Hey Everyone,
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| Blank |
I have been working on my my first laminated paddle. This is the first part of the post, because its seems to be taking me forever. I picked up some a strip of nice Padauk and a some Ash (Heavy woods) . I combined the wood using some marine grade glue and clamped it for 24 hrs and the added on the next layer and repeated.
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| Planned Blade |
I wanted to try a new type of paddle, something completely different from what i have done. I went with a whitewater paddle, because there was tons of wood to work with width wise.
Cutting the inside of the inside of the T shaped grip was very hard to do on the bandsaw (whole T grip styles a lot of work) . I have been touching it up with the rasp trying to get rid of the blade marks, its coming along slowly but surely.
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| VERY Rough Grip |
Ash is a very grainy wood to work with not as enjoyable as Walnut or other woods. I found that the Padauk is same feel as the Walnut when carving it. The shaft Ash piece was 2 inches by 2 inches so getting it down to a size i am happy with, while keeping the weight down and strength up is an ongoing challenge.
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| Semi Shaped grip |
The other thing to note if you decided to work with Padauk is that its very sensitive to UV rays. UV rays will turn it a warm brown, unless finished with a UV ray inhibiting finish. We will get to this later on though when i get there.
All and all i think the paddles slowly coming together nicely but its taking a bit longer then the previous ones because i find myself becoming a bit more of a perfectionist. Shafts shaped and rounded, blades planned down, grips roughed in and finish is picked out.
Part 2 of this post is now available
