Making my own paddle from a large leafed lime tree WIP

[Retired Member southey]

In a chicken or egg scenario at the moment, canoe first of paddle?(OK I know that chicken came first as the species evolved into and egg layer but...) so I rock paper scissored my self and the paddle one, so I got this 7' log of lime.

Split it, using my axe and three wooden wedges I made from maple.

flattened the inside face.

then flattened the outside off.

I'm currently just thinning down the plank two around 2", then when I can see all and any problem area I'll mark and rough out the paddle shape and leave for a few months to dry out. All work so far has been done with an SFA and wood wedges made from maple.

Cheers Southey!

 

[Shewie]

Nice, I'll be following the progress of this Dave

When you getting a noo then ?

 

[mountainm]

egg came first dude - as proto chicken laid the egg that contained the chicken.

Looks like an interesting project.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Nice, I'll be following the progress of this Dave

When you getting a noo then ?

Ahaa, that's a two stage plan, first is access to the adventure training kit at my new evening club or as some call it the TA, then once the paddle is made and I have been away for a sandy holiday, with my deployment bonus in my sweaty little mits i shall hopefully get a boat of my own. need to either get a roof rack for the jeep or mod the trailer two, the AT canoes are on a massive eight stack trailer.

 

[Shewie]

Roger that, if you fancy a trip north when you get back give me a shout

 

[Tony]

Keep us informed, I'm very interested in this, thanks for putting it up...

 

[DaveBromley]

ooooooo watching this with interest!! you ever done ant paddling before Dave or is it just something you want to try?

Dave

 

[Retired Member southey]

Cheers guys, will be updating when ever i do a little more, Yeah Dave, sedate rivers, canals and lakes never had the chance to play anything fast moving and never made any of my own kit, it was while I was in the army so had good access to the very well stocked adventure training stores and training facilities round the country, favourite is a lodge south of Avimore, were going to see if we can book it for a week over Christmas for some walking and snowball fights,

 

[DaveBromley]

Sounds wicked mate, never tried it myself always wanted a go but the opportunity never arose.

Dave

 

[Teepee]

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with this too mate, I've got a paddle project in the offing myself (A greenland Yak paddle)

 

[malente]

Looking forward to seing the progress on this! Will watch this space.

What kind of canoe are you planning to get?

Good luck with your deployment.

ATB

Mike

 

[Retired Member southey]

This is where I'm at today guys,

marked out the shape that I think best fits the wood, close to an Otter tail pattern, I measured it so I can rest my chin on the handle when stood up,

Marked out the haft then drew a line approx 1" either side of the haft lines, then cut some stop cuts,

just a few stop cuts, using a stanley fat max back cut tennon saw, give a fine finish even on the tooth edge,

I like stop cuts, they give before ripping out a large strip, helping a oaf like me to remove material quickly an precisely,

chop out the blocks leaving the final one at each end for now as buffers,

when chopping them out I remove the edges rather than hitting them square on, it easier and less likely to put more stress on then i want,

to make the rough curve for the blade,a series of small chips like this gradually removing material until you have the curve you want,

I moved the right side in to even up the curves after taking this pic,

And this is where I'm at now, I'm gonna leave it to dry out for a bit, the garage stays at a pretty stable temp and not to dry so it'll live in there maybe under the bench,

Cheers Southey!

 

[Retired Member southey]

Progress today, thinning down the profile before I even up and start moving towards the final shape, lots more to do yet,

Could any one get a pic of an otter tail blade from the side to see the thickness, need to see it to judge it,

And the handle that will appear tomorrow,

Im using stop cuts when ever I need to remove large slices of wood, and so far using jsut the saw for stops, knife for trimming tight curves but mostly the axe,

Cheers, Southey!

 

[Stew]

Is Lime going to be strong enough?

I've always thought of it as a less strong wood because it's so light weight. I guess that if left sufficiently thick it'll be ok and the weight will actually be a bonus?

 

[Retired Member southey]

Yeah dude, though not for polling or bashing rocks, but good for the job, lots of lime\linde\basswood used for paddles already, both laminate and single piece, like these,

Lime paddle

 

[Hoodoo]

Looks like it's coming together nicely. I was wondering about the lime myself but I've seen a lot of paddles made from cedar so I don't know why lime would not work as well.

 

[woodspirits]

dont understand all this canoeology, but i can see a skilled bloke at work! well done southey

 

[dwardo]

The paddles i see are made of basswood which is our lime. I have to give this a shot the problem i have is getting a big enough bit of lime... will have to call upon my scouce genes...
Nice work southey, are you going to move onto a draw knife or a scraper soon? Easy to ruin a nice project with the bigger choppy tools.

 

[Gill]

That last pic made me cringe Southey the axe n the flip flops Ouch.

 

[Hoodoo]

If he was swinging it, then maybe, but it's obvious he's using it as a knife by choking up on it, which is what that head is designed for. No more chance of hurting himself than if he had a knife in his hand or for that matter, a heavy hammer.