Show us your paddles

[Nachako]

I have just finished another set of paddles out of Hemlock Fir and Cherry . I prefer to pump a block plane in stead of weights . So what I am interested in is ideas for my next set . You know what they say " Plaguerism is the highest form of flattery " . Please include the woods used .I'll post mine as so as they get a couple of coats of varnish on them .

[hoz]

I have built several paddles but they are all straight stick, solid wood. No laminations and no interesting tricks. I like th etraditional Ottertail and Algonquin designs.

PLEASE tell us more about that PACK! Is it an inflatable raft?

[Glen Smith]

I made a pair like this. Laminations are ash and walnut. Used polyurethane glue. Coated with spar varnish. Lightweight, but I don't remember how many ounces. The blade has some flex to it, strong shafts, quite comfortable. Sold them a few years ago.

[GeirB]

Looks like a bellyboat.

Geir

[Doug]

Nylon covered inner tube?
Drying tent draped over backpack?

Doug

[Nachako]

Geir was right . It is a belly boat strapped to a backpack . That is carrying the waders , flippers , fly boxes and such . They are the cats meow for fishing the high mountian lakes here . Now show me yours

[Juneaudave]

WRC, Alaska Yellow Cedar, Ash, Cherry, kitchen sink. These were made primarily out of left-over strips.

[Nachako]

Dave ; Nice paddles . The tear drop inlay is that a part of the shaff ? Is the shaff laminated in three strips and the blade inserted ? Is the tear drop shaped before being attached ? Do you have to have the blade a perfect thickness and how ? Please tell me more . Thanks Paul

[Juneaudave]

These are loosely based on the method described by Gil Gilpatrick in his book "Building a Strip Canoe." It's a little different than starting with a solid blank. They are three pieces and built from a core of left over 1/4 inch planking strips that run the entire length of the paddles and two 5/8 inch (I think) by about 4 in wide solid pieces that run the length of the handle to the tip of the "teardrop." Essentially I laid out a full length 1/2 width pattern from Gill's book and modified it so that it looked like I thought a paddle should look. I laid that out on the core blank made up of strips, marked one side, flipped the pattern over, and marked the otherr side so it would be symetrical. Each paddle is a different length for different family members. I then took the core blank and traced out the profile on the other two pieces. Everthing is glued up with epoxy, shaped with a spokeshave, and sanded. I then took scraps of the six oz fiberglass cloth leftover from the canoe and glassed the blade portion, and coated the handle with epoxy (no cloth) to seal it. A piece of 1/8 inch nylon string was soaked in epoxy and applied to the edge of the blade for protection. Everthing was then varnished. Not my best work and probably not as nice as you could get with a solid blank, but they work well, have some flex, and used up some of those scrap strips and leftover glass. I really enjoyed making them and worked on them in the down time when I couldn't work on the canoe itself...Juneaudave

[Bassbug]

Here are a few examples I have made:

[pawistik]

Here's a picture from a few years of my "voyageur" style paddle in progress. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture handy of the finished product so this will have to do for now. It's based on the pattern & instructions from Warren & Gidmark's book. It's laminated ash & maple. There is an edge gaurd inserted into the tip that I made out of a piece of mahogony.

I was pretty happy with the way it turned out: light, strong, flexible, beautiful. However, it's too long. The blade is a very long style and the shaft is also a bit too long for me. I suppose I should go back to it one of these days and slice a couple of inches off of the end and take out a chunk of the shaft too. However, I'll probably just start form scratch with another one of these days. What I could use is a nice reasonably light but strong paddle suitable for whitewater tripping. RIght now I switch to an aluminum/plastic POS in the rough stuff. In the meantime to keep my skills & blades honed I've carved a few small cedar kids paddles.



That's my dining room in that picture by the way. These days I'm relegated to the garage.

Cheers,
Bryan

[pawistik]

Isn't it nice:



;)

[mtpocket]

I built these two paddles out of leftover materials from my Redbird. They are of WRC, Sassafras, Cherry and Pine. I used thickened epoxy for gluing them together.

[pawistik]

Here is the Voyageur paddle I am carving in the picture in an earlier post:


Here are two sides of a kids paddle I recently carved:



For descriptions visit my web page.

Cheers,
Bryan

[canoeblderinmt]

Well, I finally got some paddles made! It was fun, and I'll be doing a bunch more. The next few, I'm going to steal JuneauDave's method of using leftover strips for the blades. These paddles are maple shafts and oak(left paddle) and Bocote (right paddle) blades. They are HEAVY!!! So no more exotic woods!

I rediscovered a tool I hadn't had occasion to use in awhile: the scrub plane. I made mine from an old smoothing plane with narrow sole. Rounded the blade on my grinder, and boy, does it remove material fast! Voyagers are next!!

Greg