BoatBuilding

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Doug's Boatbuilding Primer

BoatBuilding and Native Technology

Native technology is only now earning the respect it has long deserved.

It includes everything from Ecosystem management, medicinal compounds, surgical techniques and of course, boatbuilding.

 Doug's (non-definitive) definition of Native Technology:

Any knowledge which is passed from person-to-person, or exchanged in a media which predates mass-production (i.e., printing press), specifically for the purpose of USING that knowledge.

Different boatbuilding techniques emerge from one source -- the materials available.
Simply put, construction materals dictate construction techniques.

Some Examples:

Fasteners: the time required to build a boat was greatly reduced when metal nails were introduced.

Adhesives: first waterproof glues were introduced, and techniques such as strip-building were invented.

Saturation-resins such as epoxy ushered in the era of composite construction. A boom of techniques resulted-- fiber-glass, improved strip-building, coldmoulding, glass encapsulation, fastenerless traditional, glued-lapstrake and stitch-and-tape (this list is by no means complete).

Materials: Native american craft particularly reflect the materials available-- bark for canoes, spruce roots for lashing, driftwood for kayaks, oiled skins for hulls, etc.