Kayak paddle.

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Grooveski

Native
Aug 9, 2005
1,707
10
53
Glasgow
First coat of oil is drying on the alder paddle that I started a couple of months ago. Happy days! :cool:
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:

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Paddle_01.jpg
Paddle_02.jpg
Paddle_03.jpg


Paddle_04.jpg
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Paddle_06.jpg


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Only had two problems on the way, one was a cavity that came out the woodwork.

Paddle_10.jpg


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.

Paddle_11.jpg


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.

Paddle_12.jpg


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.

Paddle_13.jpg


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
 

Teepee

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 15, 2010
4,115
5
Northamptonshire
It's a beaut' Josh :)

Top stuff. I can almost see every atlantic storm it got tortured with in the grain. Glad that fault wasn't too much of a problem.

Did the Alder warp at all as it dried out?
 

Grooveski

Native
Aug 9, 2005
1,707
10
53
Glasgow
Cheers guys. :)

Did the Alder warp at all as it dried out?

Been solid so far, with the core of the tree still running through it I expect it's more stable than if it'd been planked off-centre like we did last time. Know what you're thinking though, was half expecting it to bend over towards the Sound of Jura myself.

Steamed one end of the handle and that's held fine too. It needed a wee tweak because...
...well, it was a bunch of stuff, the bottom (lol, just typed limb - it's not a bow) section of trunk always did have a curve in it, I wanted to hang onto as much blade width as I could and when I layed out the blade shapes and worked down to them the alignment was off a touch(it'd been tricky to judge with the feather).
Stuck it over a pot for half an hour, knelt on the handle briefly and big grin time, fell into line nicely. Still had plenty of material on the handle to cut away so there's no sign of the steamed kink, there was at first but it all straightened out as I brought the handle down to size.
 

dwardo

Bushcrafter through and through
Aug 30, 2006
6,451
475
46
Nr Chester
Great work Grooveski. Must have a go at a paddle one day although I will be going for the easier one blade type!
Must be hard following the grain with twist and all.
 

Grooveski

Native
Aug 9, 2005
1,707
10
53
Glasgow
Great work Grooveski. Must have a go at a paddle one day although I will be going for the easier one blade type!
Must be hard following the grain with twist and all.

You'll love it, there's no fretting about every little knot or run-off and paddles don't blow up at 95% complete.
Trickiest bit was towards the end - avoiding leaving knots proud. Getting the handle straight and even took a while with half a dozen knots running into it.
 

Grooveski

Native
Aug 9, 2005
1,707
10
53
Glasgow
Test run went well, sizes and clearance all ok, no flex while sprinting. Holding off judgement on whether the handle is a touch chunky until I've put a few miles on it.
Only issue was the drip stoppers. They worked a little too well, water was running down the blade edge and jetting off towards the boat. Suspected it might happen, thought I'd maybe taken the blade edge thin enough to avoid it but obviously not.
Wasn't making it in the boat, just hitting the sidedecks. Didn't happen at all when paddling hard - the blades were clearing as they raised.

Going to add more drip stoppers, mid blade where it hits full width. Just shallow ones - the blade's still pretty chunky there - should take it ok.
Reckon that will offload the water from the tip area then what's left won't have the force behind it. Two little streams rather than one big one.

On the plus side - the dripstoppers did do a great job. :) Nothing came down the handle and it won't need rings.

Paddle_14.jpg
 

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