Wooden Canteen

 This is a reproduction of a Revolutionary War Wooden Canteen that was designed more for functionality rather than period accuracy.  As a member of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) Color Guard, I desired a canteen that could hold water and be sanitized, and in my opinion the best way to accomplish this task was to use some sort of plastic container.  After searching the internet, I discovered the Boy Scouts of America 59 ounce Polyethylene Canteen.  Next, I designed a wooden canteen around the design detailed in the article Building a Wooden Canteen for your Uniform Kit, by Rick Laws - August 2022 in Popular Woodworking.  Another source for this information can be found on Instructables, Wooden Stave Canteen, and it contains a PDF copy of the previous article.  If I'm not mistaken, the Instructables project is by the original author, Rick Laws.

Building a Wooden Canteen for your Uniform Kit.pdf

1.  One of the problems with the Boy Scout canteen was it was too wide.  I wished to have a wooden canteen about 3.5" (88.9mm) thick, but the plastic canteen was 3.57" (90.6mm) thick.  In order to reduce the thickness I used a hot-air gun to soften the bulbous portion of the canteen, and then compress the bulbous portion to reduce the overall thickness of the plastic canteen.  To reduce the chances of softening other sections of the canteen a cardboard shield was used to expose the bulbous portion only.

2.  Using the "Canteen Dimensions and Cylinder Staves" section of the above article, I calculated the outside width of the staves and cut stock to this dimension.

3.  In order to create the wooden staves, I setup my table saw to cut coves the depth and width to match the outside diameter of the plastic canteen 7.25" (184.15mm).  I used the Cove cutting table calculator furnished by Matthias Wandel to calculate the setup to create the width and depth of the cove.  I tried to use ChatGPT to calculate this information, but it was a total failure.

The setup can be seen in the following photos.

4.  I drilled a hole for the spigot in one of the staves, and then glued six staves together in two groups to form two halves of the canteen.  The glue-up was done around a form to maintain the shape, and bicycle innertubes were used to clamp the staves in position.

5.  Once the glue had dried, I created a jig to sandwich the canteen between two plywood forms on the lathe.  A large metal hose strap was used to hold the two sides together while the outside was turned round.

6.  The 1/4" inside rabbet was cut with a router bit, and two 1/4" thick hickory pieces were cut and shaped as the sides to fit within the rabbet.

7.  After sanding, the two halves were glued together and clamped with metal hose clamps.  The top was also turned, and can be seen beside the canteen.

8.  A mandrel was turned to fit the ID of the plastic cap.  The cap was mounted, and the ridges on the cap were removed with a small saw and chisel.  A hole matching the OD of the plastic cap was drilled into the wooden top seen above.

9.  I used 18ga (0.50" or 1.3mm) thick sheet metal to fashion the three strap loops which were blued to reduce rust and look period.  The loops were inlayed into the outside to prevent them in place, and they were held in place with the 304 Stainless Steel Banding Strapping Coil - 5/8" Wide - 0.030" Thick which was blackened by Sculpt Nouveau Stainless Black.  The strap was attached with small brads at each loop, and where they came together.  Both ends of the banding was ground to a slight taper to reduce the thickness.  The wood was finished with General Finishes Arm-R-Seal Varnish.