would balsa wood work?
Pedro, your work is impressive and admittedly I am not as skilled as you are, at this stage.
I was contemplating making the whole paddle out of balsa wood and then cover it with two layers of carbon (sleeve). Would balsa, in your opinion, hold up the shape? Since the balsa I have seen would not be long enough as a one piece, I would have to glue/laminate a few pieces together…
Gnarlydog
It should work
Balsa is definitely lighter, however, it’s also much softer, more flexible, and more porous. Balsa will absorb more resin because of its porous nature and will require more carbon fiber/resin for strenth and dent resistance. It might not end up as light as you expect, but should still be pretty light. Sounds like a good project.
The blades on my current paddle have a WRC spine and surfboard foam to fair in the backs. It’s all covered with CF. I might try using Balsa instead of the WRC/foam combination for my next paddle.
I also carved myself a GP out of WRC, but I didn’t like paddling with it. It will soon become a wall ornament.
I have my kayak and paddle building pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84917002@N00/ (copy and paste the whole link)
There are a few pictures of one of the paddles I built.
Good luck and let me know how your paddle turns out.
Pedro