The start of a paddle

[Canotrouge]

I'm starting a paddle for a client... Cherry is the main wood, wood that they supplied to me, wood that they've been carrying around for the last 20 year trying to find something good to make out of it, a paddle it will be!! Graduation gift to there daughter...

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

What better graduation gift is there for someone who will have to paddle their own canoe from now on? I'm sure you will create a beauty.

 

[Odyssey]

I love cherry. Canot, that will be something special when it's done and gifted. Lucky you, lucky them, lucky her. Lovely idea.
Another wood I love is walnut. I was just in a log home a couple of weeks ago admiring the ash flooring, all cut from their property. Up on a tall wall eclectically/decoratively displayed were varied lengths of hardwoods, again all harvested from the property, and stored and almost forgotten in an old barn before they rediscovered it all and installed the planks on the soaring 2 storey walls; the most impressive (to me) being walnut. That warm gnarly grain just pops.
So my question is, has anyone carved a paddle from walnut?

 

[Canotrouge]

I like commission like that where it really means something to the clients!!

As for walnut I made one. It is nice lighter than Cherry. but it wasn't for me, it was for a client and didn't get to try it.

Cherry, walnut, white ash, american beech, Alaska birch are by far my favourite hard wood.... Alaskan Yellow cedar, sitka spruce and some local spruce I really like working with!!

 

[Guest]

So my question is, has anyone carved a paddle from walnut?

The most visually stunning paddle I have ever seen was carved from Walnut.

Friend Chip took down a walnut tree on his property and had some boards milled from the wood. One board length had a perfect paddle shape contained in the grain, from Ottertail blade to shaft to Guide style grip. Chip generously gifted me that peculiar piece of walnut.

I had made a couple of cherry paddles, but thought that special piece of wood deserved the attention of a more skilled woodworker. Friend Norbert was a master craftsman and I had seen examples of his work with walnut, so I regifted it to him.

Norb carved a paddle along those grain lines. The most striking paddle I have ever seen. The only paddle I have ever seen with, new word for me, chatoyancy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatoyancy

The blade had a slight birds eye pattern, but the entire paddle glowed with the iridescence of a Tigers Eye gemstone.

There was an unfortunate denouement to Chips walnut lumber, and I do not know if anything else was ever carved from that tree. Chip had a load of firewood delivered. While he was away on a trip. He instructed his son to lay some scrap boards on the ground and stack the firewood atop that.

You can probably guess at the rest of that story. Still makes me want to cry, especially not knowing if the rest of that walnut had similar qualities.

 

[Chip]

Norb carved a paddle along those grain lines. The most striking paddle I have ever seen. The only paddle I have ever seen with, new word for me, chatoyancy.

The walnut paddle NT carved was shockingly good looking. I printed out a picture of the paddle NT posted on photobucket (the link doesn't work anymore), and I scaled it and made a copy of the one NT made. I used the sister of the board McCrae gave NT, a board I suspect lay next to NT's before the log was sawn. I just got the paddle to take a picture of it, and though I think it is inferior to the one NT made, when I carried it through the house my wifed gasped out "what a beautiful paddle." My wife is not a paddler, and has never said anything like that about any paddle. The board I started with must have been closer to the edge of the tree and has a little cambium showing along one edge.

 

[Guest]

The walnut paddle NT carved was shockingly good looking. I printed out a picture of the paddle NT posted on photobucket (the link doesn't work anymore), and I scaled it and made a copy of the one NT made. I used the sister of the board McCrae gave NT, a board I suspect lay next to NT's before the log was sawn. I just got the paddle to take a picture of it, and though I think it is inferior to the one NT made, when I carried it through the house my wifed gasped out "what a beautiful paddle." My wife is not a paddler, and has never said anything like that about any paddle. The board I started with must have been closer to the edge of the tree and has a little cambium showing along one edge.

I am heartened to learn that not all of that beautiful walnut remained under a pile of firewood. Apologies for retelling one of my favorite Chip stories, your original tale of walnut woe was more heart wrenching and, in the Not My Lumber sense, more schadenfreude funny.

I wonder what happened to that NT walnut paddle. I have a bunch of Norbs handcrafted walnut stuff. When he showed up at a gathering the next year with that astounding paddle he revealed it to me in private first and, knowing his generosity of character, I begged him not to give it to me.

I would never have used it, it was too long for my tastes and I do not care for that style grip. It was such a thing of beauty that it deserved better than to become a decorative wall hanger.

I wonder where that extraordinary paddle is today.

 

[Canotrouge]

That paddle looks great!! I like the little bit of sap wood!!

Today I fitted all the parts and did the glue up...

 

[Canotrouge]

These are the right size pictures...

 

[deerfly]

looking good. Making a paddle from scratch is on my list too.

 

[Canotrouge]

Go for it... Not really hard and doesn't have to be of fancy wood, I make most of my paddles out of clear vertical grain sitka spruce, and anything will work!! A piece of "clear" 2x6 lumber does the job quite good!!

 

[Canotrouge]

Paddle is done... Almost, one or two more coats of oil on the shaft and a canvas bag and it will get picked up next week!!

 

[yellowcanoe]

I really love that paddle. That grip so satiny smooth!

 

[Canotrouge]

I really love that paddle. That grip so satiny smooth!

Thank you. I really like the shape overall, I really like the blade shape a lot! I have 2 other one on the go but in sitka spruce, nice and light... One is a commission!

 

[lowangle al]

Really nice paddle,and the smoothness of that grip impressed me also. Do you buff it or anything after it's oiled?

 

[Canotrouge]

Really nice paddle,and the smoothness of that grip impressed me also. Do you buff it or anything after it's oiled?

Every thing is wet sanded(oil is used) to 400 sometime to 600...

 

[gumpus]

Nice work. It's a lovely paddle. It looks like it's nicely balanced with a smallish beavertail blade and a bit of heft around the handle. I'd like to try it!

 

[Guest]

I'm starting a paddle for a client... Cherry is the main wood, wood that they supplied to me, wood that they've been carrying around for the last 20 year trying to find something good to make out of it, a paddle it will be!! Graduation gift to there daughter...

Given that history, folks toting around a piece of cherry for 20 years to finally become a graduation gift, you have made an heirloom-to-be. Makes me wonder if there was there a backstory to that piece of cherry, harvested from some family property or tree that memorably fell on the house, there must something special to tote it around for 20 years.

It is a beautiful paddle, presumable sized for the recipient, and should be something to treasure for years.

There is an element of that, making something, especially from memorable wood, something that can be used and last for years if not generations, that especially appeals to me. Heirloom territory.

And, such historic wood backstories cause me some regrets. 20 years ago I had a huge bifurcated Red Maple that threatened our vehicles and boats dropped. Just dropped, laid into a steep gully in the woods and left to rot. I had neither the money nor foresight to have it sawn into board lengths, and to this day I wonder what was in the sapwood and heartwood, and if perhaps it had some quilt or curl in the grain, especially near the bifurcation. Opportunity lost

Same with a similar sized Black Oak that more severely threatened the house. That one was trifurcated 20 feet up and must have had some odd grain in that area. It at least got cut up into woodstove lengths and later split for firewood.

I wonder how Alan Gage is doing with his portable sawmill.

 

[Alan Gage]

Makes me wonder if there was there a backstory to that piece of cherry, harvested from some family property or tree that memorably fell on the house, there must something special to tote it around for 20 years.

Or maybe they're just pack rats.

I wonder how Alan Gage is doing with his portable sawmill.

He'd be doing better if his back would finally heal up and the list of projects would start shrinking instead of growing.

I've been saying it for three months but I think I'm just about ready to start sawing in earnest. Have collected about 175 logs, got a skid loader to move them around, put up an open sided building for drying, and built a lean-to onto said building to park the sawmill out of the weather. Now I just need to empty out the construction detritus that's collected under the roof so I can better level out the floor, build more pallets for stacking wood, and start sawing! Oh wait, maybe I should start building that solar kiln first so I could get one or two loads dry by winter.....

I have been sawing up a few logs here and there for lumber/siding as needed but I haven't really been able to concentrate on it like I want. It really is fun to have a need for lumber, pick a log out of the pile, and saw up what you need.

I've got a couple nice walnut logs sitting out there. Come on up and I'll send you home with some paddle blanks.

Really nice looking paddle there Canot. Good work.

Alan

 

[Canotrouge]

Nice work. It's a lovely paddle. It looks like it's nicely balanced with a smallish beavertail blade and a bit of heft around the handle. I'd like to try it!

The blade type is of the Mal