HOW TO MAKE SNOWSHOES 
A PAIR of snow-shoes is within the 
reach of any person who is handy 
with tools, at a comparatively 
small expense. 
The first step is to shape out of a 
half-inch board, of soft wood, a suitable 
form. Fig. I gives the shape and di- 
mensions of a popular size of snow-shoe 
extensively used today. 
From some convenient lumber dealer 
you can buy a % inch strip of ash. 
The length of the strip should be 10 
ft. and should be of straight grain the 
entire length. It will be well to sand- 
paper this strip. Have the wooden 
form nailed to the work bench and a 
few iron clamps, such as boat builders 
use, will be found convenient to hold 
the ash strip on the form. The ash 
strip must be steamed until it becomes 
flexible enough to bend to fit the form, 
JT/'E are depending upon the 
rr friends and admirers of our 
old correspondent Nessmuk to make 
this department worthy of his 
name. No man knew the woods 
better than Nessmuk or wrote of 
them with quainter charm. Many 
of his practical ideas on cwnvping 
and “going light" have been 
adopted by the United States Army ; 
his canoe has been preserved in the 
Smithsonian Institution; and we 
hope that all good woodsmen will 
contribute to this department their 
Hints and Kinks and trail-tested 
contrivances . — [Editors.] 
can be filled with the smaller strips of 
raw hide and space A filled with the 
heavier strips. 
The reason 
for this is be- 
cause nearly 
all your weight 
i s supported 
by space A. 
Fig. Ill 
shows a popu- 
lar design of 
rawhide weav- 
ing. If you 
find this too 
c o m p 1 i eated 
you can weave 
smaller rawhide strips can be woven. 
Care should be taken to bore as small 
and as few holes in the frame as possi- 
ble to insure strength of frame. 
For a shoe strap shown in Fig. V you 
can substitute a loop of rawhide to lit 
toe of your shoe with a second strip of 
rawhide to run from the loop on both 
sides and tie above the heel of shoe. 
The usual type of shoe strap shown 
in Fig. V can be made by your local 
harness maker at comparatively small 
cost. In place of buckles over the toe 
some persons prefer rawhide lacing 
which can be adjusted to fit the foot. 
Fig. IV shows pairs of holes in frame, 
the slots into which the cross bars are 
fitted. Space S' in both Figs. IV and 
III are left to allow the toe of wearer 
to tip forward when shoe is lifted in 
walking. The shoe strap is usually tied 
to mesh with raw hide thongs so that 
the toe of wearer’s shoe protrudes 
over the open space. 
W. A. Kimball, Mass. 
HOW TO USE SNOWSHOES 
T O walk on snowshoes is not as easy 
as it looks. It appears to be a 
kind of glide, but the snowshoer 
can tell you that the motion is a long 
way from gliding. In ordinary street 
walking, the heel is but slightly ele- 
vated — is even lower than the toe at 
one point in the step; but with snow- 
shoes the heel is brought high and re- 
tains considerable relative elevation 
Usually a half hour’s steaming is suffi- 
cient. With the form in place the ash 
jstrip can be fitted to the form and held 
in position by iron clamps. Holes pre- 
viously bored in wooden form will hold 
clamps. Of course strong rope can be 
used in place of clamps. The two ends 
of ash strip should be bound together 
and the whole allowed to set for two 
hours at least. While waiting, two 
strips of good straight-grained ash can 
be formed for the cross bars. These lat- 
ter can be tapered on ends to fit slots 
cut in the ash form. Fig. II gives the 
right distances to place these cross bars. 
It will be well to shellac the ends of 
cross bars to insure a tight fit in the 
slots in the frame. When the frame 
has set for about two hours it can be 
taken from the form, the cross bars 
fitted and the two ends riveted together. 
From a harness maker or leather 
dealer rawhide strips can be bought and 
these should be soaked in water a day 
before they are used to weave mesh of 
snow-shoe. In Fig. II spaces C and B 
a simple design of your own. You will 
observe in Fig. Ill that the rawhide is 
wound about the frame in space A so 
that the frame should be smoothed with 
sandpaper to remove any sharp edges 
which might tend to cut the raw hide. 
For spaces C and B holes are bored 
in the frame in pairs, through which the 
while the whole leg is brought upward 
and thrown forward. Take the eleva- 
tion of heel as the fundamental rule of 
correct snowshoe walking. Carried too 
low, the heel sinks the shoe-tail too 
deeply and makes walking very labori- 
ous. The heel is supposed to come 
down on the shoe only at the conclu- 
