Hi,I make wooden paddle as a lot of other people do
and i am interested to see where other people are at with their designs and
construction methods .here are some of my latest batch

G’day Clifton

Nice paddles, a lot of time would go into making paddles like them Clifton. Yes you truly are a MASTER CRAFTSMAN if you lived in Papa New Guinea man you would be king living with a harem. SUPing all day

Very nice.

The blades appear to be on the wider end of the spectrum, as are most wooden paddles that I've seen. I wonder if it would be a good idea to craft a few of these beasts in a Kialoa Pipes type shape to help offset the weight and flex disadvantage that wood has over carbon.

Hi Clifton...are you glassing these paddles? What sort of weight do they come in at?

Would $400 help pries (pry) one away from the next friend.... ???

Clifton,

In comparison to your works of art I am almost embarrassed to post these pics here.

I have made a few wooden paddles also but focused perhaps in the pursuit of light weight rather than aesthetics. It would be great to have the abilities to do both as you do.

My materials of choice have been Pauwlonia, Cedar and Balsa for the ears on the blade. Pauwlonia is known as you would know for strength and light weight. My very first paddle was made with laminated Miranti shaft and surfboard foam for the blade vacuum bagged with a cloth called Innegra. I glassed the paddle below with Carbon seeking weight savings and strength.

Another key difference is you laminated your paddles vertically and mine are horizontal. I done them this way to continue to the shaft all of the way to the end of the blade with the 10 deg angle bent in during lam with a bending block.

I have also made an outrigger blade in the same way as the pics below and it is great, I have used it extensively this season. Lighter than most commercial blades and great to have the ability to foil a shaft and T-Grip especially for your hand for added comfort for very long distances.

Performance wise, I cut the carbon blade one below at around 7" long and it was far too flexy, I reduced it to 6'9 and it was still a bit too flexy for me. Do you think laminating vertically would reduce the flex?? I was worried about it becoming brittle, what is your experience? You do not notice the flex on the OC blade with a much shorter and thinner shaft.




The unglassed paddle above is a different paddle and also has Balsa in the shaft which is about the same weight as a carbon paddle unglassed but I am concerned now about the flex, as a short surf blade it should be OK. I also laminated 4 layers of Innegra in between timbers in this shaft.

CMC, have you lammed Innegra with and without vacuum as a comparison? I'm curious as to the thickness variation when it's vacc'ed. I read two different things about it - (i) it sucks up resin and "bloats", like a dry sponge when you wet it so it forms an effective thick layer in a composite and (ii) it is difficult to make conform to curves like some other materials so vacc'ing is effective, however vacc'ing compresses it significantly compared to (i) so it loses effectiveness as a composite layer.

I ask because I've considered it in a single layer as an alternative to wood in a compsand build.