Yak

Last summer, I had worked on a bushcraft cree style paddle hacked out from a chunk of 2x6 spruce with an axe and finished off over a weekend with a crooked knife.


Crooked knife work; Paddle taking shape
With an hour of free time up at the cottage, I worked on cleaning up the blade and reducing the shaft thickness my angled crooked knife, a superb tool for finishing work.

For decoration, I thought I wanted to replicate some historic line designs found in some printed texts. Spruce isn't a good choice for wood-burning decoration so I figured I could use some of the left over Epifanes enamel paint from the cedar canvas canoe to add a nice bit of color.


Decorated Cree Paddles
In the end I came up with a slightly different pattern than Paddle (D) on the far right, a museum model piece from Fort Chimo now at the McCord Museum in Montreal. Using some masking tape and a cheap foam brush on hand, the painted accents were added easily enough.. Still, my hand isn't as stable working with messy paints so they are quite amateurish


Final Paddle


Blade Closeup

From the Splendid Heritage website, I came across a very old Cree paddle dating back to 1770-1775 and traces its origins to a George Holt of the Hudson Bay Company. The 68 inch long paddle has a long flattened grip similar to many Abenaki paddles and a decorated blade that was created by marking the sealant when it was still wet. A simple technique with mesmerizing results.


c. 1770-1775 Cree Paddle
An excerpt of downloadable notes from Dr. Ted Brasser, Ph.D. (PDF link) states the following:

The canoe paddle (NC0047) conforms to the type used by the northern Cree people on Hudson Bay. Typically, the handle is scarcely more than half the length of the paddle; in this case the handle is even somewhat shorter. This may well be the oldest Cree paddle in existence, and its decoration is more elaborate than on recent Cree paddles. Painted paddles from both sides of the Hudson Bay are illustrated in the literature. It is recorded that such paintings had a personal meaning based upon dream experiences. The zigzag pattern on this early example may stand for water.

If this really is the oldest Cree paddle in existence, it may be worth replicating in the future. The zig zag patterns would be very easy to reproduce with pyrography. So many paddle plans...so little time!