A friend and I have been talking about taking a canoe paddle building class since last year. We finally were able to coordinate schedules, and the class happened this past week. It was a lot of fun, and our paddles turned out great.
We took the class through a pretty cool non-profit organization called Urban Boatbuilders. Tuesday night, we spent 2.5 hours talking about paddles, selecting wood, and gluing up our blanks. We custom fit our lengths and went home with some ideas for blade and grip shapes.
Saturday, we spent 6+ hours cutting out rough shapes on band saws followed by a lot of work hand-carving with various planes, spoke shaves, and scrapers. I went home with a beautiful paddle that’s ready for a few coats of spar varnish.
I chose to make a Voyageur-shaped paddle. It’s a little different than most off-the-shelf paddles, but it’s a more traditional shape, and I thought I’d like something a little out of the ordinary. The shaft is ash, and the blade and grip are a combination of cherry and walnut. It looks good enough to be a wall-hanger, but I plan on using it.
It was definitely a lot of fun. I’ve done a fair amount of woodworking, but hand-carving with planes and spoke shaves was new to me. It was nice to learn the old way of doing things. I highly recommend the class. I may even do it again sometime.
Attachments:
Blade-Close-up.jpg
Grip-Close-up.jpg
Paddle.jpg
First-Cuts.jpg
Blank-Glue-up.jpg
