Contributed photo

So you like the classic look, the incredible durability of the traditional wood-canvas canoe?

Well, Jerry Stelmok, who makes them at Island Falls Canoe in Atkinson, thinks anybody should be able to do it.

"You're building something that's very complex when it's finished," Stelmok said this week, "but it's made of about 50 steps that are really very simple, really."

Here they are, according to Unity College senior William Hafford -- who built an 18 1/2-foot Maine Guide canoe under Stelmok's watchful eye this winter:

* 1: Mill out the parts. This includes making all of the structural pieces -- the ribs, gunwales, deck plates, yokes, etc. -- for construction.

* 2: Bending on the form. Maleable white cedar is soaked, heated and bent over the form.

* 3: Attach the planking. Planking is made of ultra-thin cedar, and it is attached to the ribs to give it the first look of a "boat."

* 4: Take it off the form. The canoe is soaked, lifted off the form and the roughly 2,000 tacks are fastened more tightly.

* 5: Canvas the canoe. The canoe's hull is sanded and one sheet of canvas is folded in half, and the canoe is dropped in.

* 6: Filler and other prep. Canvas is sealed with a thick paint-like substance and sanded. Varnish is applied in several coats to inside of canoe.

* 7: Painting. Canoe is painted with 4 coats of paint and sanded in between applications.

* 8: Attach final pieces. Seats, handles, thwarts and other accessories are added for final project.

Read the complete story in today's Kennebec Journal.