• Happy Weed Appreciation Day! 🌱🌿🌻

Carbon Straight Shaft

Joined
Feb 1, 2013
Messages
4,086
Reaction score
1,999
Location
Geraldton, Ontario
So I opened up my wallet and bought one of the only carbon straight shafts available in Canada, a Werner, comes in around 13 ounces. They are sending it uncut. The retailer sent me some excellent instructions. I'm wondering if the MAS or System Three general purpose epoxy I have left will be good for gluing the handle on? Anyone have experience with this?
 
I have a Werner journey carbon that I’m enjoying immensely. It is well balanced and lightweight and durable.

I was able to try two factory lengths and ended up going with the shorter option, 54” claimed it is actually 53.75”. The blade is smaller than most or all of my other straights. I may buy a second, uncut, for a 1” shorter paddle overall. If I do I will probably use either hot glue or an epoxy that will release with heat so I can dial in the length over time.

Hope you like your paddle and will be interested to hear where you settle on the length.
 

Attachments

  • B724BF29-20BD-4081-B5C0-DDAA60EB8643.jpeg
    B724BF29-20BD-4081-B5C0-DDAA60EB8643.jpeg
    225.3 KB · Views: 18
Interesting...will hot glue hold up over the course of a summer of paddling? I'm getting the journey as well, will cut it for a total length of 54"
 
I've never used hot glue but I have used electrical tape for about a month when I was deciding on length of an uncut shaft and was surprised how well that held it. I think if worse comes to worse and the hot glue lets go you could always use tape to get you through the trip. I've always epoxied mine but it's not very reversible. Hot glue sounds like a good choice.

Alan
 
Hot melt for trial sounds reasonable. Just be sure to clean the Hot melt off real good, for when you do a permanent job with epoxy. My Bent shafts were epoxied, as I knew what I wanted for length.

Carbon paddles are great, especially for us Geriatric Folks ! ;)
 
I carry a 2" stick of hot melt glue in my repair kit. Had to use it one time to stick a paddle blade onto a carbon shaft one time on a WW trip. As far as I know the paddle is still being used 10 years later with no further repair
 
I use tape to hold the grip until I get the length just right and then use a little epoxy. Just read the fine print on the epoxy and make sure you're using one made for 200F or below and then you can still loosen it up later with a heat gun if necessary.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpeg
    image.jpeg
    298.1 KB · Views: 11
I have been using Kenalu paddles with my SUP for the last five years (I have 3 Kenalu paddles). They use hot melt glue for assembly. Never had a problem and have been able to easily reconfigured them a few times. There is a video on their web site.


I used West System epoxy on my Zaveral canoe paddles and took one apart once. You need to be real careful to heat it just enough to soften the epoxy without affecting the carbon laminate. A little scary but do able.

If there is even a remote chance you may want to take it apart later, I would go for the hot melt.

Tom B
 
Thanks for all the great information! I've been pretty comfortable with a 54 inch paddle for the last few years, so I will probably glue it permanently with epoxy. The vendor provided a cutting chart for the exact length to obtain the desired length, should be pretty straight forward.
 
Hot melt is just the thing for gluing inserts into carbon arrow shafts. Works very well, and at least with arrow inserts, it’s easy to heat the tip which easily melts the glue holding the insert. I use an alcohol burner or a propane torch. Neither seems like the right choice for a paddle though 🤷‍♂️
 
My paddle came in, and I'm going to cut and glue it this week. I see the ZRE guys recommend Devcon five minute epoxy. I can't get that in town, but there is Lepages 5 minute epoxy, wondering if it is basically the same. Also ZRE recommends taping the area to be cut to prevent fraying, but that wasn't mentioned in any of the werner instructions I had. Any thoughts?
 
Yes, tape it. It helps. I've done it without taping and it's not the end of the world but not as clean.

Pretty rough getting a new paddle in February. Gonna be a while before you can try it out.

Alan
 
Cut and glued my new werner journey yesterday. I think it might be marginally heavier than the Black Bart bent shaft Alan gave me. However, it is still pretty light. Probably won't get to use it until the end of May, but hoping maybe the year will be early this year.
 
Sweet! Hope you like it.

I find mine to be very well balanced so the swing weight feels low. Increasingly that is more important to me than overall weight.
 
Sweet! Hope you like it.

I find mine to be very well balanced so the swing weight feels low. Increasingly that is more important to me than overall weight.
Could you give a little more details on what you consider proper balance for a canoe paddle. I think Steve from Old Mustache adds weight to his paddle handle to get "proper balance". https://www.oldmustachecanoepaddles.com/ I have not used any of his paddles but some paddles feel better then others and it is not all about the weight. Where should the balance point be? Center of lower hand?
 
Where should the balance point be? Center of lower hand?

Different people hold their lower hand in different places on different paddles, depending on paddle type and length, plus lots of paddlers move their lower hand up or down the shaft of the same paddle for different propulsion and turning maneuvers. So, the lower hand can't be used universally as the balance point.

A more usual balance point would be the spot where the blade merges into the shaft. The kind of paddle I like will either balance at the merge point or be slightly blade light there—how much blade light may depend on the length of the paddle. I do not like any paddle to be blade heavy at the merge point. Blade heavy paddles have too much swing weight and are too tiring for me.
 
Thanks Glenn. I guess "Should" was the wrong term. Preference might have been better choice. I guess based on my experiences with paddles the balance point seems to vary and does not seem to be part of the design criteria. I think I might need to play with some washers taped to paddles to accentuate the difference and to add a little anecdotal data. Gee Glen I didn't know I could play with my shaft that much. All the fun I could be having. ;)
 
Could you give a little more details on what you consider proper balance for a canoe paddle. I think Steve from Old Mustache adds weight to his paddle handle to get "proper balance". https://www.oldmustachecanoepaddles.com/ I have not used any of his paddles but some paddles feel better then others and it is not all about the weight. Where should the balance point be? Center of lower hand?

Kona gave me permission to answer. The inertia of a swinging object is defined as the mass (at the center of gravity) times the radius from the axis of rotation squared. So you want to minimize the distance between the balance point of the paddle and the axis of rotation (and if you could reduce the distance 10% that would be equivalent to reducing paddle weight 21%!). If you assume that your lower hand is the pivot point then you'd want the balance point there. And you can envision that if you are switching sides then when you release your lower hand the ideal balance point would be at your upper hand. But when both hands are on the paddle I think the axis of rotation (the point on the shaft that moves the least) is between your upper and lower hand. I don't know if the ideal CG is always exactly in the middle between upper and lower hands.

I'd like to see where the balance point is on one of those old mustache paddles.
 
Back
Top