Re: Homemade Paddles

Posted by Dave Houser on Apr 27, 2004

You can use four 1/2" radius quarter rounds and add laminations to add height and width to the loom cross section to suit your grip.

I personally dont like plywood/closet rod paddles but their big advantage is that they can be made with a limited number of tools.

The method in Nick Shade's book will make paddles that look as good or better than manufactured wood paddles. The trouble with making nice laminated paddles, however, is the number of power tools required to do it easily. I use a table saw, jointer, thickness planer and band saw. Not everyone has access to all those tools. Then consider the hand tools aslo needed a block plane, spokeshave, cabinet scraper, ROS and epoxy stuff. With the tools and scrap wood and leftover epoxy you can build paddles for nothing. My last paddle I sent $5 total to buy a 2x4 to make the laminations for the shaft, the blade was made from left overs. If you don't have access to the tools it's cheaper just to by a $400 graphite paddle.

I find it is odd that a kayak can be built with a jig saw and a ROS but a paddle seems to require a whole wood shop.

A greenland paddle is another story but I use an Euro.

In Response to: Homemade Paddles by Joe Lombardo on Apr 27, 2004

Replies:

• Re: Homemade Paddles by Joe Lombardo on Apr 27, 2004
  • Re: Homemade Paddles by Dick R on Apr 28, 2004
  • Re: Homemade Paddles by Chip Veres on Apr 28, 2004
    • Re: Homemade Paddles by Steve C on Apr 28, 2004