Building a Greenland paddle for something to do this winter?

Paddlers' Place
#20

Post a notice for “free pickup” for that sawdust on your local Craigslist or FreeCycle next time. Composted sawdust is the ideal mulch for fruit trees.

We discovered towering and well rotted piles of it in the woods in northern PA not far from my ex boyfriend’s place some years ago, apparently the remnants of a defunct sawmill nearby. He had planted a small fenced in orchard on his acreage and the trees and berry bushes looked stunted after 10 years. We lined his truck box with tarps and hauled probably 30 yards of the sawdust in several trips and mounded it around the plantings. The following summer the improvement in the trees was obvious and he started seeing blossoms and even fruit.

Important to compost it first for a year or two to add nitrogen (unless you want an acidic mulch for rhododendrons or blueberries), but it is a great mulch. I use sawdust based kitty litter. Hate to see sawdust go to a landfill!

#21

Stables and the like are also desperate for clean sawdust. Just avoid sawdust from treated wood for almost anything

#22

…and cedar if you have tree allergies.

#23

If you think the paddle will take all winter… :wink:

Here’s a book on it… https://www.clcboats.com/shop/products/boat-building-books-kayaking-dvds/greenland-paddle-building-book.html

#24

You should definitely keep us updated on the progress of your build periodically. :slightly_smiling_face: At least it’s something I’d be interested to see.

#25

The paddles I make

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#26

JohnFH I think those qualify as Alaskan paddles. That “ridge” down one side is typical of Alaskan work.

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#27

Yes, I make both styles

#28

Do you notice much paddling difference between the two designs? Or is it a fine line difference?

#29

The Aluet paddle feels like it has a little more purchase for the same blade area. I just read a study on paddles that says about the same thing.
Interesting note, the Greenland paddle feels a little better in my Arctic Hawk, which is a hard chine West Greenland based design, while the Aluet paddles seem to feel better in a rounded bottom or Baidarka style hull. Anyone wants to try one, I paddle all winter

#30

How do you create the spine on the Aleut?

#31

I carve the paddles from a single piece of wood. I plane down the sides and use a rounded chisel to cut the curve. It’s all done by hand.

#32

I don’t use power tools, except sometimes I get lazy and use an orbital sander. Sometimes I use a homemade ripping table with my skill saw to cut up larger pieces of wood to work on, but I use hand tools (hand ax, drawknife for the roughing and other tools for fine shaping.

I also don’t use a block plane, but do most of the shaping with draw knife, spokeshave, sureform rasp, rasp and a cabinet scraper. Once you discover how to use these hand tools you actually discover most of the fun of making your own gear. From what I have seen of actual artifacts most paddles were mostly made with some sort of draw knife and probably small axes.

#33

Thanks–You just verified a paddle question I had previously surmised the answer to, as I am planning to start a baidarka build this winter. An Aleut will follow suit! (And nice work, btw.)

#34

You guys have more patience than I do.

#35

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My paddle making tools

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#36

Wow JohnFH. Those paddles look really nice. I don’t think I’ve come across those Aluet style ones before.

Do you really just use those 4 tools to make those paddles? That’s really impressive.

#37

Thank you, it doesn’t take much.
Remember they were making these for thousands of years with not much more then a rock and pieces of bone.

#38

Another very handy tool.


shinto-rasp
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#39

Yeah, the Shinto rasp is handy for rough work, before switching to edged tools.