Driving Screws in Hard Wood
Keep the supply of screws in a box containing a small amount of powdered soapstone. Shake the box occasionally, and the screws will be dusted with the powder, which acts as a lubricant. This is a much cleaner and more convenient method than the ordinary one of rubbing each screw on a bar of soap before driving it in hard wood.
Paddling Your Own Canoe
by
Stillman Taylor
PART I—
Kinds of Canoes
The charm of the birchen canoe has long been sung in verse and prose, and while the bark that the Indian used has been supplanted by a more perfect type of modern manufacture, the popularity of this, the most graceful of water craft, has increased with years, until today we find the canoe the choice of thousands of recreation seekers who paddle about in park lakes and quiet streams, or spend their vacations in cruising down rivers and other attractive waterways—sometimes within the environs of towns and villages, and again dipping paddles in the wilderness streams of the far north. True, the modern canoe is a distinct product of the twentieth century, and while it is so largely used at summer resorts, it nevertheless retains all the good points of the old, while embodying numerous improvements which fit it even better for wilderness travel than the Indian model after which it was patterned. The noteworthy increase in the number of canoeists in the past dozen years is good evidence that this natty craft is fast coming into its own, and as more and more outdoor men and women understand its possibilities and limitations and become proficient in handling it, the long-rooted fear and distrust with which the uninformed public regard the canoe, will pass away. As a matter of fact, accidents ever follow in the wake of ignorance and carelessness, and while there are very few expert gunners injured by firearms, and still fewer experienced canoeists drowned, there are numerous sad accidents constantly occurring to the reckless and foolhardy, who do not know how to handle a weapon, nor understand the first thing about paddling a canoe. Let us consider then, the practical side of the subject, the choice of a suitable canoe and the knack of handling it in a safe and efficient manner.
If one would experience in full measure the many-sided charm of paddling, he should get a good canoe. Unlike other and heavier water craft, the canoe is a lightly balanced and responsive conveyance, which may be cranky and dangerous, or safe and stable, according to the model, the skill of the builder, and the dexterity of the paddler. There are canoes and canoes, of varying models and sizes, and constructed of many materials, and while all may serve as a means of getting about in the water, the paddling qualities include numerous little idiosyncrasies which serve to differentiate canoes as well as men. In fact, this light and graceful craft may be properly viewed as the highest type of boat building, since it must be fashioned strong but light; it must be steady when going light; capable of carrying comparatively heavy loads; draw little water, and it must be honestly constructed of good material to stand up under the hard usage which every canoe is subjected to, whether used for summer paddling, or upon long hunting and shooting trips.
Three types of canoes are in common use by experienced canoeists, the birch-bark, the all-wood, and the canvas-covered cedar canoe. The birch-bark, by reason of its rougher workmanship, is slow under the paddle, is easily injured, and it grows heavier and more difficult to handle every time it is used. The all-wood canoe is most expensive to buy, and though swift under the paddle, is too easily injured and too difficult to repair for rough and ready use. The cedar-planked canoe which is covered with filled and painted canvas is for many reasons the best all-around craft-attractive enough for park use, and stout enough for use in rapid water and for cruising in northern lakes and rivers.