Balsa,Redwood,Koa paddle

I have been using my stepsons (gillespie) outrigger canoe paddle to paddle my 10ft 6in surfboard for a couple months now. He is living on Oahu now but I expect he will want to take his paddle back next time he visits, so I thought I should get my own paddle. I know nothing about paddles or paddling so I figured that the gillespie paddle felt like a good one to me so I would make one along those lines. But being a woodworker on Kauai I should have one that is made of Koa. Koa is heavey so I thought I would also use balsa. I wanted to use scraps that were laying around the shop. I have some balsa and redwood thin timber from 1/8 inch up on my leftover shelf and of coarse lots of balsa laying around waiting to be made into something usefull. Then there are some koa off cuts that I can’t seem to find a use for because they have some dry rot in them. I wanted the shaft and blade of the paddle to be a little longer then the gillespie. I didn’t measure anything just set the gillespie in the background and eyeballed it. To start off I cut two redwood strips and three balsa strips to the shape of the shaft. One of the redwood strips I shaped to exact size using a drum sander and fairing block. The outhers I cut on the band saw a little over sized . buttered on epoxy to all the strips and threw them into the vacume bag overnight. the would all be trimmed down to the master strip laiter.

Wood Ogre, Your choice of woods will make a beautiful paddle. I only have one reservation, though. Will the balsa be a weak link in the chain, knowing that there will be lots of stress on the paddle? I’ve watched guys do Stand Up and from the side the shaft bends quite a bit.

Just wondering where in the paddle you will be incorporating the balsa.

Doug

Wood Ogre, looks like a great start. Are you building a stand up paddle, or is it a knee paddle for your longboard?

I built a stand up paddle with a solid bass wood shaft (also modeled off of a Gillespie outrigger canoe paddle), and I glassed about 14 inches up the shaft with 6 oz tape set in epoxy. I’ve used it once, and it had nice even flex, but seemed to have plenty of stiffness, and it looks great. I sealed the entire paddle in epoxy, and that made the exterior very tough and dent resistant. The bass is pretty soft, but not nearly as soft as balsa, so you may consider doing the same. I foiled the blade pretty thin, and since it is made from some scrap clear pine I had lying around, I figured it would need some reinforcement as well. I glassed it with a single layer of 6 oz., and a 1.5" strip of 6 oz. tape up the middle, continuing up the shaft. From a stiffness perspective this was fine, but I bonked the reef with the paddle, and got a decent sized little shatter in the edge of the blade. Despite adding a little more weight, I decided to laminate an extra layer of 4 oz. cloth on both sides of the blade. I used peel ply to keep the epoxy to a minimum, so I think it will still be reasonably light. I found all the info used in constructing the paddle from Sways, great stuff in here. Here’s a photo of it before final sanding and glossing.

Hi Wood_Ogre -

I like your idea of integrating the bend right in the shaft by cutting and laminating the profiles as shown. I’m sure you will have a very nice paddle.

After reading the paddle construction thread posted by Uncle D awhile back and brushing up on everything Carve Nalu has posted on paddles, I took the plunge and tried one myself. (Thanks to Uncle D and Carve Nalu!)

The paddle pieces were glued to the shaft with the angle already cut. The light wood is Balsa and the darker wood is Mahogany. Not sure about the shaft… just some pieces I had in the pile. The shaft has been “ovalized” to fit the grip.

While spooning the blade, it seemed pretty fragile so I slapped some carbon on the back along with some glass rope along the paddle/shaft joint. The blade has some warbles in it but I’m a kook and it’s my first attempt. After sanding, I brushed the whole thing with a couple coats of marine spar varnish. I bought some of the urethane edging material and glued it on.

It is not very light but like surfboards, it has a “feel” of it’s own and my girlfriend claims to prefer it over the carbon. I’ve since made a long double ended paddle that is fun for cruising the harbor. If she has the dog on board, it is nice to be able to paddle and not worry about changing sides and hitting him in the head.



I used redwood, balsa, and koa in this paddle because I wanted to see if I could come out with a koa paddle that looked nice but didn’t weigh to much. If it has to much flex and I think it will brake then I can use it as a wall hanger and use what I learned to make another paddle. Allready I have learned that I would use the balsa only for the inner laminations as it is so soft it is easy to dent just while working on it.

The little paddle shaft in a 12 foot vacume bag looks kind of funny!

With the shaft in the vacume bag it was time to make up some koa skins to be used for the paddle blades. I have a lot of koa off cuts and was able to find one that was a little over half the paddle blade width. I resawed it into 4mm veneers. I got enough for 2 paddles . There was some dry rot spots but I was able to work around most of them and the ones I couldn’t will be filled with black resin.

Here is a picture of the shaft sitting on top of the balsa board that will be cut into the core of the blade. Aftere the balsa blade has been shaped the back skin was glued useing epoxy and a sand bag was put on top as a clamp. Because the front skin is a compound curve and the veneer is thick the front skin had to be pre-shaped by steaming and then clamped and left over night to dry. then it was glued using epoxy and put in a vacume bag to clamp it to shape. The little hand held steamer works nice for steaming and bending small veneers.

Aloha Wood_Ogre

andy & john, your work looks lovely, just real pleasing on the eye.

& wood_ogre, i know your paddle will definitely not be a wall-hanger. it’s bound to be functional as well as aesthetically sweet.

Hi Wood-Ogre -

The blade outline is shown beautifully in the grain of the bookmatched panel. Perfect choice of veneer!

Well, I was going to post some more pictures of the building of the paddle but when I went to down load from the camara I deleted them instead. Stupid me!! Seems as if this thread was dieing anyway! Anyway the paddle is almost finished and tomorrow I can take a picture of the end product. For me it was a good build and I learned some better ways of doing it next time. I also came up with a totaly different way of making a paddle that I might try next time. I also took some time to read up on paddles and learned a few things that would have been helpful. Aloha for now Wood_Ogre

No, this thread is far from dead. We need to see that finished paddle. The koa wood looks real nice. Inspiring stuff.

Quote:

Here is a picture of the shaft sitting on top of the balsa board that will be cut into the core of the blade. Aftere the balsa blade has been shaped the back skin was glued useing epoxy and a sand bag was put on top as a clamp. Because the front skin is a compound curve and the veneer is thick the front skin had to be pre-shaped by steaming and then clamped and left over night to dry. then it was glued using epoxy and put in a vacume bag to clamp it to shape. The little hand held steamer works nice for steaming and bending small veneers.

Aloha Wood_Ogre

I’m wondering why you didn’t put the paddle skins in the vacuum bag. Also, since I have the opportunity, Is there any problem with expansion here?

Love your work!

aloha~

I didn’t put the paddle skins in the vacume bag because when edge glueing something that thin it is my experience that the vacume can pull out to much of the glue and leave a starved joint which can brake. Epoxy is a good gap filler so if your joint is less than perfect you will still have a strong joint. The epoxy I used is the same as the epoxy that will be used as the sealer coats and is very thin and the vacume will pull it right out of the joint. It is important to use the same as the sealer outherwise you get a different color stains as the finish ages. Hopefully I will be glueing the hand on today and get a couple pictures up this evening. Aloha ! Wood_Ogre

Time to glue on the handle. Because the handle is balsa wood I didn’t think that just glue would hold it on. So I cut grooves on the inside of the handle with that rotory tool . If you look down in the handle you can see them. Then I cut notches into the shaft so the glue would lock onto the redwood shaft. I buttered thickened epoxy glue into the grooves and notches pushed on the handle, cleaned off the extra resin and clamped together with tape.

Aloha Wood_Ogre

So my project is finished but Photobucket is down or highjacked or something. Can’t post pictures untill I can get on Photobucket. Wood_Ogre

So Photobucket is back and here is a teaser. The handle and the tip. Wood is Good !!!

Aloha, I finished the paddle and have had it in the water for 5 hours of paddling. I am stoked , it’s a good paddle. My stepsons paddle was to small for me. I didn’t do any research before making this paddle and just guessed at the size that it should be for me. What I found interesting is when I move the paddle from left hand grip to right hand grip how easy and natural it is. Light handle, heavey blade ? As you can see in the pictures it is much bigger that the gillespie paddle. My stepson is only 5 ft. 5 in. tall , I am 6 ft. . Interesting note the gillespie weighs 24-3/4 oz. My paddle weighs 25-1/4 oz. I was worried about the strenth of the shaft but it has turned out to be plenty strong enough. The longer shaft has taken the strain off my lower back. The bigger blade demands more strength in the shoulders. Would like to hear any comments from experienced paddlers. I am happy to have a light functional Koa paddle. Can’t say I have ever seen anyone with one before. Aloha, Wood_Ogre

Wood Ogre- Let me be the first to say SWEEEET! You should make ukulele’s.

That really is a beautiful paddle.

Well, just, wow. Really wow.

Thanks for putting up those pic’s.

Do you have a koa skinned SUP in the works? Because I’m coming to your house to watch you build it. Ha.