I went to shoe school.

[hoser]

The last two days I went to a snowshoe building class at our state park here. They usually hold
, I believe three classes starting in January and ending in March. I did it several years ago and built the Ojibway shoes and it was fun. I wound up giving those to my son-in-law for Christmas two years ago. U decided to do it again, and this time I signed up for the Green Mountain show course. There was ten people at this class and it was a blast. Challenging but fun. Now I have to wait till spring for warm weather to varnish them. I won't put marine spar varnish on them in the house. That smell lasts forever. If you live in the snowy north and get the chance to do this, I highly recommend it. Oh, these are 10"X 36". The webbing is a braided nylon tubing that is extremely strong, durable, and rot resistant. Mice won't chew it like rawhide.

 

[HungryGhost]

Nice job

 

[hoser]

Thanks HG, it was fun.

 

[John Madill]

Made a couple of pairs years ago at our nature center. Steamed the wood, bent it into frames, etc.
We made inner tubes for the foot attachment.

 

[hoser]

Made a couple of pairs years ago at our nature center.

What was the lacing you used? They are fun to make right. Ours was a kit. Frames already made, and the webbing cut to length. Bindings came with it as well. I would love to make from scratch once. Maybe next year.

 

[John Madill]

We used nylon lacing. Poured hot water over the webbing to shrink it then varnished the webbing along with the wood.

 

[GroundSweeper]

Wow cool. I have a pair of the military surplus magnesium tennis racket huge old snowshoes - but dang if they don't work great in the deep snow! Always liked the wooden ones...

 

[KingTotsalot]

Wow! We have some talented craftsmen in the Forum. Unfortunately we almost never have any snow suitable to try them out in the Royal Kingdom….too far south!

 

[hoser]

Thanks all. Starting tomorrow I might have to break out my other ones as we are supposed to get 6-9"

military surplus magnesium tennis racket huge old snowshoes

Sweep I have tried these shoes and you're right, they do work quite well.