Paddle Making Begins

In 2018 I made a Greenland paddle for myself out of a cheap cut of wood from the local timer yard. Now that Amy and I are planning to buy our own kayaks, we both need reserve paddles and so I am dusting off my tools to create at least two more Greenland paddles. Like when I made my first paddles, this time I have a hard deadline - the day we depart for Lofoten. Last time I was also racing to finish the paddles before a trip north, that time to Helgeland.

My first paddle creation has been my primary paddle for the last two years, and as I was able to adapt it to match my preferences, I am yet to try a paddle that I would swap it for. The closest I came was when I tried a Lettmann carbon paddle which was very similar in form. Having been pleased with my first attempt, I am keen to better it on a second go, hoping that I can relegate my current paddle to be my spare, with the new paddle taking prime spot.

On my first paddle I started with a cheap cut of wood, with many knots (I count around 40 in the finished product!), and did all the work with minimal hand-tools: a draw knife, a draw plane, a whittling knife and sandpaper. For the new set of paddles I have made sure to source much higher quality pine wood (I might manage paddles with no knots at all), and have borrowed some power tools to speed up the process. One problem when sourcing the wood was not owning a car, so I cycled to the timber yard, and then strapped the three 4.9m long planks to my bike to push home.

Yesterday I took advantage of the glorious weather to mark out the outline of the first paddle - strongly inspired by my current blade - and do an initial rough cut with a jigsaw. The work went smoothly, and I can now clearly see where the wood is headed.

While two paddles (one for me, and one for Amy) are all that are strictly required just now, I have aspirations of creating two new paddles for me, one for Amy, and a storm paddle for good measure. I had not really planned for a storm paddle, but the wood I could get is a perfect length to be split into a paddle for Amy and a storm paddle.