Standing in my barn the other day, I was looking for a fun project so I gathered a few pieces of cast-off wood and glued up a paddle blank. Paddles made from lots of different materials/pieces don't really appeal to me, but I wanted to try out a new (to me) paddle blade shape, so I put together two types of wood to make a paddle.
I had a long rip of black walnut that I had saved; approximately 8' long x 1 1/8" wide x 3/16" thick. My thought was to sandwich this between two long strips of tiger maple salvaged from an old four-poster bed canopy frame, with this glue-up as the shaft/spine of the paddle. The blade was made by ripping a 5" x 3/4" plank- also tiger maple- down the middle and glueing these to the 'spine'. Finally, two small blocks glued to the spine to form a grip blank completed the glue-up.
When fully glued and cured, I traced the blade from a Turtle Paddle Works paddle onto the blank and also used a grip pattern of my own design to rough out the grip.
Here is the result.
![tempImagepbauZ0.png tempImagepbauZ0.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22110-f9cb4037812ab6fe33484b6e8924359b.jpg)
![tempImagewiDNN3.png tempImagewiDNN3.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22111-f128455b2410cf258bbdbc3f44f78664.jpg)
![tempImagesMl6MH.png tempImagesMl6MH.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22112-3cf8e83099a8c9501c8d4f450bfc2a24.jpg)
![tempImageyOKtnV.png tempImageyOKtnV.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22113-6e4e3e522ba9d3ed2fecc7735f811e36.jpg)
![tempImageZnDPmG.png tempImageZnDPmG.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22114-2859b829ce9d5b89f1c1f3245b5260c8.jpg)
![tempImageMkq6Ld.png tempImageMkq6Ld.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22115-9e72e1082e0a8d353cf05c621f210f84.jpg)
![tempImagetG0gU9.png tempImagetG0gU9.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22116-bf63d3fc403d10ee494fbc3a3dea7dcf.jpg)
I had a long rip of black walnut that I had saved; approximately 8' long x 1 1/8" wide x 3/16" thick. My thought was to sandwich this between two long strips of tiger maple salvaged from an old four-poster bed canopy frame, with this glue-up as the shaft/spine of the paddle. The blade was made by ripping a 5" x 3/4" plank- also tiger maple- down the middle and glueing these to the 'spine'. Finally, two small blocks glued to the spine to form a grip blank completed the glue-up.
When fully glued and cured, I traced the blade from a Turtle Paddle Works paddle onto the blank and also used a grip pattern of my own design to rough out the grip.
Here is the result.
![tempImagepbauZ0.png tempImagepbauZ0.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22110-f9cb4037812ab6fe33484b6e8924359b.jpg)
![tempImagewiDNN3.png tempImagewiDNN3.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22111-f128455b2410cf258bbdbc3f44f78664.jpg)
![tempImagesMl6MH.png tempImagesMl6MH.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22112-3cf8e83099a8c9501c8d4f450bfc2a24.jpg)
![tempImageyOKtnV.png tempImageyOKtnV.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22113-6e4e3e522ba9d3ed2fecc7735f811e36.jpg)
![tempImageZnDPmG.png tempImageZnDPmG.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22114-2859b829ce9d5b89f1c1f3245b5260c8.jpg)
![tempImageMkq6Ld.png tempImageMkq6Ld.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22115-9e72e1082e0a8d353cf05c621f210f84.jpg)
![tempImagetG0gU9.png tempImagetG0gU9.png](https://www.canoetripping.net/data/attachments/22/22116-bf63d3fc403d10ee494fbc3a3dea7dcf.jpg)