Years ago (well eons ago now) when I worked in my father’s cabinet shop we used white ash for most of the facings, doors and drawer fronts. Regardless of what the charts say, it would range all over the place from very, very dense to very, very light, so light that it felt like it would float in the air. It was tricking getting the density just right, too dense and it was hard to work, too light and it would chip out like crazy when you worked it.
Some builders preferred basswood over the ash, it was nice looking and generally lighter but smells like rotten eggs when you sand it. No one in the shop liked working with it.
Thanks to an 80’ tree that came down at my girlfriend’s house, I have a small supply of large black locust logs. If I can find someone on Cape Cod with a portable sawmill, I’ll turn them into lumber. Being the densest wood native to North America, it’s definitely not paddle material, but other than the somewhat sour smell, it’s pretty nice to work with. It’s great for wear surfaces on wooden tools, like plane soles. It’s also the most rot-resistant native wood, so I hope to use some of it to rebuild an oak bench that lives outside and is rapidly turning to dust. There’s one log that could make some nice table tops.
It’s a shame that Ash is soon to be no more, due ro the Emerald Beetle. I used Ash for a large canoe paddle. Back. Then my preference was long with large surface area. I had excess energy back then. Now I’m building a skinny GP.
My favorite machining wood is Tulip Poplar and it smells sweet when cut. Unfortunately, it’s best suited as a secondary wood due to the short grain. Boards are so flat and stable, it cuts without twisting, compared to African Mahogany that can pinch or bend as much as 3 inches in 8 ft, but Sapele is good.
Because of the way Black Locust grows, you have a great asset with the lumber grade logs. A table top would be awesome. Looks a bit like Osage orange; both tend to dull bladed. Keep that log safe, because it’s considered premium firewood.
I feel more like a wood mechanic, processing wood into shapes. It’s mechanical - machine to a spec and assemble, but occasionally, something must be improvised, but that also boils down to a spec. I’m looking forward to building a paddle. Most of it will be by hand. A chance to make piles of fine shavings.
Trust me, we have plenty of locust firewood. Her house is in a locust grove and between the trees shedding large branches (or their tops) and those that have uprooted, I have a nearly endless supply. Most of it is not usable as lumber (too small and gnarly). I’ve also harvested some downed birch and cherry this year A large red oak came down too, but it’s in an area where I can’t retrieve logs easily, so I’ll probably end up turning that into firewood as well, but not until next year.
That’s the good thing about Locust. The gnarly stuff burns hot, long and clean. My brother found a local guy with a bandsaw mill. $1.00 @ bft with minimum payment for 700 ft to go on site. The tree was over three feet thick, so the guy ripped it down the center to fit on the saw. Never saw such a thing. Chain sawed it by hand. Flipped it and finished on the other side. We lost about one board thickness. That boy had talent. Willow oak. We cut it to harvest as much sequential quarter sawn boards as possible. Now it’s air dry seasoned, and ready for action. Ain’t life grand.
Douglas fir is a preferred material for many applications like house construction.
It is medium in weight and very strong.
It is still possible to find high grades of DF that is clear with tight grain.
Years ago, Douglas Fir was plentiful. My father explained that while Bethelem Steel was a big producer, trains transported steel to the west coast for Asian markets; trains brought old growth wood back on the return trip. The steel plants closed, and much of our steel started coming from Asian markets; Douglas Fir began to flow to Asia instead of the Eastern US, but I’m sure environmental issues contributed to the decline.
My house, built in 1940s, has tight grained Fir 2x4s. A few 2x3s I removed while renovating have grain around 20 to the inch.
I looked three months for an acceptable 2x4. Strength was my first consideration for picking Fir, and the price was reasonable. I’ve been looking at the doors in my house, but my wife stopped me. 3 3/4 x 78 inches (198 cm). Only 1 1/4 thick so it could use 1/4 inch top and bottom of the shaft
There is some good furniture grade cherry around that would also work, though much heavier than WRC.
Of course, the only WRC you can find these days is farm raised, and they cut that too small to have usable heart wood. The outer stuff has too wide of a grain structure to put up with any stress.
WRC is the poster child for global warming. It didn’t freeze hard enough from Washington, northward, for a few years and bark beetles became an infestation, killed hundreds of thousands of acres of it.
I’ve seen mention about Tulip Poplar, Red Alder, Butternut and Boxwood, which suprises me. None seem appropriate for anything other than lamination with a stronger wood. All are rated from moderate to poor rot resistance, I believe they are all short grained. Butternut feels next to balsa wood to me, but it finishes to look like walnut if stained. Boxwood is great for turning and carving, but it’s heavy compared to strength. I wouldntexpect any of them to be suited as a material for shafts. I think you might have to sift through a lot of cherry to find straight, tight grain for a kayak paddle, but easier for a canoe paddle. The sap wood is susceptible to insects and decay.
Rot resistance is not much of an issue if you paddle salt water and you don’t use a film finish like varnish or epoxy. Salt water is a natural wood preservative, which is why they wash down the decks of historic wooden ships with it after rain storms. If you paddle fresh water, rot is definitely a concern.
The best finishes for paddles are breathable oils like tung oil (the pure stuff, not “tung oil finish” products) and boiled linseed oil. They’re not 100% waterproof, but they allow any moisture that does get through to evaporate. They can be mixed ~50:50 with varnish and still retain the same look, feel and breathability.
Film finishes are more problematic. While they are 100% waterproof, they’re difficult to maintain on a paddle and once they crack or wear through, they allow water into the wood where it gets trapped under the finish, encouraging rot. This is what causes the wood to turn black.
Thanks bnystrom. I never put that together about salt/fresh water. I believe you’re saying the oils that wipe on and harden are essentially oil based varnishes that create a hard film coating and will trap moisture under the finish when it cracks.
And for those who are unfamiliar with finishes, remember: When using oils like Tung and Lindseed oil, the rags MUST be pread out to dry, burned or disposed of in an approve container or in a container of water. If the rags are left in a pile, they WILL HEAT and SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST.
There’s a big difference between pure oils and “oil finish” products, especially when it comes to tung oil. Most “tung oil finish” products are actually wiping varnishes (varnish with a lot of thinner added) and some don’t even contain any tung oil. Many are blends of oils and resins/varnishes. They’re not all bad, but the problem is that you don’t know what you’re buying. That’s why I buy the pure oils and if I want to blend them, I do it myself so I know exactly what I’m applying to my paddles.
Good warning about oily rags. I actually did an experiment with boiled linseed oil on rags and it definitely will spontaneously combust.
One last thing, don’t use linseed oil on anything that will stay wet, as mold/mildew actually feeds on it. It’s fine on paddles as long as you let them dry between uses.
Great advice, didn’t know that about lindseed oil feeding mildew. I used it on tarp poles that I made. My son left them in a moisture environment and they discolored with a black stain. I should have figure it out.
I learned about both linseed oil and fresh water the hard way. I used linseed to finish a skin-on-frame kayak frame and rinsed it with fresh water after using it. The wood at the bow and stern - which dried slowly - turned black pretty quickly. I was at an event at Mystic Seaport and saw people sloshing the decks with water from the harbor. I asked why and that’s when I learned about the preservative qualities of seawater.
