First coat of oil is drying on the alder paddle that I started a couple of months ago. Happy days!
Have just been scraping away at it every now and then. Carried on taking the occasional photo so here's the full start to finish:
Only had two problems on the way, one was a cavity that came out the woodwork.
What's left of it. I'll tidy it up when I'm adding the epoxy/microfibre bead to each end, just rasp away the black, fill it with the same mix then shape to match the rest of the blade edge.
The other was a slip of the axe quite early on. It dug in while roughing out a shoulder and when I got close to final blade shape I could see that there was still going to be an area of damaged wood.
While mulling over the crack I thought to carve the area away, copy it all round and create dripstoppers. It's funny the way it goes sometimes - one second it's a problem, the next it's a feature and you're merrily rasping away again.
It's 8½' long, about 18° feather, 1¼" handle. Haven't weighed it yet but it feels fine in the hand. Will end up the same shade as the other paddle there, it's alder too(everything's been getting oiled - been a proper little oilfest recently).
As I said, still planning to add tip reinforcement but right now pouring as much oil into it as I can in the next 24 hours is more important. Get it ready for the weekend and I can add the tips on a beach somewhere.
Josh
Have just been scraping away at it every now and then. Carried on taking the occasional photo so here's the full start to finish:
Only had two problems on the way, one was a cavity that came out the woodwork.
What's left of it. I'll tidy it up when I'm adding the epoxy/microfibre bead to each end, just rasp away the black, fill it with the same mix then shape to match the rest of the blade edge.
The other was a slip of the axe quite early on. It dug in while roughing out a shoulder and when I got close to final blade shape I could see that there was still going to be an area of damaged wood.
While mulling over the crack I thought to carve the area away, copy it all round and create dripstoppers. It's funny the way it goes sometimes - one second it's a problem, the next it's a feature and you're merrily rasping away again.
It's 8½' long, about 18° feather, 1¼" handle. Haven't weighed it yet but it feels fine in the hand. Will end up the same shade as the other paddle there, it's alder too(everything's been getting oiled - been a proper little oilfest recently).
As I said, still planning to add tip reinforcement but right now pouring as much oil into it as I can in the next 24 hours is more important. Get it ready for the weekend and I can add the tips on a beach somewhere.
Josh