Jeff Horton
Member
- Messages
- 4,272
- Location
- The Heart of Dixie
A few weeks ago I broke my favorite paddle. I used some questionable wood but I had paddled with it for a long time and decided it wasn't going to break. Of course that is when it did. So time to build a new one.
The local lumber yard had nothing in the way of suitable wood and I mean nothing. I scoured the shop for the cutoffs. Good Western Red Cedar (WRC) is so hard to find that I save any cutoffs from any paddles I make. I scrounged around and finally found enough to glue up a blank.I decided to add an accent strip of maple between the laminations.
Next I move the bandsaw and start to trim off the excess wood.
Then I start shaping the blades. I use a variety of tools, starting with a scrub plane and rasp to rough out the shape.Then a block plane to refine it some.
You can see the oval shape of the paddle starting to take shape.
There is just a lot of sanding left at this point. Maybe a little bit of planning with the blade set for a very fine cut to even out any rough spots.
After a coat of varnish.
The local lumber yard had nothing in the way of suitable wood and I mean nothing. I scoured the shop for the cutoffs. Good Western Red Cedar (WRC) is so hard to find that I save any cutoffs from any paddles I make. I scrounged around and finally found enough to glue up a blank.I decided to add an accent strip of maple between the laminations.
Next I move the bandsaw and start to trim off the excess wood.
Then I start shaping the blades. I use a variety of tools, starting with a scrub plane and rasp to rough out the shape.Then a block plane to refine it some.
You can see the oval shape of the paddle starting to take shape.
There is just a lot of sanding left at this point. Maybe a little bit of planning with the blade set for a very fine cut to even out any rough spots.
After a coat of varnish.