Two canoe paddles from one kayak paddle?

[Idiot Savant]

Touring kayak paddles are pretty sophisticated designs. Usually curved, dihedral, asymmetrical.
They also come in a variety of aspect ratios. That is, long and narrow to short and wide. Low angle to high angle.
Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to make two canoe paddles out of one kayak paddle. One canoe paddle, at least.
All you'd need to do is cut the shaft to length, reshape the blade so it was symmetrical, and attach a grip. Easily done in a morning, if you buy the grip.
Imagine a canoe paddle made out of a Werner Camano.
The obvious question is, if it's a good idea, why hasn't Werner made a canoe paddle with a curved, dihedral blade?
But the other obvious question is, if it's a good idea for kayak paddles, why wouldn't it be a good idea for canoe paddles?
Obviously, it wouldn't be a good idea for freestyle paddling, and it would probably bite for underwater recovery.
But for just paddling down the Green River or across Brule Lake? Might be pretty good.
I have extra kayak paddles. I might give it a try. Ideally, I'd like to buy a grip that works, so I don't have to make one from scratch.
Insane? Guilty as charged.

 

[Waterdog]

IS,
Werner makes the Bandit canoe paddle which is a curved dihedral blade with T-grip. What would be gained by cutting a Camano in half? As a canoe paddle the main difference would be that it would be asymmetrical. The camano is a low angle blade and so would the modified canoe paddle. An efficient canoe stroke is high angle/vertical. Other than the something to do aspect of the experiment, what would you be trying to accomplish?

Try it on a cheap Harmony paddle first! If the Camano is in good shape, sell it and put the money towards a Mitchell curved blade paddle that is properly sized. I have a bandit and is not an exceptional performer. I don’t notice any real benefits to my flat blade paddles. The blade material/construction on Werner paddles is pretty bomber though.

Cheers,
Barry

 

[Riverguy]

(with a guilty look on my face) "wellllllll..."

In my case, it isn't a matter of taking a good paddle and ruining it to make another. Twice. Twice! I've had a paddle jump from my truck on it's own without my help or neglect... only to be run over and broken in traffic. The most spectacular one was hit by a logging truck and just exploded like a lightbulb.

I still have several blades and have thought about doing this very project mentioned by Waterdog. It's a 'get around to it' deal.

 

[Mike McCrea]

This may help.

https://www.canoetripping.net/threads/new-grips-for-wood-paddles.124607/

I reshaped the ends of a couple double blades, some asymmetrical to make the blades symmetrical, some square tipped to make them rounder.

The best source I found for grips was Mohawk Paddles, tee grips or pear grips.

https://www.mohawkpaddles.com/product/pear-grip-replacement/

https://www.mohawkpaddles.com/product/t-grip-replacement/

If you cut them off at the insert end the grips have a decent size circular hole, and a wood paddle shaft end can be “pegged” and epoxied in place.

I got lucky and the male end of button clip Mohawk tee grip adapters slid perfectly inside the hollow shaft of a couple paddles. Mohawk was willing to sell just the male ends of those adaptors.

https://www.mohawkpaddles.com/product/t-grip-adapter-set/

 

[ErktheRed]

A camano, kaliste, or any other low angle kayak paddle isn’t designed to flow through the water at that angle. It’ll work!! But werner, lendel, and many other names out so much thought and science into how the paddle can be powerful yet efficient enough that it doesn’t tear on your body as bad. Why go against all of that when there’s great paddles out there already? However…. You’d be better off to look at a high angle paddle such as the shuna, which is the same as the camano but the angle it enters the water has changed and they share the same surface area.

And waterdog is right, the Werner bandit is their kayak paddle transitioned to canoe.