When
making paddles out of WRC, the paddles do tend to be 28 to 32 oz…not bad, but I like a little more.(purely a personal preference)
That’s why we make our own:)
Best Wishes
Roy
Thats a tough one
– Last Updated: Nov-25-10 7:58 AM EST –
The first thing you need is VERY sharp and VERY well-tuned planes/spokeshaves, if that's what you use for paddle making. Higher angle planes reduce tearout, as does a tight mouth. With block planes and other bevel-up planes, you can resharpen the blade at a higher angle, which may help. If your tools have adjustable mouths, set them for a very fine cut, then adjust the mouth as tight as possible, while still allowing the shavings to feed easily. Another key is to have a very flat sole in front of the mouth, as that's what holds the wood surface down as the blade shaves it.
If the grain is really bad and simply cannot be planed without tearout, use Microplanes or other rasps for roughing out the shape, then sand until it looks like a paddle. Sanding is a pain, but it works no matter what the grain orientation is.
laminated and oil
Again, no reason you can’t oil finish a laminated paddle. The glue is waterproof, or should be, otherwise how you finish it is up to you.
I too prefer tung oil finishes on my GPs.
Bill H.
Jay, how do you finish your . . .
laminated paddles? Epoxy? Or can you simply oil them and that’s enough, they won’t delaminate?
G in NC
It’s not critical
Any finish that prevents the wood from absorbing a lot of water will also prevent the issues that can occur with differential swelling and contracting of different woods. Oils will work, as will varnish and oil/varnish blends (my personal preference).
You can go the epoxy route if you want, but it’s not necessary. The only thing I use epoxy for is coating the tips for improved durability. If you’re going to laminate hardwood tips on your paddle, you can pass on the epoxy. For that matter, if you don’t mind your tips getting chewed up, you don’t need to reinforce them.