Building a paddle

Jeff Horton

Member
Messages
4,272
Location
The Heart of Dixie
We need some woodworking talk on here badly! So I decided I would just show another little project I have going on. I have a couple of people wanting Greenland style paddles. They are both avid paddlers and will be good advertising so I cut them a deal they couldn't refuse. ;) Of course I made them promise if they were happy to tell everyone who made them.

So I started with a couple of 2x4s of Western Red Cedar. I had to do a lot of staring at them to decide how to cut around the knots and still get a paddle out of them. Finally decided a lamination was in order since clear WRC is unheard of around here! I could minimize the joints that way.

I chose a piece of poplar and a piece of pine mainly because that is what I had. Not great boat building wood but if they keep the paddles varnished it won't matter. Plus it's such a small piece they won't add much weight to the paddle.

glueup1.jpg glueup2.jpg

Here is where they are at this point. I will run them through the planer once the glue dries and start drawing out the paddle on the blanks and hope there are not hidden defects when I start sawing them.
 
Looks nice Jeff, will be watching with interest. My son told me today that he'd be up for trying out kayaking. Just need to find a place close by to take a lesson or two.
 
many moons ago i built a pair of speed paddles for a canoe, they where pretty complex as the blade was both angled and cupped. i covered them in glass cloth and resin, they worked well but where to pretty to use fishing on the ozarks roch strewn rivers so i sold `em.

here`s the results of a quick google search;
http://www.potholepaddles.net/front.html
http://www.hawaiiandays.com/PAD/paddle_all.htm
http://www.holzcanoepaddles.com/functional.htm
http://www.cricketdesigns.com/artic_spoon.htm
http://paddlemaking.blogspot.com/2007/12/preparing-blank.html
 
I always believed paddles were made of something hard like ash or white oak.or something very hard as to not dent

Oars often are and I am sure some paddles are too, but that would make one heavy paddle!

We paddled about 15 miles Saturday. I think we were out 7 to 7.5 hours. That long of a trip I want a paddle that weights nothing! I am going lift that paddle in and out of the water thousands of times before the day is over. 98% of the time there is nothing around to damage the paddle. I add a hardwood tip on the end of mine, but some nicks and marks are inevitable.


My lightest one weights somewhere around a pound I would guess. The one I am using in the avatar. It's made of WRC with walnut tips on the ends. I can laminate a thin piece of a hardwood along the edge too if someone wanted. But me, I prefer it as light as possible and I don't do anything with them typically that will damage the edges. Just the tips from pushing off bottom or keeping the boat off a rock or something.

paddles_small.jpg
 
I made this one as an experiment. In other words just threw it together. It has a hollow shaft with 3mm plywood blades. I don't have any way to weight it, but is is amazingly light weight. Everyone is amazed and I can actually shave a some more wood off the next one and get it even lighter.

Not sure how the blades will hold up. I didn't want to glass them so I could keep the weight down.

purple paddle1.jpg purple paddle2.jpg
 
I dont think like a kayaker.
Ive rowed hundreds of row boats, and I never thought about how the oars are held in place on the walls of the boat itself, not free held like a kayak paddle.
I think of all the days Ive rowed in NY lakes with so many rocks, and how we used to use the oars to push ourselves away from the shoreline or rocks, always giving them so much abuse.
Thats how I was wondering about red cedar, cause I think of it as such a soft wood.
I learn something every day.
 
:) Big difference in having your oars supported on the gunwales and having to carry them all day. I would also imagine you can apply a lot more force to the oars because of leverage. WRC would be too flexible I would imagine.
 
Blanks are glued. I ran them through the planner to get the width close to what I want and squared up. Not that square much matters. Just makes them lay flat.

Now I needed to add a hardwood tip. I had a lot of small peices of walnut and I like the contrast so I used it. It took some creative clamping to hold these in place. Not happy with this, but it works for now. If I start to sell these, I will make me a special clamps that is easier to use.

glue_ends1.jpg glue_ends2.jpg
 
Our former family doctor (now retired) likes to make some beautiful canoe paddles in his workshop. It started years ago when his son and my son raced canoes in an annual Explorer Scout event on the White River here. He also makes the occasional racing canoe. The first were all wood and beautiful. Later, and still, they are a very light frame covered with near transparent thin Kevlar. Not so attractive. Enneyhow, if tips are needed on paddle making, I could ask him. He lives near me.
 
So far so good! :)

I have used dowels but you end up planing into them and they show really bad. I actually cut a tongue and grove joint but that ends up being cut away. It's so darn thin when you get done there just isn't a enough area for a good joint. Not that I know of anyway so the butt joints just has to do. So far it held up.

I have been thinking about cutting a V in the blade and a mating cut on the on the tip. That would give me a larger glue area and would look good. But it's a real pain to mate up the joints perfectly and everyone picks them up and looks closely.

I am open to a better idea. I don't have one.
 
Well that is one place a biscuit might actually be useful. Might blow off the dust off the Makita and try it on the other one I am making. Haven't used it 2-3 years and thought about selling it. I doubt a biscuit would add much strength but it make alignment easier and that is always a pain.

The on my avatar has a couple of dowels but it just butt joint and no failure on it. But time will tell. I am using Titebond III on everything. Oil finish to start with, but the grain kept raising and was rough on the hands. So I finally gave in and varnished it.
 
Now that the blank is ready it was time to start building a paddle. First order of business was to lay out the paddle on the blank. I didn't photo graph this part as it doesn't really show. But the lines laid out it was time to head the bandsaw and remove as much wood as possible. Here you can see the general shape of the paddle after being sawn.

paddle6.jpg View attachment 22765 paddle10.jpg


Next step means spending lots of time with a plane and rasp. Mostly a rasp. The scrub plane is handy too, just have to be careful with it. Then you rasp and spoke shave and bock plane and .... you get the picture. :)

paddle7.jpg paddle13.jpg paddle8.jpg

Then you get sand! Actually the cedar is so soft sanding is a quick job.

Then add some BLO and you got a paddle ready to take to the water!

paddle11.jpg paddle12.jpg

Actually this one is not quite done, but I am going to be paddling with the young lady I am making this for and I wanted to show her tomorrow and try it out.
 
Last edited:
Top