a drawknife or crooked knife without the nect-ssity 

 of holding the work. A long piece was canted on 

 top of the bench so that the finished part would pass 

 by the body of the worker, and, if it were necessary to 

 shape the full length, it could be reversed. 



Nails and tacks eventually came into use, though 

 they were never used in all phases of the construction 

 of a particular canoe. In the last days of bark canoe 

 construction, the bark was tacked to the gunwales 

 and, in areas where a gunwale cap was customarily 

 employed, the cap was often nailed to the top of the 

 gunwales. 



The "bucksaw"' also came into the hands of the 

 Indians, but the frame of this saw was too awkward 

 to carry, so the Indian usually bought only the blade. 

 With a couple of nails and a bent sapling he could 

 make a very good frame in the woods, when the saw 

 was required. The ends of the sapling were slotted 

 to take the ends of the blade and then drilled crosswise 

 to the slot, so a nail could be inserted to hold the 

 ends of blade and sapling together. With the end 

 of the nail bent over, the frame was locked together 

 and the tension was given to the blade by the bent 

 sapling handle. 



The "crooked knife" was the most important and 

 popular steel tool found among the Indians building 

 bark canoes. It was made from a flat steel file 

 with one side worked down to a cutting-edge. The 

 back of the blade thus formed was usually a little 

 less than an eighth of an inch thick. The cutting 

 edge was bevel-form, like that of a drawknife or 

 chisel, with the back face quite flat. The tang of 

 the file was fitted into a handle made of a crotched 

 stick, to one arm of which the tang was attached, 

 while the other projected at a slightly obtuse angle 

 away from the back of the blade. The tang was 

 usually held in place by being bent at its end into a 

 slight hook and let into the handle, where it was 

 secured with sinew lashing; wire later came into use 

 for this lashing. The knife, held with the cutting edge 

 toward the user, was grasped fingers-up with the 

 thumi:) of the holding hand laid along the part of the 

 handle projecting away from the user. This steadied 

 the knife in cutting. Unlike a jacknife, the crooked 

 knife was not used to whittle but to cut toward the 

 user, and was, in effect, a one-hand drawknife. 

 This form of knife is so satisfactory that it is to this 

 day emplo\ed instead of a drawknife by many boat- 

 builders in New Brunswick and Quebec. A variation 

 in the crooked knife has the tip of the blade turned 

 upward, on the flat, so that it can be used in hollowing 



Figure 19 



Bucksaw 



out a wooden bowl or dish. The blades of crooked 

 knives seen are usually about five-eighths inch wide 

 and perhaps five or si.x inches long. Some are only 

 slightly beveled along the cutting edge; others show 

 this feature very markedly. 



Awls, as well as chisels and other stone or bone 

 blades, often had handles on their sides to allow them 

 to be held safely when hit with a hammer. Some of 

 the stone blades and chisels thus took the form of adzes 

 and could be used like them, but only, of course, to cut 

 charred or very soft wood. The sharpening of stone 

 tools followed the same methods used in their original 

 manufacture and was a slow undertaking. 



To some Indians an efficient wood-cutting chisel was 

 available in the teeth of the beaver. Each tooth was 

 nearly a quarter inch wide, so two teeth would give a 

 cut of nearl\- half an inch. The usual practice appears 

 to have been to employ the skull as a handle, though 

 some beaver tooth chisels had wooden handles. As 

 used in making tenons in the gunwales, two holes, of 

 a diameter equal to the desired width, were first 

 drilled close enough together to make the length of 

 the desired tenon, after which the intervening wood, 

 especially if it was white cedar or black .spruce, could 

 be readily split out liy means of cither a beaver tooth 

 or narrow stone chisel. 



The maul was merely some form of wooden club; 

 the most common type was made by cutting away part 

 of the length of a small balk to form a handle, the 

 remainder Jjeing left to form the head. The swelling 

 of the trunk of a small tree at the ground, where the 

 roots form, was also utilized to give weight and bulk to 

 the head of a maul. It could be hardened by scorch- 

 ing the head in a fire, .\nothcr method of pounding 

 and driving was to employ a stone held in one hand 

 or both. Stone hammers were rarely employed, since 

 the maul or a stone held in the hand would serve the 

 purpose. 



23 



