turned out to be a very nice board to work with. Another point to think about is the ease of carving a quarter sawn piece. Planing the faces on a flat sawn board is less than desirable.
There are good paddles at the local lumber yard just waiting to be carved, sometimes they're hiding at the bottom of the stack. My local small yard will jump in the hi-low and help me out finding one - those guys are awesome! I usually come home with boards that are straight edged, straight and vertically grained, light in color and light in weight. Sometimes it's not an easy task.
The board in the video cost me $13 and I still have a 2x8"x8' board left. For cedar I drive an hour, don't get as much help finding a board and pay $32 for a 2x4"x8'.
glue two part epoxy is a good choice for laminating as it it not “pressure” dependent to make a good bond as with some other adhesives. mixed with a little thickener. it will take up any gaps and be water proof to boot. just be sure to wear protective gloves when working with epoxy and repirators too.
Laminating Laminating for a greenland is easy and has the advantage of a much stiffer stronger paddle. even if you laminate 5 pieces of Cedar together you will get a much stronger paddle than a solid one piece Cedar or Pine paddle. You can also mix hardwood and soft wood to make a super strong, super light paddle.
A laminated paddle may be harder to work with just hand planes and surf forms because of the glue and cross grains of the different woods but a belt or orbital sander solves that problem.
I built this paddle in just a few days. I spent about an hour each nite for three nites cutting and gluing up the blank and about five hours shapeing and sanding on a Saturday before the first coat of varnish went on. It’s thin strips of Walnut and Cedar and ended up very light weight. I just recently reshaped the loom to get it the way I wanted it. There are several pics on this site of the blank too.
Oh and I “never” thickness plane the lumber. I use a good saw blade and a table saw to cut the strips, I feel that the Gorilla glue works much better on the slightly rougher surface.
Any cut of WRC is premium WRC will give you a light paddle and I find that very important. I have made paddles from flat sawn and quartersawn and they both can give you a paddle that might warp and that can be flexable of stiff. When you buy a board It’s hard to really know if it will warp or be too flexable. I find that what works good for me is to make paddles and keep the best for myself and give away or sell the others. Flat sawn boards can be harder to carve with hand tools because the cutting edge wants to rip the wood. I use power tools and it doesn’t make much difference in what type of cut the board is. I think It’s more important to get wood without knots in it. Enjoy.
more questions Well, the cut I have is a 12’ 2x8 plank. Now I’m seriously considering laminating some strips from this. I just hope it won’t be too difficult for a novice. From the look of it in those pics, you do’t need too many clamps. One set every 5 to 8 inches or so? Any more advice? Should I just stick to finding a good quartersawn cut? Thanks.
is a little deceptive, I glued some thin strips of Walnut on the edges of the blank and they didn't require many clamps to hold them in place, but the vice helps too. You would start with 3 strips for the shaft, or you could bookmatch 2 pieces of your plank. Just even glueing 2 back to back will double the stiffness. I have about 14 bar clamps that I can use and put them about 6 inches apart. If you are going to have any tools for woodworking you can never under estimate the uses for a good worktable, vice and clamps of all types, C, bar, spring, and vice grips.
Here is a canoe paddle that I'm working on, it's cut from Redwood barn siding that's about 120 years old, three thin Cherry strips in the center. I'll take some photos of the finnished paddle tomorrow. This one came out very nice.
Airwave's video is excellent and a good way to start out with your first paddle. It really is as easy as he makes it look and you don't need a ton of tools to make a super nice paddle.
paddle stiffness Here’s something that I posted recently on the Greenland forum; "That said, even a good blank can end up too flexible if you remove too much material, of course. I recommend that you leave the shoulder area oval to round (per Chuck’s instructions) as the root of the blade is where many paddles flex too much for my taste. Not only will this add strength and stiffness, but the fullness will nicely fit the hollow of your hand for added comfort and an easier grip. Most people make the shoulder area and the blades, in general, too “flat” for my taste. "
Thanks Thanks for everyone’s responses and Greg, most of the knowledge I have on this subject I found at Qajaq USA and here. Still not sure what I’m gonna do yet but, whatever I do I’ll post it here:-)
Won’t be of much help yet but hopefully we can get some posts going. It would be nice if people could post what they’ve learned from their experiences and pass on some tips or post some questions. Not that P-net isn’t a great resource.
Photos of the Redwood canoe paddle Just finished this one. It’s mostly Redwood, thin center strips are Cherry and the tip of blade and tips of the grip are Walnut, It came out at 20 oz. on the mark. The first 6 pics in this album.
