Canoe building plan

Logan Museum c1900 Odawa Replica

My next paddle replica was based on a circa 1900 Odawa paddle in the Logan Museum of Anthropology.



Odawa Canoe Paddle
c.1900
Maple
Length: 136.5cm Blade width: 10cm
Source: The Art of the Great Lakes Indians.
Flint, Mich.: Flint Institute of Arts, 1973. p. 98

The original paddle was relatively short (approx 54") with a blade width of just under 4". It has some simple etchings on the upper portion of the blade along with a small grip that features a triangular cutout and slightly worn decorative point on the top.

For my version in sassafras, I adjusted the proportions to make a functional paddle at my preferred length of 58". Also made the grip a tiny bit larger to fit my bulky hands and slightly exaggerated the decorative pointed tip. Below is the photo of when the carving stage was finished back in the early fall.



Here's the paddle prior to the final sanding along with a closeup of the grip. At this stage the tiny triangular cutout on the grip face was not cut out.
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The Logan Museum now has updated their online collections catalog to feature colour photos of the paddle along with a useful zoom feature to see the etchings at a higher resolution. Turns out the etchings feature triple lines with the outer cuts containing traces of red paint. The pattern contains a slightly different mix of diamond, heart and other abstract motifs on each side of the blade.