Paddle 4. Algonquin lamination
Tuesday, October 31, 2023.
I wanted to build a more traditional paddle and decided to build an Algonquin as described in the must have canoe paddle book “Canoe Paddles” by Graham Warren and David Gidmark. This paddle style is a classic and ideally suited for higher rpm long days on deep water lakes. As you know, my target is small urban lakes and most of them are shallow or even have obstacles like cement conduit boxes running through them. This paddle is not the best fit. And yet it has become one of my favourite paddles. I also hope to take it back to Algonquin Park where I have spent many a happy day adventuring in the backcountry. First I glued up the shaft of cedar/ash/cedar as I realised that it would be short. Later I would have some fun with the grip to make the paddle longer. Some might say that I should have simply pulled out the wood stretcher! After the shaft was dry I worked on adding the blade— a darker coloured cedar and a bit of walnut to give the edge some strength. At least I think it’s walnut! Note on the 4 pipe clamps that I've place an extra piece of scrap wood on both sides. The intent here is to spread the clamping power and end up with a more evenly distributed pressure on the joints being glued. Once this all dried I added the grip. And as mentioned, I needed to extend the paddle. You can see that it was just the ash center that was short. So I ended up putting a new little piece of ash at the very end of the planned grip and then sandwiched other wood around it. This left a slot in the middle which I was fine with. You can see a good picture below of me putting the grip together. The shape of the grip slowly morphed into a whale tail as I worked on it. It was an interesting shape and became very fun to use. I've been playing with grip options and am enjoying the side grip. I'll include a picture showing 4 possible grips with this paddle. I finished sanding and put on a layer of tung oil. I would later apply many coats of spar urethane while sanding between layers. And now I realise it would have been smarter to simply start and finish with the Spar Urethane. Wood summary:
Blade: Black walnut Cedar Cedar Ash Cedar Cedar Black walnut Grip: Black walnut Pine Black walnut walnut Cedar Ash Cedar Walnut Black walnut Pine Black walnut Length: 56 1/2" Weight: 1lb, 11.8oz or 785g Max Blade Width: 5 1/4" or 13.2cm |