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Transcription: [00:38:52]

{SPEAKER name="Marvin Salo"}
This one here is made out of black ash-- and cowhide. And this I made one Sunday morning the frame I made these ones Sunday morning. I was walking in the woods and I happen to see a nice tree so I cut it down and I brought it home and I split it just to make it as uh-- a pair of snowshoes out of it. But there's one thing this bend will not stay in the shoe-- unless you do it the right way.

[00:39:21]
You bend this green this is all been bent green and as you bend it green i throw it on top of the wood pile and i wait for it to thunder and lightning and rain on it this these frames were made in the spring time during the sap is running and the wood is real pliable and then he has the thunder and lightning and rain on it before this bend will stay otherwise the bend will fall out.

[00:39:43]
now according to-- that was our folklore it had to do this before you had've a good pair of snowshoes. everybody talked about boy my snowshoes are in a woodpile oh mine are too you know ah did you get your what kind of frames did you get this year and the other guy said well i got this kind of frame. but then Ethan Allen saturates their wood-- i'm not advertising Ethan Allen but i happen to talk to a craftsman that worked at Ethan Allen and he said they saturate their wood with nitrogen. And then they put it into a mold and they bend it. And consequently this nitrogen must have uh uh a certain amount of of how would you say chemistry in it to hold the bend in the shoe and the same thing they've been doing this for years Eskimos and um uh the upper Michigan people have been doing this for years the same method to hold a bend if you find a shoe that doesn't the bend does not stay on it probably didn't thunder and lightning on it and when it was drying out

[00:40:41]
[[background voice]]
How long did it last?

[00:40:44]
{SPEAKER name="Marvin Salo"}
uh i have a pair at home that's made in 1932. the end of the shoe-- the end where this rivet is here its lets say right around about here the snow is where that shoe down so this rivet end of this rivet right in here