest bark for the hull, cedar and other woods for planking and gunwales, spruce root for lashing and lacing. Wood in various forms has defined the canoe. ![]()
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