Making my own paddle from a large leafed lime tree WIP

[stovie]

Hey guys I need a little helprolleyes is this thin enough and a good shape for the blade?
......

do you think I should drop the shoulders a little?

Cheers!

Southey,

Hi Southey...Difficult to gauge, but looking at the first photo I would say you are carrying too much wood; just extra weight for no gain, and the edge of the blade can afford to be a fair bit thinner...approx 1/8th inch.

The shoulders look good. This is the general shape of mine; quite similar really...Unfortunately haven't got an edge on shot to hand...

 

[Retired Member southey]

Cheers Stovie, I will carry on thinning the blade down, its around 1" and half thick in the middle, so will drop that down, does your paddle taper from where it becomes handle shaft down to the blade tip or does it loose thickness pretty much as soon as the shaft hits the blade?

 

[stovie]

Cheers Stovie, I will carry on thinning the blade down, its around 1" and half thick in the middle, so will drop that down, does your paddle taper from where it becomes handle shaft down to the blade tip or does it loose thickness pretty much as soon as the shaft hits the blade?

I began the taper from around 3-4 inches up the handle, so the blade is pretty much even along it's length. Give me five and I'll go get some dimensions for you and take a side view. But at the end of the day all paddles are different, so carbon copy is not what you're after...otherwise you'd have bought a ready made one...

 

[Retired Member southey]

Haha I know what you mean, just don't want to have a cricket bat on a stick if i can help it,

 

[stovie]

Okay...at its thickest the centre line of the blade is 1/2", tapering to the edges where it is 1/8", and 1/4" on the blade tip to resist hard knocks on gravel etc...The handle just sort of blends in to the blade, and to be honest is slightly different in both paddles...hopefully the pics will help...excuse the garden cane, it is not integral to the paddle...

closer shot of handle fadiing into blade...

as I say, not the only way to make a paddle, but they function quite well, so can't be far off...

 

[Retired Member southey]

Thats brilliant, thank you, it was proving hard to visualize how thin it should roughly be, Thank you matey!

Dave,

 

[stovie]

Thats brilliant, thank you, it was proving hard to visualize how thin it should roughly be, Thank you matey!

Dave,

Any time. Always pleased to offer help where I can..

 

[Retired Member southey]

As of today, (I know,its taken an age! but I have been busy! HONEST!) I call it finished

with scandi axe for scale,

It really is simple to do, use green wood and happy chopping!

Cheers Southey!



Now for the Canoe

 

[Dannytsg]

Very nice work there.

 

[dwardo]

Great bit of craftsmanship that. Nice work.

 

[Stew]

Well done Mr Southey. One to be proud of!

 

[wattsy]

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!

I have to say it was egg first as genetic mutations can only occur in foetal stages of development

 

[Retired Member southey]

I have to say it was egg first as genetic mutations can only occur in foetal stages of development

Sweet! I like eggs.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Very nice work there.

Great bit of craftsmanship that. Nice work.

Well done Mr Southey. One to be proud of!

Cheers guys, its just a big spooooon! Minus the bowl.

 

[S.C.M.]

very nice, and it reminds me of some instructables I've seen, one of which modernized a Hawaiian/Maori/some island tribes' design, with a thin detachable blade. They'd pretty much got a stick and some plywood... "ugly but functional" they called it The logic was that the blade was the part that usually broke

 

[Retired Member southey]

Ha! Ugly but functional!

 

[S.C.M.]

found the instructable! Paddle it was Hawaiians who invented it, apparently and they don't mention "ugly but functional" even though it is...