Building Canoe Paddles

[gumpus]

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.

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

 

[gumpus]

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.

 

[Marc Ornstein]

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.

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.

 

[Marc Ornstein]

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.

 

[ThatPaddlingGuy]

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!

 

[Marc Ornstein]

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 ".

 

[Marc Ornstein]

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.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

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

I believe Pat made Cues with different size blades (like Quimby did). It's hard if not impossible to maintain a constant balance point for the same length paddle when you do that. Maybe you have his large blade models. My carbon Cue balances just right for me, but is a bit heavy overall for a carbon paddle compared to ZREs.