Any of you fella's make your own snowshoes?

[chipper]

It's starting to get white around here and I want to make my own set of wooden, traditional made snowshoes. Pvc and plywood are definitly not an option.

I have the plans I stole from another website. They look pretty easy.

Any suggestions before I get started and ruin alot of material?

Where's a good spot to buy some cheap raw hide for the lacing?

Regards
Loyd Shindelbower

 

[Johnny Tremain]

The ones I made were when I was 15 and in boy scouts. I have them still. Most of the leather has rotted away. It took a year to make them.
They are over 35 years ago.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I have snowshoes I bought years ago through LL Bean, or some other place like that. They are made in Canada, with Ash for the frames, and rawhide, and rawhide glue for the bingings. They need a coat of varnish once a year after rough use, but that is about all the maintenance they need. Its too damn cold for the snow to melt enough to damage the raw hide, which is not bare, anyway. ( Mine are probably coated in varnish too, but I didn't make them and don't know for sure.) I have the Bear and round shoes, but neither set is actually big enough to carry a man of my weiht. If I lived up in Snow country again, I would make my own, and make them longer so they would carry me on top of the snow drifts. YOu have to take into account the extra weight of your winter coats and clothing. A 150 lb. man may actually weigh 200 lbs by the time he adds on the weight of clothes, and boots, and back pack, and gun.

 

[Desert Rat]

For a cheap source of rawhide you might check the pet supply stores for the rawhide chew toys. You might find some of the proper size that would work with a little effort. Just soak em for awhile until they become pliable. Probably should avoid the flavored ones... you might have even more problems keeping the critters off em.

 

[Bountyhunter]

I have 3 sets of Alaskan Trail shoes. They are about 4 foot long and a foot wide. I weigh 200 and they keep me up on the softer deeper snow. You'd have to have splits that were 10-12' long to begin workin with and a steamer that long so you could bend em. Two of these sets came from Alaska and the other set came from Military Surplus. Hint-hint. I gave $7 for them still wrapped in oil paper. The Bindings were dry and shot, but it didnt take much to make new bindings.

I was watching a program on TV the other night and this gal was lacing snowshoes. She started with a strip of green hide that was 72 feet long. Had it all folded up in a bundle the size of a loaf of bread when she started. I forget what she said, she started with a circle of hide that was like thirty inches in diameter then cut a quarter inch strip off the outside of it till she got to the middle, then soaked it out and stretched it straight. That'd take some sorta dog bone.......

 

[paulvallandigham]

A very large beaver hide, or small deer hide would be sufficient to make that much lacing.

 

[Bountyhunter]

There is a lot of weaving goin on in those frames.

 

[rusty]

the weaveing is called babich it is usaualy moose hide

 

[djnye]

yes i do make snowshoes. at present i am making shoes that use about 8' of straight-grained splint(the ones i am working on now are black ash and i have also used white ash, yellow birch, and sugar maple). when the splints are worked green there is no need to steam--boiling water ladled over the more sever bends at the center works just fine.

the babiche i make now is from deer rawhide since i am doing some very fine weaving--about seven rows an inch. most shoe nowdays are from cow and the shoes are much coasr in their weave, maybe even an inch or more between rows.

there are four hides used in the pair i am weaving now. from deer the only hide thick enough for my use is the rectangular cape over the back from shoulders to hind quarters on the deer. whe using deer for babiche it is very important to remove as little as possible from the hair side, and to do any thinning to level from the flesh side for strength reasons.

the best source i know for construction of the "whiteman's shoe" like almost all the commercially available shoes you can find--usually with white ash frames and cow rawhide-- is The Snowshoe Book, by osgood and hurley. well worth the money if you want to begin making your own shoes. they may look simple, but the design and construction are actually quit intricate, subtle, and somewhat difficult to master. they are also extremely rewarding.

i make everything from scratch and am not familiar with commercial sources for prepared babich, but outlets like idness furs in idaho and the like(even tandy) have rawhide sides from which you can cut your own materials.

good luck and take care, daniel

 

[Black Hand]

For a cheap source of rawhide you might check the pet supply stores for the rawhide chew toys....

These rawhide bones will work well for certain applications (such as knife sheaths) but not where strength is needed as a thin piece. I have tried lacing with thin strips of "doggie-bone" rawhide with dismal results. Doesn't stretch much and won't shrink much after wetting....

 

[shortbow]

:shocked2: "...seven rows the inch." :bow:

 

[djnye]

thank you sir. the lace when stretched is about 1/16 " in diameter. they look crocheted.

take care, daniel

 

[mrsquirrel]

Loyd, I'm in the process of making a pair from ash as we speak. I'm going from the plans in the book "Building Snowshoes and Snowshoe Furnature" by Gil Gilpatrick. I followed his plans for a cedar strip canoe last spring and it came out fantastic. So far so good, the only issue is getting the ash on the frame quickly as it comes out of my pvc steamer. I'll drop you line and let you know any tips/trick I figure out when I get them done in a week or two. Good luck.

 

[chipper]

Where are you getting the rawhide. I saw one place selling rawhide lacing $3 a yard.

Regards

 

[Okwaho]

It's starting to get white around here and I want to make my own set of wooden, traditional made snowshoes. Pvc and plywood are definitly not an option.

I have the plans I stole from another website. They look pretty easy.

Any suggestions before I get started and ruin alot of material?

Where's a good spot to buy some cheap raw hide for the lacing?

Regards
Loyd Shindelbower

You might take a look at "Making the Attikamek Snowshoe"{The Attikamek are a Canadian Indian tribe in Northeastern Canada} by Henri Vaillancourt who is also one of the best contemporary makers of authentic canoes.It also includes a very good section on making correct Indian winter mocs. This paperback sells for about $ 46.00 or so on[url] abebooks.com[/url] or you can go through interlibrary loan.I recommend this book very highly.
Tom Patton

 

[djnye]

Making The Attikamek Snowshoe, may be purchased directly from henri at,
http:www.birchbarkcanoe.net/books.htm

take care, daniel

 

[mrsquirrel]

Picked up some nylon lacing from Country Ways[url] http://snowshoe.com[/url].
So far my bending hasn't worked so great. First piece I steamed for two hours and it split on the tip when I put it to the form. Next piece I soaked for two hours and then steamed for two hours, much easier to bend but still got a small crack near the tip. I'm waiting for the piece to completely dry so I can assess the severity of the crack.

 

[djnye]

though i only use green wood for bending frames, which only require 2-4 minutes of ladling boiling water over them; i also bend dry wood for other things i make. sometimes more is not better. i don't know if your wood is kiln-dried or air dried. in any bending situation, air dried is less brittle(more plastic when heated)than kiln-dried. alo, the grain needs to be straight with any sawing that may have been done to be parallel with that grain(anoter reason to use green wood that is split, not sawed). there is a good chance by steaming that long you are cooking the wood which again will make it less strong. 45 minutes should do most snowshoe weight and size wood.

also, even thicknesses help promote smooth bends, even on forms. i like freehand bending over using a form or jig. greenwood stays plastic over the next couple of days and the two frames can be tweeked to smooth shapes and 'brought together.

take care, daniel

 

[djnye]

i would recommend that if you are going to the trouble of making your own shoeframes, you woulld enjoy as much making your own babiche. the materials are available, the process is straightforward, and the results will not only be more rewarding, but also much better than with nylon or any other synthetic.

take care, daniel

 

[djnye]

one last thing, then i will leave you alone. if the splitting you are getting is on the outside of the radius, that will probably be alright. some lifting of grain layers is common. most shoes are thinner in this area for aesthetic reasons since strength is not as much a factor there anyway. i would go further and say that most shoes i see have grossly over-built frames--it gives wooden frames a bad name"oh, they're so heavy" when they don't have to be.

take care, daniel