Mem's making a paddle so do I....

[Canotrouge]

Nice shop there Sweeper... Mem, look at the "tapering tool" in this video!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLAgFvcAIADR0BSl0l_Q7C5Vu_KVsjTzL5&v=LakH_wZVtsA

 

[sweeper]

Ya I could make a lot of ash fire wood with that before a got a paddle made.

 

[Canotrouge]

Ya I could make a lot of ash fire wood with that before a got a paddle made.

Yup... A bit scary, but efficient I guess!! The series is a good series of video showing most of the steps...

 

[sweeper]

Yes, it was a good series. I used to work in an Ash Basket Shop and I really miss that big drum sander and the ballon sanders

 

[Canotrouge]

Just notice the paddle in the making... and all the eggbeaters... Cool!!

 

[sweeper]

My first attempt a while ago. The eggbeaters and braces work great for driving screws, with very little head strip-out.

 

[Canotrouge]

No Title

Cleaned up the blades and laid out the blade thickness... Nothing was working to well today, so I left it at that, other than applying a coat of varnish to 4 paddles!!

 

[Peach Canoe]

I finally got started on the Sitka Spruce Beavertail.

 

[Canotrouge]

Looks good Peach... The wood look great, kiln dry or air dried? Can't wait to see the final product, I don't think I know anyone else that actually uses sitka to make canoe paddles....

 

[Peach Canoe]

I don't know if its kiln or air-dried-- is there a way to tell? It was stored in somebody's rafters for some decades. I thought I might use it for gunwales, but it had several cracks at both ends of the 16-foot board. I got a 10-foot piece out of it that I sawed in 2 and glued together.

It's really dry and pretty hard for Sitka. It's a nice tight grain-- looks like a quality acoustic guitar top.

There are a few dry fissures in the edges that I hope don't go in too far-- we'll see at the bandsaw.

 

[Canotrouge]

Nothing that a bit of epoxy/suer glue can't fixed!! What are the dimension of the blade? Are you going round shaft or oval? Taper or straight? Will you reinforce the tip? I always reinforce the tip, especially on vertical grain paddles prevent them from spitting. Anyway, keep posting the progression... Maybe Mem will get on his and we can "compare" the 2 beaver tail paddles!!

As for the kiln dry or not, I don't now how to really differentiate them... I know I like air dry better for workability.... But I think it tend to move a bit more on me.....

 

[Peach Canoe]

The blade is 6.25 X 26, and the shaft is 32. For a 'traveling' paddle like this, I prefer a round (or nearly round) shaft because I use a lot of in-water recoveries with full rotation of the paddle-- the oval shaft feels too busy in rotation.

I like the shaft straight in the area I grip most-- a foot or so nearest the blade. Then I taper it a little to where I would choke-up to max for a big sweep-- about 8" from the grip-- then I flatten it out toward the grip.

I intend to reinforce the tip, and a little way up the blade with Kevlar felt.

 

[Canotrouge]

Sounds like a good plan!! As for the kevlar felt, I'm no so sure.... But I want to see what it will look like when done!!

 

[Peach Canoe]

There are many solutions to the paddle bumper strip, and Kevlar felt is one I've used before. The weak link seems to be the wood/epoxy interface, especially if the wood is dense and doesn't drink much epoxy.

Dynel is popular for paddle blade trim, but Kevlar is a better structural match with epoxy than Dynel.

 

[Canotrouge]

No Title

On ww paddles I've used Dynel with great success, but for "deep" water paddles( I don't like calling them lake paddles cause I don't use them on lake much) I put a line at the tip that is hard wood and with the grain running opposite way!!

 

[Canotrouge]

No Title

Here are some paddles that I've been working on, 2 new ones, and 2 that needed fixing, one had a broken grip and the other one a small split in the blade.... they are now drying from a coat of Epifane spar varnish.... the small one had its last coat, the others will get many more!!

 

[Peach Canoe]

That insert looks great. You do beautiful work! Epifanes spar varnish is simply the best.

 

[Canotrouge]

Thank you Peach... I herd that the Tonkinois spar is supposed to be super good to, http://www.buckhorncanoes.com/product.php?product=177&storecookie=1
One thing that is worth saying is I use foam brush to apply my varnish, I tried a bunch of different traditional brush from really cheep to quite expensive and from brush give me the best finish, but not any foam brush, the one sold at Lee Valley tools, the foam is much more dense and the overall brush of way better quality!

 

[Peach Canoe]

I will look into the Tonkinois varnish, thanks. I use foam brushes for varnish too; I warm the room in advance and I also warm the varnish. I didn't know the Lee Valley foam brushes were more dense-- I will pick some up next time I'm there.

We refer to Lee Valley as "The 200 Dollar Store"!

 

[memaquay]

I put a couple of coats of system three clear coat on any paddles that I laminate. It's a great sealer, and then three coats of varnish looks like about ten coats. I'm working on the grip on mine if I get time today, maybe I'll just post any pics in this thread!