Bent Shaft Canoe Paddle
This is the first canoe paddle made by my son Ross & I.
We started with 1'3/4" thick Walnut & Cyprus, about 6' long.
We then cut them into 1/8" X 1-3/4" strips.
Then cut a 7 degree angle on one end of an 8' 2X10.
Next, Ross put masking tape on the bending form, to keep the shaft from sticking:
We then glued 9 pieces of wood together, 5 Cyprus, and 4 walnut, all with Gorilla glue, and clamped them to the bending form. We used a couple of pieces of 2x2 to assist in clamping, to avoid any bows, and to keep it straight:
A few photos are missing from the next steps, so I will detail them out here:
After removing the clamps, we used a draw knife to remove most of the glue that was oozing out of the sides, then we ran the shaft through the table saw a couple of times. This brought the final width of the shaft down to 1-1/4". Next, we found some 3/4" boards laying around the shop to use for the blade.
We wanted the blade to be about 8-1/2" wide when finished. What we used for the blade was a 1/2" strip of Cherry, a 1-1/4" strip of Maple, a 1/4" strip of Cherry, and finished it off with a 2" strip of Walnut, and glued them together:
At this point, the paddle blade was too thick, since we glued it up using 3/4" boards. After about an hour of head-scratching we figured out the best way to taper the blade, with the tools at hand. We decided to make a taper jig for the router. Our goal was for the blade to start out at 1/4" thick at the end, and taper up to 3/4" where it met the shaft.
This process was a little bit involved. The jig consisted of a piece of plywood about 4' long, and 16" wide, next was 2 rips of 1/2: plywood about 2-1/2" wide. To create the taper, I cut two 1-1/2" by 1/2" rectangles of 1/2" plywood, and then placed two pieces of 2x material on top of those. I made sure the placement of those spacer blocks was 19" from the end (the lenth of my blade). I then used a finish nail gun to attach them all together from beneath the larger piece of plywood:
For the router, I made a new baseplate out of 1/8" plexi-glass that extended out over the edges of the guide rails by about 6" on either side. I had to screw a couple of pieces of 2x2 to the top, to keep the 1/8" plexiglass from bowing from the weight of the router. I used a 1/2" straight bit to cut away the wood.
Once the blade is tapered, it's time to rough out the shape:
To draw the shape of the blade on the wood, we first shaped it out on a piece of paper, shaping just one side of the blade, then cut out the paper and used the edge of the paper to draw the outline on one side of the blade. We then flipped that paper over and used it to draw the other side. This allowed us to make sure the blade was symetrical on both sides.
We then cut the shape out with a jig saw, and left a 1/4" space for an epoxy tip. If you look closely at the picture below, you will notice the different colors of the wood, as the blade tapers thinner. One thing you need to make sure of is that when you cut the angle on your bending form, is that your cut is both very square to the board, and that it is a very straight cut. If not, it will show up here.
The nexst step was to add the epoxy tip. This of course is to protect the wood from the rocks on the bottom of the creekbeds. Here, I used play-dough for a "form". First I rolled it out to about a 1/2" thick roll, then pushed one side against a flat board, so that side towards the blade would be flat. Make sure you leave the clay higher than the wood of the blade. I used a piece of amuminum foil under it, so the epoxy would not stick to the plywood below, and a can of screws on top to weight it down. A can of paint would work fine also. On this paddle, the 2-part epoxy I used was "JB Weld" I chose it because it gets almost as hard as metal. On future paddles, I will likely use some West System epoxy & hardener mixed with a filler, mostly because of the color.
Here is the paddle after the form was removed and I did a little sanding on the epoxy:
Next it was time to work on the handle. We glued a couple pieces of Cherry to the side of the handle, then glued them on, then cut out with a jig saw. To shape handle, we used a rasp, and a random orbit sander.
One step not mentioned before, is we used a router with a quarter round bit to make the corners of the shaft round, along with the R.O. sander.
Next comes the time to finish it.
For a finish coat, we used West System Epoxy Resin & Hardener. It created a great looking clear finish, and very hard. It sure did bring the colors of the wood out nicely!:
My overall assesment of the process:
This paddle came out a little too heavy, at 2 pounds. Next paddle, I might make the shaft a little thinner. We used 9 plys of 1/8" wood, and I think we can cut that down to 7 or 8. Also I think we can make the blade thinner, and still have plenty of strength.
I hope you've enjoyed the details. Feel free to
email me with any questions!