A simple Greenland Paddle

[Bcone1381]

I need a second paddle, and am making this out of Western Red Cedar.  It's two 7 foot 1x4 glued together, roughed shaped with a band saw and further refined with a spoke shave. 

 

 

Dave Finnegan at Charlestown Boatworks showed us has some fine works of art on this website (and at a very good price) that I do not try to live up to.  These are very light, are a joy to use, but use soft lumber that will get dented, and marred easily. (Broken in!).  A worthy improvement would be an oak tip and blade edge.  At my level of skill I submit to the Keep It Simple mentality.

 

A combination of frugalness and enjoyment I get in making my own gear drives my ambition that some of you may share.  The spoke shave (on the left) is a great tool for this task.  

 

http://www.qajaqusa.org/QK/makegreen2.pdf

 

[lisian]

Good job.

 

I used this tutorial to make a paddle also, I am almost finished. I plan on putting epoxy on the tips to make them hardwearing.

 

I have also just laminated some Maple and cedar and plan on doing my first ever mortise and tennon joints to put blackwood tips on my next paddle, that will be my spare and for 'show off' purposes  

 

Lisa.

[Bcone1381]

Lisa, show us those paddles when they are complete.   I am impressed with your mortise and tennon joinery plans!  

[Hirilonde]

I used the same article/tutorial for my paddles.  I have seriously streamlined the process since, but I still work towards the same shape.  Those paddles pictured look great.  Without the hardwood tips you will need to use some care pushing off, but I think you will find they serve you well.

 

  I plan on putting epoxy on the tips to make them hardwearing.

 

Epoxy won't do much in the way of making them "hardwearing".  And once the tips are scratched up it will make refinishing it tedious to do well.   Using hardwood tips is the closest I can come up with to protect the soft cedar.  Using bone is a little impractical.   

 

Protecting the edges seems over kill unless you are hunting seals in icy waters.  It might be amusing to some day make a paddle with tips and edges protected for the sake of a historic replica.  But this project has yet to make it to the top of my list of things to do.

[Action Tiger]

I have used nylon cord soaked in epoxy to beef up my paddle edges.

I can't remember who I stole the idea from.

It is not elegant, but it is tough.

 

Soak a cord in epoxy, then pin it around the edge of the blade. The blade/cord junction can be smoothed with schmutz, if needed.

[Hirilonde]

Soak a cord in epoxy, then pin it around the edge of the blade. The blade/cord junction can be smoothed with schmutz, if needed.

This, or similar is a common practice for centerboards and rudder blades on the bottom and bottom of the leading edge.  That is, where they would hit rocks or the bottom in shallow water.  I think it would make a paddle blade into something quite crude looking and distort the shape.  For me anyway, one of the prime reasons for making a wooden Greenland style paddle is that they are beautiful.  Any efforts I would add to make them durable would have to be beautiful as well.

[kayak278]

Here's what has worked very well for me and has endured numerous expeditions on the rocky Lake Superior shores in both Michigan and Canada.  Coat the tips of the paddle using West System Six10 thickened epoxy tinted with West System 501 white pigment.  Just use a bristled brush to apply the thickened epoxy.  The white tips are very durable and really stand out from a distance, giving you extra visibility to other boaters, and they kinda simulate the look of the bone tips that the Greenlanders used on their paddles.

 

[Kudzu]

I have a really simple idea. I don't beat mine on rocks! 

[Action Tiger]

I would never dare suggest you use the string Hirilonde. 

That trick is for the rest of us.

 

I have two paddles now. A regular double, and a long single for standing in the pirogue. They are both Greenland style paddles, and are untipped Doug fir.

 

I try to use as little epoxy as possible, these days...

[Action Tiger]

I forgot to say the "roped" paddles were for swift water canoeing.

 

Wife and I tried to wear out a canoe, or the river. We just wore out ourselves. Fun ten years, though.

[LennieG]

I couldn't find oars or paddles on Dave's website.

thanks

[Action Tiger]

You can find pictures of gorgeous paddles he made on this forum...

[Hirilonde]

I have let my web site lapse.  If it looks like making paddles is a good idea I will make a new one in the fall just for that purpose.

[lisian]

Matt S, they look good

[CapecodJohn]

Thought I would try my hand at carving a greenland paddl. I had a piece of redwood left over so I matched it up with a piece of white cedar. I ripped them on the table saw planed them and glued them up with tite bond 111  hope it holds. The first one is for my wife mine is still in the blank not bad if I say so myself.

[woodman]

My okoume plywood insert paddle, is the one I have been using for 2 years now..it is 90''long 30'' between blades....

[Hirilonde]

.it is 90''long 30'' between blades....

According to everything I can find that is a long paddle (unless you are quite tall) and the loom is extremely long.  I like the formula of your arm span (finger tip to finger tip) plus the distance from elbow to fingertip for the over all length and your shoulder width for the loom length (distance between blades).  For me that makes the paddle 80 inches long and the loom 18 inches.  The loom length should be such that with your pinky and ring fingers just onto the shoulders of the blades your hands are just outside your shoulders.  Then if you use the sliding stroke your fulcrum hand stays in place and the lever hand slides up onto the blade for the push.

 

Some literature suggests using a length such that your hand, when over your head, can just grasp the blade of a paddle on end on the ground.  What I don't like about this is that people's legs are different lengths for any given height, and your legs are in the kayak and have nothing to do with your stroke.  I have found also that if your kayak is wide, you will need a longer paddle and your stroke will be less than ideal.  This is another good reason to use a real kayak like Jeff designs.

[Echo Valley]

Yep, paddle making is fun...and inexpensive.  Handmade/self built kayaks, whether SOF or wood strip get a lot of attention when we take them out on the water, couple them with a wooden stick and you get more questions and looks.  

[Action Tiger]

I found this great piece of sequoia with a slight bend in it. The guy said I could have it but it was useless. So, I made a paddle to stand up with for grins. I think I will tip it with ash coaming scraps...