Re: Birdsmouth Stuff

Posted by Kurt Maurer on Jun 17, 2007

Here's a photo of how the finished birdsmouth shaft looks in cross section.

I made a quick taper jig to run the staves through on the table saw after hand planing the tapers for my first shaft, both approaches worked well. It'd be easy to make a double-tapered shaft for a Euro paddle.

Charlie Jones keeps jumping up and down about how versatile the birdsmouth method is, and I'm beginning to see it. I've had a lot of fun handing my paddle to people who are used to commercial wooden bent shaft solo paddles, and then watching their eyebrows hit their hairlines over how light it is. "Is it filled with helium?" "Is it made of balsa?"

Oh, you want specifics? The shaft starts at 1.5x1.25 inches, and tapers to 1.125x.75 at the grip. The staves are 3/16" thick. The tapers are calculated using the TLAR formula, a highly scientific methodological acronym which stands for "that looks about right."

In Response to: Birdsmouth Stuff by Kurt Maurer on Jun 17, 2007

Replies:

• Re: Birdsmouth Stuff by Norm on Jun 17, 2007
  • Re: Birdsmouth Stuff by Norm on Jun 17, 2007
    • That's what I use by Charlie Jones on Jun 17, 2007
  • Oval Shaft? by Kurt Maurer on Jun 18, 2007
• Like this method eh? by Charlie Jones on Jun 17, 2007