Quite some time ago, I picked up a carbon fiber one piece paddle on E-bay. It’s light weight and length made it perfect for the grand kids paddling the canoe. Now the canoe is gone, as they prefer to paddle the kayaks. I’d like to shorten up this fine paddle and install an adjustable ferrule. It’s an Onno, and they seem to be out of business.
Without turning this into a commentary on Onno, does anyone know how to source and install a ferrule and cut the carbon shaft?
@tjalmy
https://www.clcboats.com/modules/catalog/product.php?category_qn=boat-gear&subcat_qn=kayak-paddles&code=kayak-paddle-ferrule
CLC has a builders forum, so you may find help cutting and installing there.
I installed a CLC carbon fiber ferrule on an old wood paddle. It’s a nice product. The key will be how the diameter of the ferrule and the diameter of your paddle shaft compare. If one fits inside the other, then it’s easy. If not, you could make a pair of cedar cylinders that are shaped to fit inside the ferrule on one half and the paddle on the other half. Seal it well with epoxy. At least that’s how I’d do it.
Unless you can get original Onno parts, you’re more likely to ruin the paddle than make it more useful. There is no “standard” ferrule size and those that I’ve seen on the market are designed to be added to wooden paddle shafts that can be tapered, not to carbon fiber tubes. To work properly, the male part of the ferrule has to fit the female side of the paddle shaft precisely. For that, the inner diameter of both sides of the shaft must be precisely formed and/or machined to a specific dimension and the male section must be equally precise in it’s outer diameter. In a one-piece paddle, you have no idea what the ID is or what the finish and precision of the interior surface are like. It’s entirely likely that you’d cut it in half and discover that you can’t work with what you find.
If you can’t live with it the way it is, you’re better off to sell it to someone that it fits and buy something else for yourself. It would be a shame to ruin a nice paddle.
Thank you. I’d rather not ruin it!
@davavd said:
If not, you could make a pair of cedar cylinders that are shaped to fit inside the ferrule on one half and the paddle on the other half. Seal it well with epoxy.
While cedar is nice and light, and great for 1-piece paddles, it doesn’t work well with ferrules because the hard ferrule material easily crushes the soft cedar as the paddle flexes. The end result is that the ferrule gets loose and the glue joint fails. That’s why 2-piece wooden paddles typically have hardwood shafts. I make cedar Greenland paddles, but I won’t put a rigid ferrule in them.