Trapper Paddles and snowshoes

Lately I've been keeping busy in the shop working on another small order of paddles.  These all have the same blade design as well as a modified north woods grip.  The lengths vary from 55 inches to 59 inches.

I've also been working on a pair of Ojibway snowshoes for a client in Fond du lac.  The frames are ready for  the filling.

A bunch of paddles

It has been a while since I last posted so I thought I'd show some of the paddles that I've been working on.  These are to fill an order that I received, they are available to purchase at Classic Outdoors, a paddle sports store in Saskatoon.  They are made of walnut, cedar, and birch and have an oiled finish.

I woke up yesterday morning and felt like making a canoe paddle, so I went out the my shop and prepared the pieces. I had an extra cedar / ash shaft made up from the last bunch of paddles I made so I used that and laminated walnut pieces on for the blade and top grip. I left it to cure over night. The following day (today) I did the shaping. Everything went well, I haven't played in my shop very much since I started back to school so I took my time and really enjoyed the carving process. For this paddle I choose what I call my Trapper blade design with a modified northwoods top grip. The cedar/ash shafts are very light and with the addition of the walnut blade I was concerned that the paddle would unbalanced so I decided to add the northwoods grip because it would provide more weight on the shaft and thereby balancing the paddle. I'm happy to say, it worked! The finish is oil.

Close up of my logo and the interesting light and dark grain in the walnut.

Here's a look at the modified northwoods top grip. This grip is 11" long

I cut two strips of wood off of a larger 8/4 piece of walnut that I had. I book matched the grain patterns but as I carved away the material the lighter grain pattern on the one side became less and less. I ended up with a paddle with an asymmetric grain pattern.

Maliceet Paddle

Here are a few photos of the Maliceet paddle I just finished this evening. It is made of the same stock (cherry and ash) as the voyageur paddle that I posted a couple of weeks ago. I haven't weighed it yet but it measures 59" long and has a 28" blade. The finish this time is a combination varnished blade and oiled shaft and top grip.

Two Rivers and a whole lot of rain

On Sunday June 12 myself, Grant, Thorsten, and his dog Yagger drove the 2.5 hours to the Torch River for a day of paddling. The forecast called for a chance of showers that was only supposed to amount to two or three millimeters of rain. Boy were they wrong! It absolutely poured on us, we were like a bunch of drowned rats. There were thunder clouds all around us but none were close enough to cause us to get off of the water. Now the grid roads in this area were a bit rough on the drive up, when they were dry. But the whole time we were on the water i had a nagging concern in the back of my mind that they would get worse with the rain. A couple of years ago while paddling the same river it rained so much that the roads turned to slop and we had to wait for an entire day for the roads to dry out before they were even close to being passable. Luckily, though, we had used the put in on the north side of the river where the roads were somewhat better and after a bit of slipping and sliding we got both vehicles off the dirt track that runs from the grid to the put-in and back onto the road. There were lots of wildlife on the river that day, we saw 4 moose, a couple of deer, bald eagles, and many ducks.

Yagger wasn't at all happy about the rain.

Even though it rained for most of the day I still think we got luck with the weather, it could have been windy as well.

It absolutely poured.

The sky over the Torch River.

The following weekend, June 18th, I joined a small group of paddlers from La Ronge for a day trip on the Montreal River. The day started off relatively nice with only a few drops of rain and a bit of a tail wind. As the day progressed the wind got stronger and seemed to switch directions. As we were nearing the take-out the clouds darkened the thunder began and without warning, for the second weekend in a row the rain came down like crazy. It rains so hard that the surface of the water became blurred. Again, the wildlife was abundant, this time we saw 3 moose, bald eagles, and many ducks.

Martin and Ellen paddling in the rain.

The Montreal River from the top of a high embankment.

Martin's hand built 15 foot Bob's special weighs 35 lbs

Rachel and Cam

Here are a few photos of a traditional voyageur paddle I just finished. It's based on the paddles displayed in Frances Anne Hopkins painting "shooting the Rapids" The blade shape of these paddles tends to be long, narrow, and curved as apposed to the more modern paddle with the same name which tends to also be long but has straight lines and is much wider. My version also has a modified northwoods grip. This time I chose to use ash for the shaft and cherry for the blade and grip. The paddle weighs 24 oz and has a blade the measures 32" X 4.5", the over all length is 63". It is a very long paddle so it will be interesting to see how it paddles. The finish is oil-varnish, which I have not used before so it will be interesting to see how well it stands up to the elements. As with all my paddles the edges of the blade are very fine to allow for silent paddling.

The overall length is 63". The blade is long an narrow at 32" X 4.5".

Here's a close up of the modified northwoods grip.

Shooting the Rapids by Frances Anne Hopkins

Carbon Fiber Paddle

I just finished my latest paddle. It's a modified ottertail with carbon fiber laminated blade. The 5.7 oz carbon cloth allows for just enough flex in the blade that should reduce impact on joints. The core material is cedar with a 1/4" strip of ash running the length to give it some rigidity. As with all my paddles the edges of the blade are very fine for silent paddling. It weighs 470 grams.

Here's a close up of my bear logo and the great 3D effect that the twill weave gives.

The over all length is 56.5 inches, the blade is 5.5 X 25 inches

Here's a close up of the top grip and the book matched grain patterns

A new whitewater paddle for Zoe

In a couple of weeks Zoe and I will be joined by a group of friends in the Barker Lake area on the Churchill River for a weekend of instruction and playing in moving water (rapids). Being new to paddling Zoe didn't have a whitewater paddle so as usual I decided to make her one. I used a bunch of Ash pieces that were left over from previous paddle builds. This is a heavy and study paddle, the blade measures 8 1/4 X 20 inches and the shaft is 35 inches for a total of 43 1/4 inches. It weighs 989 grams. To make it durable the shaft is 1 1/8 inches in diameter and the blade was left much thicker than any other paddle that I've made. One evening I found myself standing in the 3-5 year old isle in Walmart try to decide which color of play dough describes me.... actually I had decided to add an epoxy tip to the blade and needed the play dough to make a dam along the tip that would contain the epoxy until it hardened. I decided on neon orange for the color. To the epoxy I added as much walnut sawdust as I could produce from the small scrap pieces left over from the Peruvian Walnut Otter Tail that I made earlier this summer. The sawdust adds color as well as makes the epoxy stronger. Epoxy on it's own tends to be a bit brittle.

Every time I make a paddle for Zoe I tell her "keep it off of the rocks!" but this one she can bang on the rocks all she wants (I still hope she doesn't), I also added 6 oz fiberglass to the blade.

Barker Lake area.

Play dough dam around the tip contains the epoxy/sawdust until it cures.

Whitewater paddle 43 1/4" long.

Close up showing the epoxy resin tip and the fiberglass blade.

The "T" grip ensures a secure grip as well as good control over the pitch of the blade. And of course the Cree syllabics.

Zoe's Otter Tail

Modified Otter Tail with squared tip

My latest paddle is a modified Otter Tail design with a squared off tip. This time the shaft is ash and the blade is laminated with Peruvian Walnut which was fantastic to work with. The board that I bought was the color of dark chocolate and felt as though I was carving chocolate. I'll have to do more projects with it. As I shaped and shaved the blade down the grain really came out and shows as fantastic golden streaks throughout the darker wood. In the sun light I really takes on a rich color. The weight is 690 grams.

I just got back from a canoe trip in northern Saskatchewan where I had an opportunity to use this paddle and was thoroughly impressed with it. It's light, flexible and quiet. The blade measures 25" X 5". The long and narrow blade allows for long paddling days without the muscle pains.

Bear logo

Large, old bear (Cree Syllabics)

Voyageur Paddle

I just finished carving a voyageur canoe paddle. This paddle came together much quicker than the sugar island paddle I finished a week ago, mainly because the learning curve is starting to level out. This time I used lacewood (Grevillea Robusta) for the blade and laminated it to an ash shaft. Lacewood or Silky Oak, is an exotic wood that grows in Eastern Australia. The color can very from pale brown to walnut. It has a very irregular grain that made it tough to plane because the grain tends to switch directions, forcing me to work the plane in an unorthodox manor from all directions. Having wood chip out was a constant occurrence and a lot of extra sanding was needed to sand some of the deeper chips out. Lacewood is hard and heavy, making ash seem as soft as basswood, perhaps its Latin name gives a hint to its qualities. I had purchased a 4/4 board (4 quarters or one inch) but because of the way the lumber is stored at the retailer the board had obtained a curve that had to be planed out. (I don't own a thickness sander) This meant that the final thickness of the board ended up being a little over 3/4 of an inch which isn't a problem for the blade because it was going to be shaved down to 3/8" anyway but I had intended on using the offcuts for the top grip, which were now too narrow. The solution was to laminate two pieces together to make a thick enough block and while I was gluing things anyway I decided to add a strip of ash between for an added bit of design detail. The blade measures 30" by 6" and the shaft is 31.5" long for a total of 61.5" in length. (long paddle) It weighs 902 grams. Even though the lacewood is much heavier than the ash the blade was shaved down enough to even out the weight and in the end I ended up with a paddle that is fairly well balanced.

This time I learned:

• Using small finishing nails to align the blade while gluing helps a great deal to keep the pieces of wood from slipping around
• Had to sharpen the plane often while working with the lacewood
• Careful preparation of the lumbar in the beginning saves a lot of time later on when trying to work out a bend in the wood half way through the carving process
• Handles that clamp to the ends of a strip of sandpaper keep fingers from getting shredded
  
• A short piece of 1x2" with a notch cut into it works well for clamping down the rounded shaft of a paddle.

Small finishing nails used to align the blade pieces while gluing

The blade is half rough cut out, I'll go over it with a plane, rasp and sanding block to true up all edges.

The grip is roughed out, I usually leave the shaft for the end. Leaving it square provides a convenient way to clamp the paddle to the work surface.

Here I'm starting to round off the shaft by first shaving the corners down to form an octagon

A close up of the extra ash strip in the top grip

A close up of the various grain patterns in the top grip

Here you can see the irregular grain pattern in the Lacewood

The finished paddle measures 61.5 inches long

Computer drawing I made of the paddle before I started construction.

Sugar Island Paddle

I just finished my first canoe paddle. I decided on the Sugar Island design found in Canoe Paddles, A Complete Guide to Making Your Own by Graham Warren and David Gidmark. It gets it's name from the island in the St. Lawrence that is owned by the American Canoe Association where international canoe races between European and North American paddlers were held. I made it for Zoe so, more accurately, I guess she decided on the design. As any one who knows me, knows that I can't leave well enough alone and have to modify or add my personal touch to everything and this project was no different. The offsets in the book produce an 8" wide and 24" long blade. In my opinion that is a very wide paddle, I subscribe to the school of thought that a long narrow paddle will allow you to paddle greater distances with less fatigue. Keeping in mind that Zoe is new to paddling and I felt that the 8" of blade would catch too much water causing her to tire quickly so I reduced the width to 7" X 22". I also believe that a shorter paddle shaft reduces stress on the shoulders so the length of the shaft, from the shoulder to the end of the top grip is 31.5". The edges are very fine, finer than I had intended because I had some issues with warping of the blade and had to take more material off one side to compensate. In the end I was able to work out the warp and achieve a paddle that is straight and true. Because of the warping I had to erase the guidelines that I had painstakingly marked out and continued with the project shaping the blade by eye, which I guess is a more traditional approach.

I learned a lot during the build, here is a list off the top of my head:

• It's not easy finding a suitable piece of wood with little warp to it and a straight grain
• A ten inch plane works great for thinning the blade
• Aluminum oxide sand paper is way better than anything else, it lasts long and cuts fast
• The use of a flexible straight edge would help greatly in marking out the centre lines on uneven surfaces such as the shoulders and throat
• A wood rasp works great for shaping the top grip
• Marking out guidelines can be very time consuming
• building jigs and sanding blocks takes a lot of time away from the actual building of the paddle (but they only need to be made once)
  

Laminating the blade and grip

The blade and grip are cut

Thinning the blade with a plane

Rough shaped grip (you can see the course marks left by the rasp)

Shows how fine the edges are

The paddle is ready for a coat of varnish