bent shaft out of poplar
I and the scouts made poplar bent shaft paddles. They held up well enough. Still have my kids paddles. If interested, I can write more details. In short, 4-5 ft board of clear poplar, easy to find, 5" wide. A 14 yr old needs about a 46" bent shaft paddle. lay board flat, mark an L-shape with a 14 degree angle instead of 90 degree as a real L. The board is 3/4" thick, plenty strong for kids and fits their hands. cut additional strips to glue into the blade, against the short L piece. Then start the sanding. Titebond III works well, I used II when I built these in 1997.
You’re right
of course, RJ. When it comes to our kids, money’s no object! My girls are a bit older now and I guess I’m a little jealous. I bought little Bending Branches paddles for mine when they were small. Now that they are teenagers, they don’t have any interest in canoes. They like KAYAKS! (mutinous scurvy they’ve become!) A good poplar board might work well if your gal is under 12. It’s relatively light and easy-ish to work, but must be kept well oiled or varnished if it gets used a lot. If I were gonna make a little bendie, I’d laminate. A traditional (beaver-ottertail) design, one piece. Best of luck, Tom
metal vs wood
One big difference between working with metal and wood is that wood’s properties and the ability to work it differ in different direction on the same piece of material. Take some time looking at the grain as you lay out your pattern. And when using a spokeshave or plane or chisel, if the tool starts to rip or tear the wood rather than cut, try just changing directions you are working in.
One difference of opinion with other posters - I actually find hardwoods easier to work with than softwoods. You do need more patience (and sharp tools), but the cuts are much crisper and cleaner.
A final thought. For most woodworkers, using cutting tools and making shavings is very gratifying. You can do lots of rough shaping with rasps and grinders and power sanders, but the noise and dust just don’t have the tradition and artistry and appeal of hand cutting tools.
Glue
I have become quite fond of single part polyurethanes such as Gorilla Glue. They are easy to work with, totally waterproof and don’t tend to dull your tools.(You do need to wear gloves. The stuff is murder to getoff your hands.)
I used to use epoxy for paddle construction but it had two drawbacks that the PUs don’t.
- Epoxy must be mixed each time and it’s impossible to mix exactly what you need. The result is always some waste.
- Epoxy, once fully cured is very tough on steel cutting tools. Chisels, planes, spokeshaves, drawknives etc. etc. need to be constantly resharpened.
I’ve never had a glue failure with Gorilla Glue.
I have had failures with another popular brand)
One word of caution. Don’t buy more than you are likely to need over the course of a year or two. Once you open the bottle and air gets in it begins to slowly thicken. After a year or so it is unuseable.
Marc Ornstein
Dogpaddle Canoe Works
So many glues!
I have got to agree with Marc. I believe Polyurethane performs very well and saves a lot of time and expense. In my experience glue joint failure has more to do with wood selection and joinery. In fact, two pieces of wood with differing expansion values could be more prone to failure with an inflexible glue such as epoxy. That said I rarely find myself agonizing over grain orientation and species expansion values when making paddles. Paddle lamination joints are very thin and wood movement is directly proportional to the width of a joint.
In choosing a glue type one must also consider how well the wood will be sealed. Will the finished paddle be oiled or coated with epoxy resin and varnish? Most moisture ingress occurs at an end grain location (tip of the blade). Protect (seal) that area and waterproofness of the glue is not as important.
I won’t argue the superiority of one glue over another but I believe that many times one glue may be as good as another given what you are asking of the joint. It is important to have familiarity with whatever you do use and that comes from use.
The biggest mistake that I see folks make is starving a joint of glue (applying too much clamping pressure).
Paul