Hi all, and thanks in advance for your experience and advice.
I have a pair of Sawyer paddles from the early 80’s. Despite their age, they are in great shape, are glass wrapped and only 25oz. One of them had a longitudinal crack in the handle, within the blade area, so I sanded through the glass, and repaired the crack.
Now, to properly reglass this, I am looking at almost $100 worth of supplies, as epoxy and glass mesh does not appear to be sold in tiny quantities. Can I just varnish over the wood and call it good? I know plenty of paddles don’t come with glassed blades. I am looking at rather long tours, so don’t want to bring a paddle ready to fail.
Question 2
If I have to reglass it anyways, would you cut it into a more modern shape…. Similar to a sawyer voyager or BB explorer? It is currently a square tipped 8”x22”. Photo has the sanded and repaired paddle on the left, untouched one on the right.
Thanks!
Not quite 50 year old kayaker who can be found in a canoe when my dog wants to get out, or there are too many portages.
Years ago about 1977 I needed to repair a small area in a fiberglass canoe. Automotive supply had small fiberglass repair kits. I used one to fix my canoe and it has held to this day. You might want to check that out.
If I didn’t glass I would still epoxy coat the bare wood and then varnish. You can get two part epoxy glue in tubes at any hardware store…
Those paddles are intended for river paddling.
Fill any cracks with epoxy. You can add wood dust to make it thicker. Some epoxy on serious wear spots. Varnish everything for UV protection.
There should be no need to spend that $100 that you were anticipating.
You can buy 6-ounce fiberglass cloth in a sheet that’s not much bigger than 3’x3’ from West Systems.
Epoxy from West Systems is the go-to brand for marine fiberglass work, but I think their smallest standard containers have far more material than you need. They also have tiny repair kits but with those, you might be getting other materials you don’t need, and the packaging for the epoxy might not be resealable to allow breaking up your work into segments (check on that). Therefore, I second that advice about getting basic epoxy from the hardware store.
I concur that the epoxy from an autostore is the way to go as it will be plenty strong for a paddle. If you feel the need to structurally reinforce the paddle, you should consider using a sheer nylon cloth. A strip cut from ladies nylon hose works fine and the fabric becomes invisible when saturated with the epoxy resin If you want to be on the safe side, do a test strip on a scrap of wood or cardboard.
