Nessmuking.com is named after Nessmuk, the pen name of George Washington Sears. In the 1880's, Sears wrote about lightweight canoe travel, self-direction, and environmentalism. This website follows his pathway with a goal to provide information about lightweight canoe and kayak travel, while advancing wilderness protection through growing paddlesport participation. It also promotes self-direction with a strong emphasis on the do-it-yourself culture growing in the modern sport of paddling.
Search: Search Nessmuking.com
What's New: 
July 14: Building Ken Taylor 1959 Kayak – the Igdlorssuit - Part Five:The Iggy, a cedar strip kayak, is coming together literally. After a winter of little work on the kayak, it's slowly coming together. Bryan builds the control box, seam tapes the boat, and builds bulkheads.
June 2: The Simplest of Seats: Richard Hayes returns to the pages of Nessmuking with an article about how to make a simple and comfortable multiuse lightweight seat for your kayak.
April 7: Siskiwit Bay Builders: Pictures and comments from some of the builder's of the Siskiwit Bay, a kayak prototyped and designed by Bryan Hansel.
April 2: Why Nessmuking?:The simple question is why? Why Nessmuking? Many wilderness travelers who've spent time in the woods using conventional gear and methods, upon seeing someone traveling with just a light bag on their back, a feather light boat, and a smile, often ask why travel so light. Here are some answers.
February 13: Skiing down the Cascade River: In Northern Minnesota in winter, skiing down the frozen rivers is an exciting activity. A broken ski binding on the Cascade River turns a short ski into an adventure.
February 5: Siskiwit Bay Plans: The Siskiwit Bay is a kayak that Bryan prototyped for a couple of years. The plans are free and PDF files that can be printed full size for the stem, stations, and cockpit have been added. These come in A1 or as 11x17" sheets that can be joined after they are printed. The cockpit prints at A1 and is a very nice 16"x31" cockpit based on NDK's Romany.
February 4: Free Kayak Plans: Glen Smith often contributor to the Kayak Forum and moderator at the Bear Mountian Canoe Forum has provided a new semi-hard chine kayak plan.
January 29: Icom M72 VHF Radio Cheat-Sheet: A cheat-sheet designed for the Icom M72 VHF radio. It'll fit on a 3x5 index card when printed. This cheat-sheet includes cheats for functions not often used and on the back includes a handy cheat-sheet covering the basics of good radio talk and a step by step list on how to call out Maydays, Pan Pan, Securite, Station to Station. It's useful for everyone.
January 4: Things I broke 2007: A list of things that I broke in 2007. What gear lasted a long time and what didn't. Here's my year end tally.
November 28: Building Ken Taylor's 1959 Kayak - the Igdlorssuit Part Four:In this installment the cockpit coaming, the glass Valley style deck fitting recesses are finished, and the skeg box completed.
November 1: Building Ken Taylor's 1959 Kayak - the Igdlorssuit Part Three:Bryan's building a new kayak. The Deck is finsihed and hatch recess are being built.
November 1: How to Clean a Drysuit:It's that time of the year to break out your drysuit. What's that smell. Well, here's how to clean a drysuit.
October 21: Building Ken Taylor's 1959 Kayak - the Igdlorssuit Part Two:Bryan's building a new kayak. This is a replica of a kayak built for Ken Taylor in Igdlorssuit, Greenland in 1959. Originally built skin on frame by Emanuele Korneiliussen. Lines taken in 1964 by Duncan Winning formed the basis for the Valley Anas Acuta. The hull is completed and fiberglassed on the outside.
October 3: Building Ken Taylor 1959 Kayak – the Igdlorssuit: Bryan's building a new kayak. This is a replica of a kayak built for Ken Taylor in Igdlorssuit, Greenland in 1959. Originally built skin on frame by Emanuele Korneiliussen. Lines taken in 1964 by Duncan Winning formed the basis for the Valley Anas Acuta. This outlines the rational and decisions made to choose and start to build a new kayak. Included is good advice from several people who have paddle one or more of the traditional kayaks on the short list.
August 27: How to Make a Fiberglass Skeg: A simple method of constructing a field maintainable skeg for your kayak.
July 19: Shoulder High: A Georgian Bay Trip: Bryan Hansel and Steve Hauptli find adventure in the 30,000 Island area of Georgian Bay. On a four day trip, they're pounded by gale force winds in an attempt to make it to the Bustard Rock Lighthouses. This is the tale of their 50 mile trip.
June 28: Used Kayaks for Sale:: Some of my used kayaks are for sale. Info here. $150 to $450
June 27: Free Kayak Plans: Siskiwit Bay: The Siskiwit Bay is all-around fast mid-sized British-style touring kayak. The plans are free. This is a great cedar strip wood kayak for you to build.
June 26: In the Wilds of Patagonia: Eager to protect the dramatic landscapes of western Patagonia, Cristian Donoso will lead a 5-month expedition by kayak to this region, one of the most inhospitable places on earth, in 2007.
June 19: 2007 MN Meet at the Beach Pictures: Pictures from the 2007 MN Meet at the Beach. Check out the wooden canoes and kayaks at the 2007 event.
May 25: Last Day in Paradise: When the Ham Lake Fire of 2007 closed all the entry points on the eastern side of the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness, Richard "Doc" Gams and his crew were forced to change their plans. Some quick last minute planning and their trip to the BWCA turned out heavenly.
April 23: Getting Light Weight: Learn about lightweight gear systems and how to reduce the weight of gear that you carry.
April 9: Building a Kayak Paddle: Richard F. Hayes provides instructions for an inexpensive and easy to make, tough and light paddle(about 950 gms.).
March 15: Dear Nessmuking: Grams of Gorp: In this installment of Dear Nessmuking, Grams of Gorp writes asking how much food should he carry on a typical solo paddling trip to the BWCA. Learn all about calories burned and how much food you should carry each day. Plus, an excel worksheet to help you plan.
March 13: Trip Report: Canoecopia 2007:A trip report for the 2007 Canoecopia. This is the world's largest paddlesports expo. It occurs each year in Madison, WI. Here are the highlights of the show.
February 22: Nessmuking and Stitch and Glue Boat Building: Eskimo Tom Gerds, professional wooden boat builder and owner of Finewoodwatercraft.com, writes about using stitch and glue boat building techniques to create canoes and kayaks that Nessmuk would have been proud to paddle. Learn about his lightweight building secrets as he presents a great overview to the S&G process.
February 6: Dear Nessmuking: Confused in Canada has been dealing with conflicting sales claims when buying a canoe. This may be a new regular feature where we answer your questions in a honest and straight forward manner. If it doesn't end up as a regular feature, then enjoy this letter. Send your questions our way, and we will try our best to get you an answer.
Announcement: Meet at the Beach Minnesota 2007: Join us for Minnesota's first wooden boat Meet at the Beach. The event will occur on Lutsen Resort's beautiful beach the weekend of June 16-17. All wooden kayak and canoe builders are welcome to bring their boats to show off and let others paddle them in the waters of Lake Superior. Every type of wooden construction is welcome from Stitch and Glue, cedar strip, skin-on-frame, and everything in between. And the event is open to the public.
December 11: Goodnow Greenland Kayak Plans: The 16' 8" Goodnow kayak is stunning. It's lines flow beautifully and it begs to be built and paddled. At 17 5/8" wide, I'd have a hard time fitting into it, so I decided to model the kayak for a possible upscale and build. Included here is the FREE!ship file for your download and some information about the kayak.
December 11: Avoid the Beaver and Save the Weight: How to Choose a Water Filter: Finding the ideal filter for your travels starts with learning about the different systems available. Ideally, a water purification system will create potable water, have few weaknesses, add little chemical taste and weigh very little.
November 9: Lake Superior Day Trip – Grand Marais to Fall River and Beyond: This short paddle from Grand Marais to the Fall River (4.5 mile round trip) makes for a great short outing and the paddle from the harbor to Terrace Point (10 mile round trip) adds some distance to your trip.
November 5: A Paddle with a Twist: Making a Feathered Kayak Paddle: Wouldn't it be nice to be able to build a one piece wooden kayak paddle with feathered blades? This article describes a method that involves twisting multiple laminates to the feathered angle and holding them in place on a building form while the glue dries. This is a slick method for building paddle shafts.
What's New Archive:
Nessmuking has been bringing you new content for over two years. Visit the vault of canoe and kayak lore:
Copyright © Bryan Hansel
If you enjoyed this article and the content on Nessmuking.com, please, consider contributing articles and pictures. Or consider donating.
This site is unable to exist without help from you, the readers. Thank you.
