New paddle

[pklonowski]

Attached is a pic of a paddle I finally finished... It's a walnut shaft, white cedar strips leftover from building my solo canoe (might be a red cedar one in there...), with maple outer edge strips. The grip has maple accent strips next to the shaft, and walnut outer parts.

I tried the light rope (1/4") wrap around the edges, but didn't like the way it looked, even before I 'glassed the blade, so it came off, & I used a lighter (1/8") rope. I mixed a bit of epoxy, put the rope into it, worked it a bit to get the epoxy into the rope, then taped in into position.

The finished product doesn't look nearly as bad as I'd feared -- in fact, I don't find it all that bad. Might be that the lighter-colored blade parts blend in with the rope? I'll guess that, for a walnut blade, I'd want to darken the rope, with walnut sawdust in the epoxy. Hopefully, I wouldn't put enough sawdust into it to make it too viscous to saturate the rope... probably a fine line to walk. Maybe get the epoxy into the rope, then dust the rope with the sawdust, then stick it on the paddle... ?

It's R&D... gotta love it.

 

[HarryA]

Nice paddle

Good job! Looks real nice.

In Gidmark's "Building a Birchbark Canoe" he writes about
dyeing root lashings with raspberries, strawberries, chokecherries,
and blueberries. As I recall they put the lashings into the boiling syrup.
Should work for nylon also?

I have in mind to use graphite to get a black color. I coated the
bottom of my canoe with epoxy mixed with silica and graphite to get
a hard smooth surface. One could use it for the last coating on the
nylon while masking the blade with tape I would think.

 

[pklonowski]

Thanks!

Masking the blade faces is a great idea -- saves sanding after the fact, as well.

 

[Prairiepaddler]

Very nice, Paul! I think the rope adds to the look. Maybe I'll try something like that on my next one.

 

[pklonowski]

Thanks! It's sort of growing on me... has kind of a "halo effect" in the right light...

But my cousin, for whom I made it, thinks it's too pretty to be used as a paddle, and she's going to hang it on a wall. I told her it's actually quite durable, with the rope around the edge, & the 'glass laminate...

geez...

 

[Prairiepaddler]

Yes, it's funny how people think a pretty paddle shouldn't be used...I always tell them, "I only make working paddles."