Paddlemaking: A New Hobby

My workshop with my new spokeshave and drawknife (on right)

 As someone who really doesn't need more stuff , my Christmas list normally consists of socks and underwear and dress shirts.  This Christmas, however, I decided there really was something that I wanted.  A drawknife and a spokeshave--tools that the local Ace Hardware don't carry!  Santa was good to me.  I also received a folding workbench.  I used to have one of these and it didn't make a move years ago.  The new one is fancier (with more bells and whistles) but not nearly as sturdy.

I you remember, before Thanksgiving I had a guy with a sawmill cut me some ash logs and strips to replace the gunnels on my canoe.  He told me to take the extra planks (as he was just going to burn them) and I decided that I would like to attempt to make my own canoe paddles.  I set up shop on the 3 season porch and went to work.  My first discovery was to learn that my jig saw (which is a heavy duty one) was going to take all day to cut this 1 1/4 inch ash.  So I called a friend with a bandsaw and took the boards over to his shop and cut them into the shape of paddles. I had two pieces of wood that seemed to be free of splits.  One I fashioned into an "otter tail" paddle (narrower) and the other I glued pieces onto the blade to make a broad "beaver tail" paddle.  My friend also suggested we try an electric planner on shaping the blades (which saved a lot of time).

Adding wood to the blade

 The drawknife takes off chunks of wood in a quick fashion, but can also dig way too deep and I had to learn to be careful as I finished the blade and carved the shafts.  The spokeshave seemed to really be more for fine work and i found myself constantly having to clean the build up around the blade (and to sharpen the blade).  I can't imagine how long it would have taken to make a wagon wheel with spokes fashioned with this tool! I found that a broken piece of glass (the bottom of a beer bottle) worked best in smoothing down the handles (this suggestion came from someone whose grandfather was a blacksmith and who used glass to smooth handles made for his tools).

Stages (from bottom):  Wood plank, rough cut paddle, 

carved paddle, an older paddle of mine that's finisihed. 

For finish work, I was able to set up my belt sander and use it to do a lot of the sanding.  I also found a rasp worked best on the blades and files (especially a 1/2 round file) worked well in shaping the handles for my hand.  Below are the two paddles...   I am going to let them dry out for a few months and in the spring will seal them.  Now I need to find more wood!  I would like to try to do some fancy paddles--with strips of wood and maybe even a bent-shaft paddle.

2 paddles waiting to dry out beside an older paddle of mine.