Building Canoe Paddles

Marc Ornstein said:

Yes. Balance is important. When the shaft hand is in it's "normal" position, 4-6" above the throat, the paddle should be slightly blade heavy, IMO. Years ago, I remember seeing some paddles that had been grip weighted with an ounce or so of lead so as to offset too much blade weight. Figuring out how to make a light and also strong blade seems a better way to go.

Click to expand...

Do you see any advantage in any degree of blade heaviness? Asking for a friend.

I should mention that in my own experience for general use and cruising I like as little blade heaviness as possible and might even be open to adding grip weight as a tradeoff. But I also somehow ended up with several Pat Moore Cues including a 29 oz wood paddle and a Cue that Patrick said might be his best one and while those 2 feel blade-heavy they seem to have perfect buoyancy such that if you do in-water recoveries and always leave the blade in the water you can almost let go of the paddle since it takes virtually no force to hold the blade at the optimum height. Based only on listening to what the paddles tell me, and knowing that Patrick was slightly opinionated, I suspect this was intentional.

gumpus said:

I should mention that in my own experience for general use and cruising I like as little blade heaviness as possible and might even be open to adding grip weight as a tradeoff. But I also somehow ended up with several Pat Moore Cues including a 29 oz wood paddle and a Cue that Patrick said might be his best one and while those 2 feel blade-heavy they seem to have perfect buoyancy such that if you do in-water recoveries and always leave the blade in the water you can almost let go of the paddle since it takes virtually no force to hold the blade at the optimum height. Based only on listening to what the paddles tell me, and knowing that Patrick was slightly opinionated, I suspect this was intentional.

Click to expand...

Most of my blades, are buoyant to about 3/4 blade depth. Those with longer shafts tend to go a bit deeper and vice versa. River blades, being built a bit more study also tend to "float" a bit deeper.

After adhering the shaft faces and grip cheeks the faces and cheeks are trimmed flush with the blade blank, using a drum sander with flush bearing (like a flush trim router bit) but without the risk of tear out. The next step will be rough rounding of the shaft and grip.

Marc, I'm loving these photos of the process! Do you have a guideline for the final thicknesses you aim for in your blanks before you start shaping them down? Or is it extremely model-specific?
I have a chunk of the trunk of an old cherry tree that I had to remove before we moved a few years ago. Since it's from the house where my son was a baby, I dream of milling it up and turning it into a paddle or two for him one day. Who knows how nice the grain is, in there, of course, so who knows. But it's a piece of pretty straight trunk about 10" diameter by some 4' long: using this approach of gluing up a blank I could see a paddle or two coming out of it! A guy can dream anyway.
Thanks for sharing this thread!

The glued up blank is 3/4" thick. Approx.11/16" after cleaning the glue up and running it through the planer. The grip cheeks and shaft facings add another 1/2 ".

After the final glue up and template sanding, the next step is rough rounding of the shaft and grip on the shaper, using an appropriately sized router bit. This usually takes at least three passes on each of the facets. Taking very light cuts minimizes the chances of grain tear out, which at this stage would likely be irreparable. At best such a mishap would result in a paddle to be sold as a second.

I have very limited experience with Marc's paddles but I remember that the one or two I've tried felt very nice in the hands and in the water...to the point where I was a bit surprised since I tend to favor carbon fiber paddles.

Rough cutting one of the four facets of the blade. I'm using a proprietary router and sled jig, that I designed, for the purpose. The jig ensures that all four facets are identical; that the blade has matched camber on the front and back faces. A blade on which the camber is not perfectly matched will not slice cleanly, when doing in-water recoveries.

Marc Ornstein said:

The jig ensures that all four facets are identical; that the blade has matched camber on the front and back faces. A blade on which the camber is not perfectly matched will not slice cleanly, when doing in-water recoveries.

Click to expand...

"Camber" and "dihedral" are usually (but perhaps incorrectly) used as synonyms when talking about paddle blades. I assume by camber you are referring to the thinning out—or the sloping of—each facet of the blade from a central "spine" to the edge of the blade.

Highly cambered blades, like some animal tail paddles, have a defined ridge down the middle of the blade, sometimes all the way from the throat to the tip of the blade. No camber blades are essentially spineless and flat-faced.

My recollection, which could be wrong, is that your paddles have minimal camber. But that's sort of subjective. So, let me ask specifically:

- Is your spine a defined ridge or more of a gentle arch? How far down the blade does it extend?

- Is your camber on each blade facet—i.e., on each side of the spine—flat, subtly concave or subtly convex?

- Are these answers about spine and camber different for your different paddle models, such as the river model, freestyle model and shallow water model?

Glenn MacGrady said:

"Camber" and "dihedral" are usually (but perhaps incorrectly) used as synonyms when talking about paddle blades. I assume by camber you are referring to the thinning out—or the sloping of—each facet of the blade from a central "spine" to the edge of the blade.

Highly cambered blades, like some animal tail paddles, have a defined ridge down the middle of the blade, sometimes all the way from the throat to the tip of the blade. No camber blades are essentially spineless and flat-faced.

My recollection, which could be wrong, is that your paddles have minimal camber. But that's sort of subjective. So, let me ask specifically:

- Is your spine a defined ridge or more of a gentle arch? How far down the blade does it extend?

- Is your camber on each blade facet—i.e., on each side of the spine—flat, subtly concave or subtly convex?

- Are these answers about spine and camber different for your different paddle models, such as the river model, freestyle model and shallow water model?

Click to expand...

That's a great question(s). I'm never quite certain about the term "dihedral" as it pertains to paddle blades, as I would presume that almost all blades are "dihedral" unless each face is completely flat, i.e., the same thickness from edge to edge. Camber, on the other hand, refers to the curvature of the blade, from edge to edge, being thicker in the center, therefore convex.
My blades are all gently cambered, thus convex. They also gently taper from thin at the tip to nearly the thickness of the shaft, at the throat. There is no defined "spine" except, perhaps a tiny bit at the throat. Regarding concavity, except for a minimal bit, right art the throat, concavity should be avoided (in my opinion). Any concavity results is turbulence, especially when doing in-water recoveries.
In summary: It is important that the camber on each facet be matched and also be matched on the front and rear faces of the blade. Blades with mismatched camber will not slice cleanly. If there is greater camber on one face of the blade than the other, the blade will tend to "lift" toward the side with greater camber (Bernoulli's principle), when sliced. Any significant spline, will cause turbulence, and thus is to be avoided. All of my paddles have similar camber and taper, modified slightly to accommodate varying blade sizes. Edge and tip thickness also varies a bit, based upon intended usage. A dedicated freestyle blade may have a "razor thin" tip and edges, while a river blade may have a more robust tip and edges.

Marc Ornstein said:

I'm using a proprietary router and sled jig

Click to expand...

Mark, that's a wonderful jig. I'd love to see a few more detail photos.

After you've roughed out the camber on one side of the paddle and you flip it over to do the second side, what reference surface holds the paddle parallel with the base of the jig, since the camber is now facing downward and is not planar?

Really interesting post Marc. Thank heavens there are such talented and committed individuals as you in our paddling community. Hard to imagine what our sport/hobby/passion would be like if all our tools were mass produced by impersonal corporations.

Pseudonym said:

Mark, that's a wonderful jig. I'd love to see a few more detail photos.

After you've roughed out the camber on one side of the paddle and you flip it over to do the second side, what reference surface holds the paddle parallel with the base of the jig, since the camber is now facing downward an is not planar?

Click to expand...

I'm not planning on showing more detailed photos of the jig. I've spent a great deal of time designing and refining it. Perhaps someone will come up with a better idea (other than CNC).
As to a "reference surface" when flipping the blade. That was one of the early obstacles to overcome. I solved it by attaching a sacrificial extension to the tip of the blank. The sacrificial tip doesn't get carved. It is cut off after the carving process is complete. I hope that makes sense.

@Marc Ornstein, that makes perfect sense. Thank you for sharing! I've already learned a lot reading this thread.

These photos show the rough shaped blade with Dynel edging around the tip and lower portion of the blade. This paddle will be a shallow water special and likely will get banged around a bit. The Dynel edging is highly abrasion and impact resistant. I didn't show the Dynel being applied, prior to milling. I'll get a photo on the next such paddle.

Nice to look at all the fases between tree and paddle. And reading all the info.

Marc Ornstein said:

The Dynel edging is highly abrasion and impact resistant.

Click to expand...

Edge protection is very important. Many factory paddles don't have it.

Does Dynel come in strips, or do you have to cut it off of big blocks or sheets? Is it glued on? With what?

Dynel is a cloth fiber like kevlar glaas etc.
It can be dyed. AT is/was the biggest paddle brand to use it on their composite foam core whitewater range.

Glenn MacGrady said:

Edge protection is very important. Many factory paddles don't have it.

Does Dynel come in strips, or do you have to cut it off of big blocks or sheets? Is it glued on? With what?

Click to expand...

The material that I use comes like overly large, flat ,shoelace. It's approx. 1/2" wide x 1/4" thick. In a future photo, I'll show it being applied (on another paddle that I'm currently working on).