Can anyone recommend a relatively inexpensive two-piece GP? I love those two-piece cf Novorca GPs but I can’t pony up that much cash.
thank you!
Bookmarked. It’s probably likely I’ll resort to this but I want to see what else turns up.
Thanks again.
Ebay
There’s a guy in Ontario posting on Ebay who makes laminated wood 2-piece GP’s with CF ferrules to order for $190 plus $25 shipping. That’s a decent price and about what I paid for my one piece Friday Harbor GP.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-2-Piece-Laminated-Greenland-Kayak-Paddle-/221070881953?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item3378d9f4a1
Ed Drieger of Talon Woodworks
A good guy. He builds affordable greenland paddles of various woods and uses a carbon euro ferrule (complete w. release button) to create two part paddles. I didn’t really like mine as the round carbon ferrule didn’t suit my hand and the transition from carbon to wood felt weird to me. I sold the paddle.
YMMV. He is certainly a craftsman and very easy to work with.
Joe O’Blenis of Joe O’Paddles in Thunder Bay Ontario is another paddlemaker who does two piece.
Mitchell…
…I’ve had one as a spare for years.
Ed Driedger
I have two 2-pc GPs he made to my specs and love them. PM me if you want to see pics.
Mixed feelings on mine
On the plus side, the laminations are clean, the primary shapes are good, and the finish is good. But, the blades do not taper symetrically in relation to the laminations. There’s a bit of unintentional feather, meaning the blades were not precisely assembled into the ferrule. And, the blades do not taper smoothly down to the ferrule – that is, since the taper left the blade a bit fat on one side (on both blades), the wood abruptly rounds down to the ferrule in that area, creating sort of an unintentional, partial shoulder, there.