Paddle mod / make it my own

[Woodpuppy]

So I have 3 Aviron Clement paddles. They have huge blades, and well, I don’t enjoy using them. They might be worth something, but getting them sold and shipped is a nuisance. I’d really like a Grey Owl Fleetwood or similar, so… I’m gonna make one. Or similar.

The subject paddle is a 58” with an ~36” shaft. The shaft length is a little long for sitting in my Prism, but kneeling in my empty Polaris it’s really probably about right. My favorite bent shaft is a 54” Grey Owl, so I traced the blade pattern onto the Clement. The shaft is too thick for my taste, but as a softwood it probably has to be. I *may* trim the width up some. As for the handle it’s too thick in all dimensions. My favorite grip is the one on my Bruce Smith ottertail, so I’m going to try to make this one more like that one… a lofty goal for sure, but there’s plenty of meat on this paddle.

The donor. I’ll try to preserve the sticker:


The pattern:


Now I can visualize it. I stretched the blade tracing a bit to make sure I kept some of the tip reinforcing:


The grip, I hope:


I think I’ve got enough good belts for the belt sander. Then a thorough hand-sanding and fresh coat of varnish for the blade. Given the wood in this paddle, should I use a an oil finish on the shaft, or do I need to stick to varnish? I much prefer the oil finish of my Smith.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

The shaft is too thick for my taste, but as a softwood it probably has to be. I *may* trim the width up some.

I wouldn't worry about thinning the shaft, especially if the paddles are not likely to be your top favorites. The probability of breaking a shaft diminishes greatly if one is just careful with the paddles, uses them mostly in calm waters rather than swift currents or whitewater, and has a suite of paddles that that get rotated with any given paddle getting only part time use. I suspect your paddling style fits all of these.

I had Mitchell thin the shaft of the first whitewater paddle I ever bought from them. I never came close to breaking it, and it still looks as good as new 42 years later.

Given the wood in this paddle, should I use a an oil finish on the shaft, or do I need to stick to varnish?

If you like oil better, sand off the varnish and oil. No reason you shouldn't that I'm aware of.

 

[Woodpuppy]

Progress… it’s really starting to look like the paddle I want!

That belt is dangerous, made a small error that sanded right out but took the shoulder flare area down faster than I wanted. I have some blending and thinning to do there anyway so it probably doesn’t matter, but… it was scary! I only knocked the corner off with the belt sander, I’m not sure if I will try to thin the blade some or just round the edge over. Perfect is the enemy of good enough…

I definitely want to thin the shaft. It’s already ovalized, but very thick. I don’t think I can do much of the grip shaping with the belt sander, so I’ll probably take the Mora 106 to it and then finish with sandpaper.

Given my past history with projects, this’ll probably take me a month to finish

 

[Pook]

I love what you are doing to that Clement- actually turning it into a paddle!

We have a number of old Clements up at the cottage sitting in racks- we call them oars. No one will ever choose them for a canoe trip; most use they ever get is as spares in one of the motorboats.

Thin the shaft and then oil it.
Bruce

 

[memaquay]

The clements were the holy grail of paddles up here for a long time, I dunno, maybe Bill Mason used them.Anyway, I still have one, but it doesn't get used, and yes, I did snap the shaft of one in white water.

 

[Woodpuppy]

Made some progress tonight. I better stop with the belt sander… on to rasp, knife, and sandpaper territory.





The sander takes material off awfully fast… the saw rasp works great on the grip, but the shaft is entirely sanding block territory, it’s so soft the rasp leaves tool marks that have to be cleaned up. Hanging an ax head on hickory is completely different experience and the rasp is the best tool by far there!

I think the blade has been epoxied over the varnish. There are some gloppy areas from previous refinish that sand like they're rather tough. Maybe it’s just varnish? I’m really not sure. Guess I could get after it with some solvent to see how it reacts. I don’t feel like scraping it all off, and the blade is laminated out of many many strips so I’m going to sand it enough to get the next layer to stick, and I’ll just recoat it in varnish. I’ll either oil the shaft and grip the same way according to Bruce Smith’s instructions, or I’ll use that 3-part concoction of equal parts varnish, turpentine, and BLO. It made a nice finish on my Home Depole.

 

[Cheeseandbeans]

I love the Shinto rasps. Looking good!

Bob

 

[Woodpuppy]

Alright I’m done with power tools and rasps… just down to smoothing what’s left. I’ve got a couple ripples in the shaft where the belt sander grabbed, but to take those out would remove too much material I’m afraid; I’m using a little narrow 6” block of Osage wrapped in sandpaper to do my best to uniform the shaft. The transition from shaft to blade needs more elbow grease, by my elbow needs a break. The grip feels good, and while not quite matched to Bruce Smith’s grip, not terribly far off. It is still thicker for one, but it feels good. Time to stop.



I’m using 100-grit paper for uniforming and removing tool marks from the belt sander and rasps; how fine would you go with the paper? 200? 240? And when would you start adding finish? A rougher texture should accept thinned oil and then I can do the steel wool rub in and wipe off routine. That worked well enough on my home depole.

D

 

[Cruiser]

Most finishes do well at 220 grit and i would use that for the shaft and body of the paddles. On the handle area I like to wet sand with an oil finish up to 400 grit (in steps 220, 320, 400) to get a really smooth surface for the hand to rest on.

I wouldn't use steel wool at all for the rub in, use a wet'dry sandpaper, too much chance of leaving steel slivers behind with the wool.

Brian

 

[Woodpuppy]

Most finishes do well at 220 grit and i would use that for the shaft and body of the paddles. On the handle area I like to wet sand with an oil finish up to 400 grit (in steps 220, 320, 400) to get a really smooth surface for the hand to rest on.

I wouldn't use steel wool at all for the rub in, use a wet'dry sandpaper, too much chance of leaving steel slivers behind with the wool.

Brian

Thank you for that. I was starting to wonder if 100 grit was good enough. This is probably the most important stage, the one where any last shaping is done so I’m trying not to get in a hurry. But I also need to not let perfect become the enemy of good enough. Bruce Smith I am not!

 

[Woodpuppy]

The shaft was still a little too flat-sided for my taste, so I worked out the oval a bit more on the belt sander. Then 100, 150, and 220 sand paper and my forearms are pumped . At least the weather is nice. I taped off the shaft above where the last glue line ends so that all laminations and glue lines in the blade are sealed by varnish. I’ll oil the shaft and grip after this step is completed.

Time for varnish!




A bike stand makes a fine fixture for holding a paddle. A quick wipe down with acetone to make sure I got all the dust off, and time to apply varnish to the blade.




First coat is on, now we wait 8 hours. I’ll get a second coat on it tonight before bed, then repeat tomorrow. We’ll see how it looks and feels after 4 coats. I may need more

 

[lowangle al]

Great job, it looks like a brand new store bought paddle.

 

[Cheeseandbeans]

Looks great!

 

[Woodpuppy]

The shaft and grip are bare wood, but I didn’t sand off all the original blade varnish. I got through the added-on gloppy stuff so the final product should be nice and smooth. Whatever the original finish was is considerably tougher. Perhaps the added-on was PU? Anyway I figure it’ll take several coats for the edge to take on the amber tone but it will probably always be lighter than the faces of the blade. The thinned BLO finish for the shaft and grip will darken it just a little I expect.

 

[Woodpuppy]

Coat #2 on for the night. Tomorrow morning I’ll give it a light sanding and apply coat #3.

 

[Tsuga8]

Enjoying this whole thread as I consider how I'll finish a new paddle of mine. Nice work!

 

[Woodpuppy]

This has dragged on longer than I anticipated, but not because I lack the time to do it; I apparently am still on the left end of the learning curve with varnish. Coat 2 had some significant runs and took some sanding to fix. I really want this to look nice, or at least not awful. And it seems to need more than 12 hours to really be ready for a sanding. Otherwise it rolls up like an eraser and doesn’t give me a nice sanded finish. At this point I think I have 5 coats on, and I’m going to do a final sanding for even finish, and I’ll varnish each side separately with the paddle held flat so it can’t run. I’m hoping for a nice flat/filled finish. Then I’ll flip it and do the opposite side and call the varnishing done. Oiling the shaft and grip should go much easier, I’ve been doing that for maintaining my existing paddles.

 

[Woodpuppy]

Progress! A sanding and another coat, this time I’m holding the paddle level in my bike stand.

 

[Alasgun]

Crossing crafts here; on gun work i vacillate between rasps and cabinet scrappers. Many times going back to rasps in an effort to move material faster. Belt sanders, not so much; i cant see up under there for one thing and invariably; ill end up with something hard to correct.
Back in the day, before paper; scraped finishes were the pinnacle. I dont personally care for a scraped finish and for finishing i’ll bring a palm sander out. Them Boys would burnish also and i can see a possible use for a burnished finish on the shaft. .02 worth.
This is nice work woodpuppy.

 

[Woodpuppy]

SUCCESS! Holding the paddle flat (or perhaps more thorough tipping) yielded a flat finish with no runs, on the top and bottom surfaces! I call the blade done, and Sunday I’ll begin oiling shaft & grip.

Crossing crafts here; on gun work i vacillate between rasps and cabinet scrappers. Many times going back to rasps in an effort to move material faster. Belt sanders, not so much; i cant see up under there for one thing and invariably; ill end up with something hard to correct.
Back in the day, before paper; scraped finishes were the pinnacle. I dont personally care for a scraped finish and for finishing i’ll bring a palm sander out. Them Boys would burnish also and i can see a possible use for a burnished finish on the shaft. .02 worth.
This is nice work woodpuppy.

I’m following the oiling procedure from Bruce Smith for a rubbed-in oil finish using a mixture of ~85/15 BLO/thinner. Apply with a blue shop towel, and when it get sticky rub it into the grain and wipe the excess off. Let dry, and repeat several times! I’ve never done this from raw wood before so it’ll be different than mere maintenance.

Others here will note that a BLO finish can be susceptible to mold, which I don’t want to happen, but I keep my oiled paddles inside and wipe down after use. So far I haven’t had any issues. Pure hemp seed oil is what Badger Paddles use.