I do not condone
rubbing paddles in sheep’s armpits. Don’t want to start any Wellington boot comments. Much better to harvest the lanolin after shearing.
Jim
I won’t speculate on why Don does that
– Last Updated: Aug-19-09 4:55 PM EST –
However, there are differences between building paddles as a business and building them for yourself. For example:
- Time = money. In order to keep the price reasonable, you need to be able to finish a paddle quickly. Time is the reason that laminated paddles cost more, it simply takes longer to make them. If you build them for yourself, you can take as long as you want.
- You don't know the use the paddle will see. Will it be used hard or easy? Will it be stored indoors or outdoors? Will it be kept dry or not?
- You don't know how well the paddle will be maintained. Consequently, the finish needs to be durable in case the owner doesn't maintain it properly.
- With laminated paddles, you can get differential expansion if the wood gets wet, which can damage the joints. Consequently, keeping the wood as dry as possible makes sense. Varnish over epoxy will do that. Also, people tend to buy laminated paddles more for their aesthetics than anything else, so they want it to look nice for a long time. Varnish over epoxy is a hard finish that's very protective.
I do know that Don did a lot of testing of finishes before he decided on what he was going to use. While I wouldn't use the same thing on my own paddles - because I don't have any of the above concerns - I understand why he uses what he does on his paddles.