Paddle from strips?

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TX_yakker
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2012 9:11 am

Paddle from strips?

Post by TX_yakker »

I feel I may already know the answer to this but I'll ask anyway. I have a bunch of strips left over from my canoe build; basswood, walnut, and cedar. I want to build a bent shaft paddle. My strips are too narrow to laminate just using one strip.

Would I be able to glue two strips side by side to give myself some width, and then laminate walnut and basswood together? My concern is, and I feel this will be a no-go, gluing two strips side by side creates a potential weakness down the whole length of the center of the shaft.

The blade and the handle are no problem to construct, just wondering about making the shaft in the manner I described.
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Patricks Dad
Posts: 1476
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:11 pm
Location: Warrenville, Illinois

Re: Paddle from strips?

Post by Patricks Dad »

I would think you could offset adjacent layers by half a strip and avoid a single joint down the center of the paddle. But, the glue joint itself will be stronger than the wood itself so I wouldn't worry about a glue joint down the center of the paddle if you did it that way anyway.

An alternative approach to consider which will produce a lighter paddle is shown here:
http://ngc704.home.comcast.net/~ngc704/paddles/

I've built about a dozen paddles using this approach with varying "bent shaft" angles (7-13 degree). I've used them for weeks at a time in wilderness environments and love them. Here's a couple pics of the last paddle I built.

Image
Image
Image

and a few others...

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Randy Pfeifer
(847) 341-0618
Randy.Pfeifer1@gmail.com
TX_yakker
Posts: 24
Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2012 9:11 am

Re: Paddle from strips?

Post by TX_yakker »

Those are some good looking paddles! Thank for the quick reply Randy, I was aware of the bird's mouth building style (i think thats what its called) and how that makes some pretty light paddles. I wanted to do a laminate one because I kind of like the "striped" look down the center of the blade as the different strips are exposed when you sand it all down. Silly reason I know, but we all do things for silly reasons sometimes I reckon!
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