Wedge

Description:

Bone wedge (slightly curved and rounded). Bifacially cut to form working edge.

References:

Armitage, Peter. 2002. Diary notes, August to October 2002 re. canoe-making by Pien Penashue, Lizette Penashue, Melvin Penashue and Alistair Pone, Sheshatshiu, Labrador. Copy provided to the Provincial Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, Newfoundland. Rick Nash. 2002. “Building Birchbark Canoes.” In John Jennings (ed.). The Canoe: A Living Tradition. Toronto: Firefly Books Ltd. pp. 46-63. Edwin Tappan Adney and Howard I. Chapelle. 1964. The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. George S Fichter. 1977. How to Build an Indian Canoe. New York: David McKay Company, Inc.

Other Info:

During the late summer and fall of 2002, Pien Penashue built a canoe at North West Point near Sheshatshiu. Melvin Penashue and Alistair Pone worked with him as apprentices. Having cut lengths of white spruce from which canoe planks and ribs would be fashioned, the spruce logs were split open and thin planking made using wooden wedges. These wedges were hammered into the logs using wooden mallets made from white or black spruce, or an axe. Pien’s preference was to hammer the wedges using the mallets because axes broke up the ends of the wedges too quickly. Pien used the word “utakan” for wedge. It is hard to imagine that bone wedges were used for splitting open logs. More information is required on this point. Peter Armitage (diary notes re canoe making 2002).

In his chapter about building a birch bark canoe, Rick Nash includes a photo that shows clearly the use of a wedge to split wood for ribs and planking. “The top end of the tree was opened up first with an axe, and then with wedges. It was split evenly in half, then into quarters, then sixteenths.”  (2002:59)

“Before steel tools became available to the Indians, the woodwork required in constructing a birch-bark canoe represented great labor, since stone tools having poor cutting characteristics were used. Selection of the proper wood was therefore a vital consideration. In most sections of the bark canoe area, the northern white cedar [spruce] was the most sought-for wood for canoe construction. This timber had the excellent characteristic of splitting cleanly and readily when dry and well-seasoned… If split properly, ribs of white cedar could be bent and set in shape by the use of hot water.” Edwin Adney and Howard Chapelle (1964:16-17)

“Splitting was done by starting the split at the upper, or small end, of a balk of timber with a maul and a stone wedge or the blade of a stone axe, hatchet, or knife… The tool was usually driven into the wood with blows from a wooden club or maul, the brittle stone tool being protected from damage by a pad of rawhide secured to the top, or head, of the tool. Once the split was started, it could be continued until the whole balk was divided. White cedar was split into quarters by this method and then the heartwood was split away, the latter being used for canoe structural members.” Edwin Adney and Howard Chapelle (1964:18)

“The pieces of wood to be used for the ribs, crosspieces, and sheathing were split with a stone wedge or with the edge of a knife or a hatchet. The blades were started into the wood by hitting them with a wooden maul. When a split was started, more wedges were driven in along the split until the wood was completely divided. Commonly the wood was first quartered and then each quarter split into smaller pieces. In white cedar [spruce], the splits were made parallel to the bark side, as this wood bends well only toward or away from the outer or bark side.” George Fichter (1977:18-19)