my first paddles

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Rabbit
Posts: 121
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:20 pm
Location: Downunder

my first paddles

Post by Rabbit »

inspired by randy's birdsmouth paddles, i figured that since i needed paddles anyway, this would be a good way to get rid of some of the timber that would be left over once my canoe is done. aside from the link posted by randy, i also go a lot of help from a paddle making dvd by graham warren.

the problem with the birdsmouth paddles done as standard, is that they produce a bent shaft effectively. since i'm not a paddler and only have a clue about using a strait shaft paddle, i decided to modify things slightly.

all my timber stock is 19mm thick. so, i made a jig to cut a slot 19mm wide out of the end of the shaft:

Image

my shaft is oval in cross section, so lining it up to make parallel cuts was fairly easy. it just so happened that the mdf that i used to make the paddle blade templates gave me the right thickness to produce a 19mm slot in the centre of the shaft. the slot is 3 inches long.

for lightness i think using glassed cedar is standard for these paddles, but i was more interested in using up my excess timber. i made a blade core the width of the shaft from offcuts of my inwales flanked by strips of the same material as the outwales. the final 2 inches of this was shaped to fit inside the shaft:

Image

which fit together like this:

Image

i then laminated the cores and cut out blade blanks like so:

Image

the blades look a little dirty from over spray. i used graham warren's spray paint method to mark out the blade thickness and blade edge thickness.

after shaping the blades down, epoxying them in, making the grips and epoxying them in and sealing the whole thing, this is what i ended up with:

Image

ok, so timbers: the shafts are both paulownia with western red cedar accent strips. the grips are cherry. the cores of both blades are new guinea rosewood flanked by naingon. the outer laminations for the otter tail are cherry. the outer laminations for the sugar island blade is new guinea rosewood and tasmanian oak. the blade tips were splined with spotted gum and small blocks of new guinea rosewood were used to dress then ends of the shaft on the blade.
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Glen Smith
Posts: 3719
Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 9:08 am
Location: Baie-St-Paul, Quebec, Canada

Re: my first paddles

Post by Glen Smith »

Wow, the paddles look great!
BearLeeAlive
Posts: 196
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:00 pm

Re: my first paddles

Post by BearLeeAlive »

The look great!
-JIM-
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Patricks Dad
Posts: 1476
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:11 pm
Location: Warrenville, Illinois

Re: my first paddles

Post by Patricks Dad »

Looks great! Did you glass your shaft?
Randy Pfeifer
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Rabbit
Posts: 121
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:20 pm
Location: Downunder

Re: my first paddles

Post by Rabbit »

Patricks Dad wrote:Looks great! Did you glass your shaft?
thanx :dancing

yeh, i glassed the shafts with 75mm glass tape and 2 coats of epoxy. if you look at the pic with the shaft and the blade core joined together you can see the weave. i know the construction method is supposed to be strong, but i just didn't feel confident that unglassed it would be strong enough. the blades and grips are unglassed.
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