Byers continued to work his “odd jobs” and then came across two items that finally put him in the driver’s seat of his own destiny - actually building a birch bark canoe. He found a book entitled: The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, at the library and it showed, in extensive detail, how to build canoes. A friend then found a video of two men in Quebec building a birch bark canoe and gave it to Byers. It was on from there for Byers as he finally constructed his first birch bark canoe in 1994 while he was living in Falconbridge.
“Finding the book was like finding a lost scroll for me,” Byers said. “From the time of that experience in the store with that canoe, I had wanted to build a birch bark canoe but had no idea where and how to begin. Now I did. The video gave me the courage to go for it and build my first canoe. I would watch the video and pause it and go out to my garage and build the canoe. I went back and forth like that for a month-and-a-half. I fucked it up. It was rough, but it was good enough for me. I had done it. I built a birch bark canoe.”
Byers sold that canoe for $500 to a man who needed it for a film. Byers built his second canoe the following year in 1995 and sold it to a man in Wisconsin, United States, for $2,500.
“I had realized I was doing what I was suppose to be doing,” Byers said. “I loved it and it just went from there.”
Byers went full time as birch bark canoe builder in 2001. He got 96 acres of prime land on the Vermillion River – a plot of land that featured a healthy population of birch trees. Byers is off-grid. All the work he does is by hand and his own will power. He uses an axe to cut down trees and harvest roots for lashings. He uses simple tools, such as the crooked knife, froe, hatchet, wood mallet, awl and shaving horse. Byers gets a lot of requests for builds that involves his clients being part of the building stages. Byers also does canoes on commission. Depending on the style and size, a canoe can take a month to two months to complete. For a 16-foot canoe, Byers needs a birch tree at least 18-inches in diameter. The best time to harvest birch bark is in July as the bark isn’t dry and peels smoothly. There are no small details skipped under Byers’ hand. He builds with meticulous passion. To finish the canoes, they get a mixture of spruce tree gum and bear fat, that Byers collects and mixes himself, to seal it up. A typical canoe consists of birch bark, more than 35 hand-split cedar ribs, 50 wafer-thin cedar sheathing, full-length gunwales and pegged caps, deck ends, birch thwarts, about 500-feet of spruce/jack pine root lacing and two quarts of spruce gum/bear fat waterproofing.
It all adds up to an authentic birch bark canoe, and no two are alike. One that would have been built the same way by First Nations people hundreds of years ago.
“I keep getting better and better at it,” Byers said. “I want the canoes to always be better. I have gotten more artistic over the years with the canoes. You need patience to do this and be resourceful. I love doing what I do. I have freedom to do it. I don’t live by expensive means. Birch bark canoe building is the ultimate bushcraft. I’m happy I can do it. I had a certain natural ability for it. I learn something new from every canoe I build. Your hands and eyes are the most important aspects to it. It is everything.”
Byers has his heart set on making 100 canoes. He is 14 away.
“I usually do three to five canoes a year, so I don’t see why I can’t reach 100,” he said. “It never occurred to me I would get to this number when I first started. I only ever wanted to build one.”
“I had realized I was doing what I was suppose to be doing,” Byers said. “I loved it and it just went from there.”
Byers went full time as birch bark canoe builder in 2001. He got 96 acres of prime land on the Vermillion River – a plot of land that featured a healthy population of birch trees. Byers is off-grid. All the work he does is by hand and his own will power. He uses an axe to cut down trees and harvest roots for lashings. He uses simple tools, such as the crooked knife, froe, hatchet, wood mallet, awl and shaving horse. Byers gets a lot of requests for builds that involves his clients being part of the building stages. Byers also does canoes on commission. Depending on the style and size, a canoe can take a month to two months to complete. For a 16-foot canoe, Byers needs a birch tree at least 18-inches in diameter. The best time to harvest birch bark is in July as the bark isn’t dry and peels smoothly. There are no small details skipped under Byers’ hand. He builds with meticulous passion. To finish the canoes, they get a mixture of spruce tree gum and bear fat, that Byers collects and mixes himself, to seal it up. A typical canoe consists of birch bark, more than 35 hand-split cedar ribs, 50 wafer-thin cedar sheathing, full-length gunwales and pegged caps, deck ends, birch thwarts, about 500-feet of spruce/jack pine root lacing and two quarts of spruce gum/bear fat waterproofing.
Tom Byers utilizes a rustic building for his workshop. It is warm and inviting.
Tom Byers crafts some of his own tools for use on the canoes. Each birch bark canoe is built by hand to the smallest detail.