He wrote “clear”
Your experience seems to come from the Home Depot stuff. Go into a real lumber yard and look at the high grade stuff and you'll crap.
Maybe I shouldn't say a "real Lumber yard", most don't carry a lot of high grade cedar either. Fortunately I go to one that does. It's like a candy store for paddle carvers.
I noted “clear”, near the end
So far, that just doesn’t exist locally. I also can’t mill 4x4’s down myself. I have no shop and no large power tools. Carving is with hand tools on the front porch. I really don’t want that much extra handwork taking a 4x4 down with an adz or large drawknife (that I also don’t have). No bandsaw means I’m already hand cutting the “bow tie” (worst part) and hand planing the wedges off (tried sawing - planing is actually faster).
Also finding WRC in SE FL is not the same as Midwest, NE, or PNW. Regional differences in material use I suspect. Cedar fence posts exist, but don’t seem as common as up North. Big wood fences don’t survive hurricanes well. Cement is required for wood posts after Hurricane Andrew - which sort of defeats cedar’s natural rot resistance and greatly shortens the lifespan here - and may explain the apparent decreasing popularity/availability in SE FL.
Anyway, when want to make a paddle and I find a good piece I do. When I can’t find any I laminate or wait. I don’t carve/need dozens of paddles like some folks, so it’s not a really big deal.
I do have something different I want to experiment with though so I may be wood hunting again soon…
Yeah we aren’t as lucky as some of those
dudes out west that collect cedar driftwood and build boats and paddles out of it for free.
Having a table saw and band saw (a circular saw and some clamps can make for a decent table saw too) does give you more options, but I still end up hunting for good pieces because typically I won’t pay $32 for a 2x4 unless I’m making one for someone else.
"Ballistic paddles"
If I push one of my WRC GPs vertically down into the water then release it, it will shoot right out at least a couple of feet in the air. OTOH, if you paddle with a canted stroke, the blade submerges quickly due to the technique, so there is no disadvantage to the buoyancy of the paddle.
blade angle and stroke style
I agree that one of the strengths of the forward canted blade is that it buries the buoyant GP blades very quickly (it also increases bite and eliminates flutter). However, in my experience, the buoyancy of the blades can create challenges when used with other stroke styles, such as a “Brent Reitz” pure wing paddle stroke. For this stroke the outboard paddle edge leads and I have difficulty sinking the blades fully (and you want to get all of that blade in the water). My “wing paddle” stroke with a GP is actually a hybrid of a GP canted stroke and a Brent Reitz stroke.
Greg Stamer
I adapt too
Stroke Looks fairly winglike - and wing paddlers tend to see the similarity and see the GP in a different light - but as you say it needs to be adapted a bit.
Makes sens you’d keep the cant as that’s how the long narrow GP wing gets it’s attack angle.
I bury blade a bit less and compensate with the flare out to the side for a longer stroke (than my average, not longer than with crunch) alter and cadence as needed.
Since GP hand spacing’s closer that wing my push hand crosses more at chin/chest than eye level too.
I rarely take it as winglike as I could - and tend to do more of a hybrid/halfway variant.
If I plotted my stroke style variations on a scale the far left edge of the scale would be the purest version I can muster of the modified wing stroke. The far right side of scale would a lot more “Greenland” crunch and punch. Both extremes being good speed strokes for different conditions. I move back and forth between these for variety. My total use would plot on this scale as a steep bell curve with most use being at the sloppy center where my average cruising stroke lives.
Like I said…
WRC in a clear S4S KD grade is not a common stocked item. Why should we? No market for it. But at a “Real” lumberyard you have resources available to order speciality woods. We are a contractor yard, so I admit it is not the place for a paddle carver to come to, but because we are a “Real” lumberyard we will most certainly try and help someone find what they need or give them a suggestion on were to get it. By the way when I said “clear” I have no idea why you thought I came from a home center background? Apparently you did not read the opening sentence on my post. Just thought I could help someone out who is looking for good wood. Greyak probably has the best handle on it. We have a speciality yard nearby that would allow for sorting and picking. They also would cut the board to your specs. Good Carving!
I was remarking on Greyaks
mention of knots and you wrote "clear". I meant that Greyak was probably judging boards found at the Home Depot not something that you could order for him.
I gave him a perfect fix for grain orientation problems provided he has the tools to get the boards out of it. But like most good advice around here it's overlooked and/or misunderstood (my fault probably). I don't know why I waste my time.
Anyway you're way off the mark. You're right though Greyak understood what I meant.
My point was…
… that a yard’s ability to order “clear cedar” doesn’t really get most of us anywhere. A yard like yours is not going to order me 1 or 2 suitable vertical grain/quartersawn boards. It’s still going to require going through many to find the ones with optimal grain. Would make no sense for you to order many for a 1 or 2 board buyer to pick through.
Even the specialty marine/furniture/cabinetmaker/hobbyist yard I frequent can’t do this.
I take what I can get. I know finding wood will be at least half the effort and take more time than the carving.
If I was ever really in a bind I’d go to laminations. The storm I made out of home center cedar lattice turned out remarkably well. Makes me wonder what I could do with a mixed species blank. I have easy access to a wide variety of hardwoods, including exotics, and what that yard doesn’t have I can get in small pieces from a specialty woodworking store that also sells high end tools (so I need to stay away!!!).
By the time I do all that I might be better off sourcing CNC foam cores/molds and making my own composite paddles…